Garden bonsai from ordinary spruce. Garden Bonsai: Japanese motifs in the Central Russian garden. Root system care

Bonsai is a complex art of forming plants of the required shape. This is a very time-consuming process, so this art is not suitable for beginners. Coniferous plants are great for creating bonsai.

Among the favorite conifers for bonsai among landscape designers are spruce. Yew tolerates strong pruning well and can grow up to 4000 years. An adult tree grows up to 20 meters.

Spruce bonsai is small. It is best to choose dwarf spruce for work. They are more malleable for formation and excellent bonsai are obtained from such plants. And all because the trunk ate quite flexible and easy to work with. You can form almost all known forms of bonsai. And in order to do everything right, you need to know what conditions are necessary for a good and fast growth of spruce.

As spruce bonsai, you can choose these varieties for growing: Picea excelsa, Picea glauca, Picea nigra, Picea orientalis. All these spruce trees have different characteristics. Therefore, before planting, it is necessary to study the nuances of growing a particular variety.

Spruce Bonsai. Growing conditions

To grow spruce bonsai requires acidic and moist soil. The plant will grow poorly from waterlogging. It is best to use for planting a prepared clay and peat substrate. At the same time, you need to fertilize the spruce only during the growing season. Bonsai spruce will grow well in the open. But you can plant the plant in a container. To do this, control the temperature and lighting. Light for bonsai is very important. It is necessary to place the plant so that it is completely lit by the sun. At the same time, you need to water the spruce abundantly. Watering should be more plentiful than other conifers.

How to make bonsai from spruce?

It’s very difficult to grow bonsai from a stalk. Therefore, it is best to buy a finished bonsai or a young seedling. So it will be possible to continue caring for the plant and adjust the growth.

The main pruning of the plant should be carried out during the dormant period, in January and February. When pruning bonsai ate in the summer, you can only slow down growth, which will negatively affect the appearance of the plant. Formative pruning is done in May-June. At the same time, young shoots slightly nip. Hard shoots are pruned from July to September. Only the escape axis needs to be removed. So you can avoid the appearance of dried needles. For better shaping, you can use wire. With its help, the spruce itself will grow in the right direction. It remains only to ensure that the wire does not damage the bark of the plant.

It is best to transplant a tree in spring or autumn. In this case, pruning of the roots must be carried out carefully so that the plant takes root in a new place. April is the most optimal period for transplanting spruce bonsai.

The ancient art of growing dwarf trees in pots has spread throughout the world, turning from the fun of the Japanese aristocracy to mass enthusiasm. Over the centuries, the Japanese have learned to form miniature copies of naturally growing trees. In Japan, this art has achieved tremendous development and today represents a whole science with numerous schools and formation techniques that allow you to get plants of various configurations: straight, asymmetric, inclined, “bent by the wind”, “weeping”, cascading and others. These forms are inspired by the very nature of Japan, where in a special climate the plants acquire harmonious, perfect silhouettes.

Recently, Russian gardeners are increasingly using oriental stylistics in design, and the creation of bonsai in the open ground is undoubtedly a fashionable and promising direction. The formation of a garden bonsai differs little from the traditional one, however, familiar methods of working with woody plants are used: pruning, pinching and grafting.

Dimensions of garden bonsai, in contrast to the canonical Japanese, are arbitrary. The starting material can be an old fruit tree, a plain curved shrub in the corner of the garden, an unusual specimen found in nature and, of course, a young plant. Take a closer look at the plants of your garden, maybe one of them is already ready to make a bonsai from it?

It happens that during just a few years of purposeful pruning from a plain tree with bare trunks and sticking out rods in all directions, you can create attractive unusual trees in an oriental style.

Many in the gardens probably grow old apple trees or cherries, which have not been pleasing with crops for a long time and look messy. Try to remove all the small branches on the bottom of the crown so that the main trunk is clearly visible, and in the spring cut the top of the crown parallel to the ground. Repeating these steps annually, you will form thick caps of foliage on an elegant bending trunk in the upper part of the crown. Soon you will see how the silhouette of the tree changes, and you will enjoy this completely non-burdensome garden work.

With conifers, the result may be more spectacular, but the formation process is longer. For example, the dense and dense crown of a mountain pine, which has pleased you for many years, begins to become rare and loose. Great reason to start forming!

