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| Coast Redwood by Elissa Hoxie |
I had the opportunity to attend the
Bonsai show at the
South Coast Botanic Garden. Although I'm not a gardener myself, I appreciate the artistry of fine gardening. Perhaps the apex of botanical aesthetic design is the bonsai tree. The years of careful cultivation and arrangement that goes into a bonsai is impressive.
The aesthetic rules of bonsai cultivation can be simplified down to Five Basic Rules:
The first rule is
miniaturization. The literal meaning of bonsai is "plantings in tray". But this isn't as easy as it sounds. The photo at the top is of a redwood, a tree type that can grow to over 300 feet tall!!! Controlling growth spurts while maintaining plant health is a difficult task.
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| Olive by Elissa Hoxie |
The second rule is
proportion. Although the tree is kept in miniature, all of its elements must be kept at a similar proportion. This includes the leaves!!! Check out the olive tree in the photo above. These trees are noted for having large clusters of small leaves. How can one replicate such an effect while keeping the tree healthy? Well, there is a functional minimal limit to how small you can get the leaves, but the cluster may be thinned out, giving the impression of proportionality. Therefore, although leaf size is disproportional, the overall foliage proportion is maintained. This effect takes a
lot of maintenance.
