Bonsai Plants and Gardens

The traditional eastern practice of Bonsai simply describes the art of sculpturing the normal size of trees and plants to a reduced proportions. Bonsai gardeners enjoy hours of artistic creation and gardening combined into one pastime and pleasure. By controlling the period and intensity of the daylight their plants receive and carefully pruning roots and branches they can produce a plant that is identical to the parent plant except it appears much smaller.

Some plants are better suited to the immensely satisfying practice of Bonsai gardening. The Bald Cypress Bonsai is one of the most popular trees utilizes in application of the Bonsai techniques. One of the reasons that it adapts itself so well to Bonsai lies in its ability to force new leaf buds out along the main limbs after being nicked with a sharp blade.

Beginner’s Bonsai

The Bald Cypress Bonsai tree is an excellent tree for a gardener being freshly initiated to the art of Bonsai. It is susceptible to techniques that force new growth and will grow vigorously under a wide variety of environmental conditions. If you live in the southern United States, you will find the Bald Cypress Bonsai growing in a large number of gardens and landscapes, and is relatively easy to find a perfect specimen to bring indoors and practice your Bonsai technique.

If you do not have access to small trees growing in the wild, you should be able to find a specimen of Bald Cypress Bonsai at your local nursery, or order one from a Bonsai supply house. When transforming an outdoor specimen into a Bonsai tree, you should keep in mind the Bonsai rule of scale: the height of the tree should be approximately six times the width of the base of the tree. To achieve those proportions, a considerable amount of pruning may be required.

Don’t be afraid of being aggressive, the tree will grow back in exhibiting the desired Bonsai style.

Bald Cypress Bonsai trees are frequently planted in groups in a single container to form a “Bonsai forest.” If you decide to build a small Bonsai forest, it is suggested that you maintain odd numbers promoting a random appearance, forming your forest from groups of three, five, seven, nine, or eleven individual trees.

Caring For Your Bald Cypress Bonsai

Your Bald Cypress Bonsai likes wet soil that nearly mimics swampy conditions. Water the tree overhead to simulate rain falling from above, and fill the pot almost to the rim with water. During the summer, you may find it necessary to water your Bald Cypress bonsai twice daily. 

This Bonsai tree thrives under direct sunlight and like most Bonsai trees, it prefers to live outdoors. Fertilize your tree once a week during the springtime. Reduce the fertilizing frequency to once every two weeks during the late spring and fall. Suspend your fertilizing activity during late fall and winter, and allow your Bald Cypress Bonsai tree to fall into the  required dormant phase required to complete the normal life cycle.

That should provide you with a starter plan to jump into the world of bonsai gardening. It is not difficult or complicated.