It’s an art for the meticulous and curious gardener – the creation, through careful pruning and care, of perfect miniature trees that are fascinating to look at.
A maple forest on a large piece of slate catches my eye. It’s simply beautiful, perfectly proportioned and magical. A wild fig has roots that emerge and grow around rocks. There’s a bonsai cork oak with its characteristic bark; a “windswept” tree leans to one side.
Bonsai literally means “plantings in trays, and it requires endless patience.
Winfried Ludemann, showmaster at the recent Boland Bonsai Kai exhibition at the Stellenbosch Botanical Gardens, explains: “Bonsai is a long-term project, it takes up to seven years for a tree to look decent, and you plan long term.”
The trees, with their miniature leaves, gnarled stems and manicured shapes are carefully trained to form the shapes desired, whether traditional Japanese or not.
“I’ve always had a love for trees,” Ludemann says. “They have special meaning for me. Trees speak to me and I can’t have as many in my garden as I want to.
“Also, it’s an art form; an attractive thing to do. It’s more than a hobby. I started by seeing a tree collection and watching someone working on it, and thought: ‘I can do that.’ “
Ludemann started his bonsai collection in 1987 and joined a club after a few years.
“I have about 150 trees at different stages of development. My early trees look all the same but I’m now trying to differentiate styles. To do this, one needs to understand the trees better.”
Apart from patience, you need to know how to grow plants and to of choose the right species.
“You need some basic botanical knowledge – when to transplant trees, when to prune and fertilise. That all depends on the growth cycle, and some tree species prefer this later in the year.”
If you don’t get these things right, it can affect the tree negatively.
“Trees also need to be transplanted every three years or so – they use up the soil and need new soil to keep them healthy.
“You also trim the roots and make sure they don’t grow out of the pots and keep to size.”
Trees also need their branches and leaves pruned to enhance their shape. Branches are tied and wired to encourage them in the direction you want them to go in.
The various bonsai styles require different shapes.
“It depends on the tree you’re working with,” Ludemann says, “whether it’s upright or windswept.
Bonsai comes from Japan originally (developed from a Chinese form called penjing) and the traditional style is that of Japanese trees. Many growers emulate these styles.
“In South Africa, the umbrella shape of the thorn tree is favoured,” Ludemann says.
Still, you can’t impose your will on a tree – some trees are more suitable to one style and you have to choose the right species.
“You have to read the tree – some have vigorous upwards growth and can’t be forced to grow downward.”
The Stellenbosch Botanical Gardens has a heritage collection, which includes the trees of Becky Lucas, who started her hobby in the 1940s. It is the oldest collection of bonsai trees on public display in South Africa and is well worth a visit. The oldest specimen is a 70-year-old Japanese black pine.
Bonsai first became popular in the 1960s, largely due to Lucas, who studied under a Japanese master and returned to teach others.
Traditional trees used in Japan are pines, junipers, elms and maples.
“In South Africa, we like to work with wild olive, white stinkwood, wild figs (with their prolific root systems) and the acacias. There are others.
“What you look for is a smaller leaf. Most oaks and plane trees look out of proportion with their large leaves,” Ludemann says.
Watering is important – during summer they need water once or twice a day, and you have to fertilise frequently as nutrients tend to leach out with the constant irrigation.
Bonsai is an art form and you can distinguish individual styles, but it’s not as pronounced as with art and music, Ludemann says.
Some people include dead wood as part of the look and in fact some encourage dead wood.
The container is part of the composition and must be in harmony with the tree, in colour and shape.
“You can learn about harmony if your eyes are open to technique and you work in proportions of three,” Ludemann says.
The size limit for the trees is about 1m tall and the smallest are 7cm to 10cm. The smaller they are, the easier to carry and work with, of course.
To those who have a strong reaction to bonsai, believing it to be “cruel”, Ludemann responds: “They’re not kept in captivity; you’re not torturing the tree.”
In fact it’s the opposite – they’re coddled and cared for with great love, giving pleasure to many. And, when left to their own devices, they revert to type and grow into big trees.
Like them or not, they’ll fascinate you. As bonsai artist Al Kepler says: “Bonsai is an artistic representation of a natural tree. It is an image, an illusion of nature. The best bonsai… have fooled the eye into seeing a far-off place in the distant past, or the side of a craggy cliff.” - Cape Argus