Bonsai, Bonsai Everywhere - would you like to have one?

 Bonsai, Bonsai Everywhere - 

would you like to have one?

Dr Abe V Rotor

Rocky shores of Santa Maria, Ilocos Sur. Who would suspect these shrubs are generations old? The Bristlecone,  creeping low and seemingly driftwood, in North America is older than the tallest living thing on earth - the Redwoods of California. It is estimated to be three thousand years old. 

 Nature's Bonsai

Where life conditions are extremely harsh and nothing, we think, will ever survive;

go to some rocky shores or mountain cliffs, or penetrate into the heart of deserts;

there the sturdiest creatures are found, among them trees gnarled and dwarfened

for life; strangest, they live the longest through centuries living on the dearthest

supply of water and nutrients; temperatures are extreme, wind blowing without end.  

 

Fruiting duhat (Syzygium cumini) bonsai, Don Antonio Heights Diliman. 

Fruiting Tree Bonsai

Duhat bonsai, guava bonsai, sampaloc bonsai are made by Asians in the know;

functional other that decorative, for the kitchen and dining table, they too make

a fine piece of conversation with ohs! and ahs! and yes, they are simple to grow:

just by marcotting, allowing the branch to grow roots, and transplanting in a pot

small enough to slow down growth, and trained to a shape that raises the brow. 

Balete branch excised from mother tree, aerial roots now function as true roots for foothold to draw water and nutrients, and presto! you have a bonsai.

Balete Bonsai 

After a typhoon look for some branches torn away from their mother host tree, 
and make them into bonsai, balete, if you don't believe in the kapre story;
dig out saplings, imprison them so to speak, in bonsai pot, but be very patient
or start with seedling, give it lifelong care and be a prisoner of your hobby.  

 

Hedge Bonsai at the Grand Palace, Bankok Thailand is regularly trimmed to keep its shape and design. It fits into the royal ambiance of the place.

                                  Hedge Bonsai

Many a tree have tranformed into bonsai after many years of regular trimming,
unknowingly hedges and trees are shaped according to their masters' wish -
disguised by their size and design, fixed location, and viewers' interpretation,
proud they stand, refusing to submit to a bonsai life that they certainly miss. ~