posted 6 years ago
Everyone comes to admire bonsai, sooner or later. So the first thing I did was buy a book, years ago. After reading the immense amount of care required to handle bonsai from beginning to end, I still don't raise any. But one thing that really made me sit up and take notice was that one can start with a normal size seedling, or perhaps a stunted already twisted tree growing out of a crag, and then, by a series of root and branch pruning, and repotting in progressively smaller containers, the bonsai is born. It's not just getting them bigger faster, it's making them smaller slowly. I guess I do a form of bonsai with some of my houseplants by restricting their pot size and cutting them back, lest they grow too exhuberantly for my windowsills. I do admire an abutilon that is the size of a small shrub, and filled with flowers, but I'm just happy my scraggly abutilon stays where I can see it, flowering a few times a year. It's probably 16 years old since its purchase, and I hope it lives for years still.