Let’s imagine that you have purchased a big bush and you want to make it into a bonsai. The first step is to look carefully at what features in the bush that you can work with and from these visualize what the finished bonsai would look like. The next step is to determine where the front of the bonsai will be. Finally, you do the necessary stuff to bring your vision into fruition such as removing any branches that are not needed and wiring the remaining branches so you can carefully arrange them to positions that best compliment the visualized composition of the tree. All this is well and good, but have you ever thought about just what you are trying to accomplish?

Long ago the Japanese developed a deep love of nature which stems from both Buddhism and Shinto religions. What better way to express this appreciation of nature that it is to have a potted plant which you could admire at your leisure. How does one do this? What exactly is nature? It is easier to discuss the attributes of nature than it is to define it in a way that is useful in creating a potted plant. Think of a pine tree growing at very high elevation in the Sierras. Clearly, this tree is a product of the forces of nature and these forces should be reflected in our bonsai. The pine tree is obviously a very old tree. An immediate attribute of our bonsai tree is that it shows great age. We like bonsai with short, fat trunks and trees get these trunks only after many years of growth. The short fat trunks give the illusion of great age even though our tree may be less than 10 years old.

A second attribute of our pine tree is that it had survived for many years despite the worst that nature could throw at it. Many of our bonsai tree have areas of dead wood. When the bare wood is on a branch it is known by the Japanese term jin and when it is on the trunk as a shari. Both jins and sharis signify that, in spite of setbacks the tree is still growing. To be a first quality bonsai the new tree must show both great age and survivor of obstacles.

The Japanese view their bonsai as a symbol of nature and not a scale model of a particular tree. The careful placement of branches on our bonsai created an idealized tree. In keeping with the value of a symbol, it is more perfect that a tree that you will see growing in the wild. Tree in nature lose branches due to a myriad of causes, including lightening and heavy snow loads. The tree grows in the direction of the brightest light which can cause lopsided trees. If the bonsai created from our recent bush purchase is successful, the viewer will be reminded of a tree that he had seen in the recent past even though the “real trees” are usually far less than prefect

In California collected Sierra and California junipers are very popular and for good reason. Both trees grow in harsh environments that lead to very slow growth. Trunks grow at the rate of about one inch every seventy-five years or so. Many of the collected trees have trunks four inches or more in diameter, indicating that this tree could be several hundreds of years old. Also, many of these trees have extensive dead wood when they are collected. Knowing that age and survival is crucial to a quality bonsai tree, these trees don’ have to be made to look old and that they are survived adversity—they are, if fact, old and they are survivors. They still need to be transformed into idealized trees, but the hard work has been done for you by nature.

Deciduous trees such as the maples show age and particularly survivorship in a different way. Rather that showing battle scars in the form of dead wood, they display just the opposite. Maples have lived an apparent long life without broken branches and scars in their trunks. When we remove a large branch on a maple, we encourage the healing over of the wound so where the branch was removed becomes invisible.

Next time you create a bonsai from a bush, the target of what it takes to create a top-quality bonsai tree is clear. Also, the next time you see a bonsai you have a yardstick to measure the value of the tree. Does it show age? Is it a survivor? Is it a symbol which reminds you of trees in the wild? If the answers to each of these questions is yes you are looking at a superb bonsai. You should admire the skill of the artist that created the bonsai.