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A bonsai is not a genetically dwarfed plant and is not kept small by cruelty in any way. In fact, given an adequate supply of water, air, light and nutrients, a properly maintained bonsai should outlive a full size tree of the same species. Depending on the species of plant used and the method or form of training done to each specific tree, a typical bonsai can range anywhere in size from 2 inches to 3 feet tall. Bonsai are kept small and trained by pruning branches and roots, periodic repotting, pinching off new growth and by wiring the branches and trunk so that they grow into the desired shape.
A bonsai tree should always be positioned off-center in its container, for not only is asymmetry vital to the visual effect, but the center point is symbolically where heaven and earth meet. Another aesthetic principle is the triangular pattern necessary for visual balance and for expression of the relationship shared by a universal principle, the artist and the tree itself. Tradition holds that three basic virtues are necessary to create a bonsai: truth, goodness and beauty.
Given proper care, bonsai can live for hundreds of years, with prized specimens being passed from generation to generation, admired for their age and revered as a reminder of those who have cared for them over the centuries. Although these bonsai are extremely beautiful - meticulously cared for over the years and containing such a wealth of knowledge, age is not essential. It is more important that the tree produce the artistic effect desired, that it be in proper proportion to the appropriate container and that it be in good health.
Bonsai are ordinary trees or plants, not special hybrid dwarfs. Small leafed varieties are most suitable, but essentially any plant can be used, regardless of the size it grows in the wild. In Japan, varieties of pine, azalea, camellia, bamboo and plum are most often used. The artist never duplicates nature but rather expresses a personal aesthetic philosophy by manipulating it. The bonsai may suggest many things, but in all cases must look natural and never show the intervention of human hands. Grown in special containers, bonsai are primarily kept outdoors (with the exception of some plants
suited, trained and grown indoors).
There are two major groupings of plants that can be used for bonsai, Indoor Plants and Outdoor plants. Your USDA cold and heat tolerance zone will determine what plants you can use for your outdoor bonsai. Here in Wake County North Carolina we are mostly in zone 7b (temperatures between lO*F and lOO*F). Therefore plants that are made into bonsai such as the Ficus tree, which are tropical plants, must be brought inside after the temperature at night reaches at or below 40*F. Now when using native plants, or plants that can take the cold and hot weather, the bonsai can be left outside under some cover (out of the frost and scorching sun for the most part).
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