The formation of conifers takes time, but gives impressive results. Author photo

Look inside the crown and select a few branches that form a beautiful silhouette. Cut the remaining branches without regret, and at the beginning of summer, when the buds start growing, pinch them, leaving 1-2 cm. By the next season, many new buds will be laid in the upper part of the crown, and they will give rise to a new beautiful crown in the form of a cloud.

The same can be done with ordinary pine. The only thing - along with pinching the shoots and thinning the crown, the branches of the ordinary pine will have to be fixed in a horizontal position. Usually they use thick wire, tie loads or pull ropes. This is necessary to maintain the longline shape of the crown, otherwise - without fixing - the branches begin to "puff up", the space between the tiers is closed.

I note that of all conifers, ordinary pine and mountain pine are the most suitable material for garden bonsai in the middle lane. There is no need to be afraid to cut extra branches, because pines are very plastic trees, thanks to their abilities they were able to adapt to the harsh conditions of nature - the drying winds of high mountains and to the crackling frosts of the north.

Pines take great shape with great pleasure, the main thing is to help them. At the same time, the gardener himself will comprehend harmony and develop taste, bringing the form to perfection. In addition, working with the form is a hobby for many years, and the result is an exclusive and unusual plant that delights the hosts and surprises the guests.

In addition to pines, other conifers are also suitable for creating garden bonsai. European larch is very resistant and prone to pruning; Chinese and medium juniper varieties, pea cypress are well formed. You can try to work with varieties of ordinary spruce.

Remember that pines do not know how to lay buds on the lignified shoots of last year, so you can pinch only young shoot candles in early summer, and junipers, larch, spruce and cypress can be cut at any time, even with scissors.

Of the deciduous for our climate, hawthorn, maples, oak, as well as fruit - apple trees, cherries are suitable. Despite the small assortment, these trees are stable in our climate and tolerate formation well.

Recently, ready-made bonsai grown in a nursery and suitable for planting in open ground have appeared on sale. Usually these are multi-stemmed versions of common or mountain pine, on which green dense caps of needles are formed. Such plants, as a rule, are very expensive and do not always look harmonious, so you can consider them as material for creating a more perfect tree from the point of view of the owner. In any case, after planting, you will have to take care of them, continuing the work begun in the nursery - annually pinch the shoots and cut the extra branches, otherwise your bonsai will turn into a regular tree.

If you know the grafting technique, the process of creating a bonsai can be somewhat accelerated: several tall dwarf cuttings can be grafted onto a tall rootstock (for example, pine), thus creating a multi-tiered plant at once. The advantage of this method is that in the future you will not need to pinch the shoots, since the grafted variety is dwarf.

When creating a bonsai, do not forget that this is not only a formed tree, but also its harmonious combination with the surrounding space. Bonsai is a self-contained work of art, closely associated with the rest of the composition, as it imitates a piece of nature in miniature.

Agree that your masterpiece will look a bit ridiculous if nettle or beds with strawberries are growing around. Therefore, to give an oriental flavor and support the overall style in the garden, cut everything in a row! Favorite shrubs - spirea, barberry, dogwood and even perennial curtains will be a great addition to the shaped trees, if you give them a smooth, streamlined shape with a regular haircut.

In addition, plants that are similar in appearance to plants of the Japanese flora will add zest. For example, instead of mosses, you can grow saxifrage, stonecrops, azorella, some species of bryozoans, and astilbe will look good in the shade. Strive to make the composition harmonious, and the garden itself will tell you what changes are needed.

