Landscaped Bonsai for Nature Appreciation

Landscaped Bonsai for Nature Appreciation
by Norby Bautista

      For people living in the city or urban areas, where they do not have enough garden space to enjoy the pleasure of having a wide landscaped garden, a miniature landscaped bonsai tray could provide a sufficient enjoyment similar of having an actual scenic forest or mountain in your home.  This living art form was inspired by the Chinese and Japanese, and were quickly adopted by other countries like that in Europe and in the United States.  It requires a small space, maybe just a table or a corner in a small garden, sufficient light, regular watering and tender loving care.

       A landscape bonsai is mainly created with all types of coral or mountain limestone rocks and modeled after a natural landscape.  The rocks are nowadays available in garden centers and there are garden club, more particularly bonsai clubs, specializing in teaching these art form to enthusiasts. It is an artistic and creative work involving  previously trained living woody plants, small colorful herbaceous plants, rocks, soil, and your choice of container.   The creation involves careful  selection of available planting materials, your choice of chiseled rock, before they are all arranged in a shallow pot, presenting the landscape of steep rocky cliffs, familiar mountain peaks, a woody forest and streaming rivers, or an isolated forested island.  The theme can be Asian, European, or South American, depending on your imagination.  What is important is that it represent a scenic view from an actual or imaginary place.  The bonsai landscape can be further enhance by adding ceramic figures like a farmer with his carabao, a meditating monk, a Buddhist temple atop a mountain peak, an old Spanish Church, or a Chinese trading boat.

  

The design depends on your artistic conception.  Bonsai trees or trained or pruned woody plants are used, planted on crevices of stones, usually supported by hidden copper wires.  Lichen or moss are added to make a simulated natural landscape.  Usually the landscape presents a story, with its poetic charm and picturesque grace, practically showing various aspects of gorgeous and beautiful artistic conception, with its moods, theme and message.

Landscaping with bonsai primarily convey the beauty of a natural landscape as a whole, however, this art form is usually more focused on the rock garden itself rather than on the plants. However, depending on the point of view of the gardener, both the plants and the aesthetic rock design are equally important.  Thus, it the cultural maintenance of the design, it requires more devoted time and attention for the landscape to last for some time or else the plants will quickly dry out and wilt.

Tray landscapes with bonsai are usually placed in an area with sufficient sunlight, preferably full sun or partial shade.  The landscape tray needs to be meticulously watered often, usually 4-5 times a day using a fine shower of water, to prevent soil and plants from being dislodged from the rock they were attached.  It also requires weekly pruning of overgrowing plants and weeds, including application of a weekly dilute spray of complete foliar fertilizer for the nutritional requirements of the plants, plus reducing occurrence of pest and diseases.  Similar to bonsai growing, this form of art is somehow time demanding, as if you have a baby at home.  You may also schedule every month to replace plants that have died or wilted, in order to maintain the beauty of the design.

      As a whole, the aim of the bonsai landscape is to produce the most realistic landscape by incorporating elements from both tree and landscape styles, and also for it to provide satisfaction and a fulfilled sense of happiness for the homeowner .


For inquiries, kindly contact the author at norby.bautista@gmail.com

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