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Bonsai
Posted on November 8, 2017 8:00 AM by Gerry Trout
 
While I was in Virginia, we went to the Norfolk Botanical Garden.  This Maple forest bonsai was in the Japanese garden.
 
It lives outside all year, and by now it is showing its fall color.  So, it is scarlet, just like all the other maples!!!  I love how it really looks like a forest in miniature.  It is displayed at eye level, and is only about 2 feet tall.  Gorgeous!!
 
In Horticulture school, my favorite instructor, Pat Bridges, taught us a little about bonsai; it was his passion.  He spent time in Japan learning the art of bonsai, and shared some with us. 
 
First of all, the proper pronunciation is bone-sigh.  It means a tree in a tray.  It is an ancient practice of growing trees in miniature.  The roots are drastically pruned to fit the tray (the pot) and the top is pruned and trained to look like it would look if grown to full size, or in this case, a forest!
 
Mr. Bridges has been practicing the art of bonsai for over 50 years, and has several trees that are that old!  They are truly beautiful.  I'll show you a couple of his bonsai, one is a Crabapple, the other is a Japanese Black Pine.
 
 
This is the Crabapple.  See how he bleached the trunk to make it look weathered, and trained the branches to appear ancient?  It's about 18 inches including the pot.  And you know that crabapple trees grow to be 15 - 30 feet tall.  It blooms in spring and bears fruit just like all other crabapple trees.  Such a delight to see it in miniature.
 
 
Look at his Japanese Black Pine bonsai.  This tree normally grows to a height of 80-100 feet!!!  And here it is in a pot, and it is less than 12 inches tall.  This won Best in Show this year, Bonsai Club International.  I don't know how old it is, but it has quite a personality!  
 
So did my friend, Pat Bridges.  He just recently left his earthly life behind, and has gone to his heavenly home.  He will always be here with me.  He taught me Tree Identification, Horticulture, and how to think like a plant.  So every time I talk to you, he's here too.  I am so fortunate!!
 
HAPPY GARDENING!!
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Comment By: Tere Christensen
Posted on November 9, 2017 9:31 PM
Gerry, I truly enjoy your informative and well written gardening blog- I just realized why I never was attracted to the Japanese bonsai trees; I still recall visiting Chinatown in San Francisco before starting college and seeing an elderly Chinese woman airing out her grossly deformed feet, a result of the ancient custom of foot binding- I speak for the tree and the old grandmother in Chinatown
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