Konstantin Korzhavin

The very first instance with which it all began was the sprout of cherries that my mother brought from the dacha, ”recalls the thirty-two-year-old candidate of chemical sciences. “I read about bonsai somewhere, and I wanted to do it.” But at first I thought it must be something exotic. But it turned out that bonsai can be grown from ordinary cherries.
Lena planted a small twisted sprout in the ground and began to take care of him according to all the rules: she regularly cut branches and roots, watered, “bathed”. When the cherry grew, the girl washed large roots with water and took it to the surface of the earth to visually age the plant. The result was a pretty dwarf tree.
Bonsai can be grown from anything, even from an ordinary poplar, if, of course, you try very hard, I’m sure Ulan-Udeanka. In support of her words, Elena Valeryevna shows an oak, maple, spruce and other trees growing on her windowsill.
The Italian pine pine is grown from the nut that Lena brought from Italy. She is now four years old. Five years later, it will be possible to begin to form a crown. Something similar to a dwarf tree, according to the mistress, will turn out in twenty years, not earlier.
Dwarf pomegranate is grown from the bone of a fetus, which was once treated to Lena by friends from Novosibirsk. The girl brought maple and oak from Kazan, dug up the processes of trees directly on the street.
Experts say: "When looking at a bonsai, the effect should be created that you see an adult tree, just look at it in the telescope the other way around." To grow all this beauty, it takes a lot of time and patience. First you need to select the appropriate branch. As it grows, you need to cut it. Moreover, they reduce in size not only the branch itself, but also the leaves. And to reduce the growth of the tree, you need to regularly shorten the roots.
Dwarf trees at home bloom and even bear fruit, but this is not the main thing in the art of bonsai. The process of tree formation is important. Moreover, growing a plant, you need to mentally imagine what the future tree will be like. Although the Bonsaist masters note that the original plan is usually transformed. After all, no one will guarantee that the branch will begin to develop this way, and not otherwise, will reach the desired thickness and so on. As the tree grows, sometimes you have to abandon some of your ideas.

The ancient art of growing bonsai in flower pots, originating in China, then developed in Japan, from where it began its march around the rest of the world. Decorative trees were presented as expensive gifts, became collectibles and more and more gained popularity among amateur gardeners. Despite the fact that indoor trees are capricious in care and difficult to grow, thousands of lovers in the world study the art of bonsai.

Features and types

Bonsai can be grown from trees of any kind, but conifers look especially beautiful. The best species for creating coniferous bonsai are spruce, thuja, pine and juniper. There are more than 10 basic styles of tree formation, each of which carries its own semantic load. But no matter how beautiful a bonsai made of coniferous wood is, growing it and caring for it is difficult, therefore, a beginner is not recommended to create such a work of art.

To create a bonsai from spruce, such species are used.

• Norway spruce.A cone-shaped tree, often used as a New Year decoration at home.

• Blue spruce (gray or Colorado).Known for the blue-green or blue color of needles, spruce has a narrow-conical shape in youth, and an adult tree takes on a cylindrical appearance.

• Spruce Glauka Konika.The miniature spruce is famous for its beautiful conical shape of the crown and dense small needles.

• Canadian spruce.The beautiful blue-green top and blue-white below the spruce is the progenitor of the Glauka Konik spruce.

Create Fir Bonsai

You can grow a dwarf tree from a seedling of ordinary spruce, taken in the wild or bought in specialized nurseries. But it’s very difficult to find the right type of suitable age, so bonsai masters create their compositions from trees grown from seeds. Before planting, the seeds undergo a special treatment that disinfects and accelerates the germination process. To do this, place the seeds of spruce for 24 hours in a weak solution of potassium permanganate. Soak the next day in clean water.

In a peat-sand mixture with the addition of coniferous humus, plant the seeds to a depth of 15 mm, moisten well and cover with a film. The distance between the seeds sown must be at least 4 cm. The optimum temperature for germination does not exceed 20 ° C. After a couple of weeks, the first sprouts may appear. When all the seeds have sprouted, select and leave the strongest seedlings at a distance of at least 75 mm from each other.

Caring for seedlings, you must:

• withstand temperatures in the range of 13-15 ° C;
• watering should be replaced by spraying seedlings with water 2 times a day;
• keep away from direct sunlight.

Delicate sprouts of spruce are unstable to diseases, especially to root rot, so it is important to treat the plant with fungicides. When the plant reaches a height of 0.1 m, they begin to form a crown. The shape of an adult plant is planned in advance and corresponds to the desire of the author of the idea. To form a tree, pinching the growth points, pruning and pulling the branches with the help of copper or aluminum wire is used, setting the direction of growth.

After a year, the seedlings are transplanted for the first time.It is best to do the transplant in early spring, before the start of active sap flow. Young seedlings are carefully removed from the soil, trying not to damage the roots, remove the spoiled and transplanted into separate pots. It is advisable to add soil from under coniferous trees to the soil for transplanting. Seedlings are watered once a week in the summer. Mineral top dressing is applied once a year in the spring.

When the seedlings reach the age of three, they are transplanted into a special bowl - bonsai. Such a flowerpot is selected taking into account the appearance of an adult plant and the color scheme, as it is an important component of the future composition. The bowl should be shallow, with openings for drainage of excess water, covered by shards, and convenient for care. The soil for planting is selected according to the type of plant, and moss is often laid out around the planted sprout, imitating grass and preserving the necessary soil moisture.

Adult plants are transplanted every 2 years.

Care

When the bonsai has taken root in the selected pot, it is necessary to continue the formation of the crown. This will have to be done throughout the life of the dwarf tree, since the growth process of a plant never stops. In addition to trimming excess branches, pulling young soft twigs, pinching the apical bud and peeling the bark is used to age the tree.

To keep the bonsai decorative and pleased with its neat appearance, once a year in the spring they make a thorough pruning of the tree, removing excess and dried branches. Places to cut thick branches must be treated with garden varieties to prevent disease. The rest of the time you need to remove only those branches that violate the structure of the composition.

When removing branches, it is important to remember the rule: if you remove too many branches and needles, the tree may die.

Water the adult plant if necessary, checking the dryness of the soil inside the pot. Since the capacity for tree life is small and the soil in it is relatively small, for good growth and development of the bonsai, it is necessary to regularly feed special fertilizers, which may differ in composition for different species.

Proper lighting is of great importance for maintaining the decorative composition.Spruce trees prefer diffused sunlight for most of the daytime year-round. With improper lighting, a bonsai made of noble blue spruce can lose its unusual color and lose its uniqueness.

Dwarf conifers, like their full-fledged counterparts, go into hibernation in the winter, reducing vital activity. They prefer to winter such instances in the cold, as they are hot in the apartment and lack moisture in the air. Owners of dwarf spruce trees put pots on the balcony or plant in the garden. If this is not done, the bonsai may die.

See how to plant bonsai from pine in the video below.

For the Japanese, growing bonsai is a philosophy that combines the spiritual and physical aspects of the process. To achieve success, an ordinary person needs to treat this matter with love and patience. You need to have some knowledge on how to make bonsai from pine. It will take a lot of time and labor to grow a bonsai on your own. As a result, an amazing plant will give joy and beauty for many years.

Traditional bonsai must meet the following characteristics:

1. Trunk. It should be powerful and strong, with a pronounced base and roots protruding to the surface.
2. Branches. There are few branches, their lines should be harmonious and clearly visible. The trunk and branches of the bonsai give the tree that same unique bizarre image.
3. The form. Japanese bonsai pine must comply with one of 15 classifications. To help a beginner or an experienced gardener, drawings, schemes, photographs or your own fantasies and wishes.
4. Pine in miniature should look like a tree growing in natural conditions.

The main task when creating a bonsai is to achieve slow plant growth. This is achieved in several ways: frequent pruning of tree roots and shoots, artificial growth restraint, the use of special types of soils, and special methods of tree care and watering.

How to grow bonsai pine in the open ground

In landscape design, bonsai pine takes pride of place. Its obvious advantages are its original form, unpretentiousness to growing conditions, resistance to low temperatures, high level of adaptation.

Observing certain conditions, you can grow this miracle tree right in the ground:

Real bonsai is a visually old tree. The aging effect is achieved by artificially bending and landing branches using weights and wire. For the impression of a long-growing pine, the bark is specially cut in several places with the tip of a knife.

Formation of pine bonsai

Pine ordinary can be an excellent basis for self-cultivation of bonsai. Coniferous trees differ from deciduous trees in two stages of growth per year, which should be taken into account when creating pine as a bonsai. The first wave of growth occurs in late spring and is expressed in elongation of branches. The second wave occurs at the end of August and is characterized by thickening of branches.

For several years, you can grow bonsai from ordinary pine with your own hands in a pot:

Bonsai from ordinary pine should have a strong and developed surface root structure (nebari). Root growth is achieved by several growing seasons, as a result, the tree must firmly and confidently hold on to the ground.

If you plant young trees from pots in open ground, then you can get a garden bonsai from ordinary pine. This is done in the fifth or sixth year of the plant's life. The advantages of growing in the garden are a quick build-up of trunk power and a sufficient height of the tree. Before transplanting, the crown and the bonsai trunk must be fully decorated, that is, its proportions by this moment already fully correspond to the desired.

The formation of pine bonsai is the balance between the creation of nature and man. In order not to disturb harmony, in the garden you can plant several bonsai from different types of trees, surrounding them with objects and plants that are similar in style and mood. Turning an ordinary tree into a beautiful dwarf counterpart is a fascinating and interesting activity. Bonsai pine will become a real decoration of the garden with individual outlines and lines inherent only to it.

Pine Bonsai Planting Video