A cloud tree is a tree shaped using topiary techniques. The leaves are pruned into a ball or cloud shape, leaving the stems thin and exposed. The shape of the tree as a whole resembles a set of clouds.
Cloud trees differ from bonsai trees because they are not miniature. Typically, cloud trees are planted in plain soil, rather than in pots.
Similarly to bonsai, the practice of shaping cloud trees comes from Japan, deriving from a Japanese style of gardening known as Niwaki. [1]
Bonsai is a Japanese version of the traditional Chinese art penjing or penzai. Unlike penjing, which utilizes traditional techniques to produce entirely natural scenery in small pots that mimic the grandiose shapes of real life scenery, the Japanese "bonsai" only attempts to produce small trees that mimic the shape of real life trees. Similar versions of the art exist in other cultures, including the miniature living landscapes of Vietnamese Hòn non bộ. It was during the Tang dynasty, when penjing was at its height, that the art was first introduced into Japan.
Serissa is a genus of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae, containing only one species, Serissa japonica. It is native to open sub-tropical woodlands and wet meadows in southeast Asia, from India, and China to Japan. It is commonly called the snowrose, tree of a thousand stars, or Japanese boxthorn; and was formerly called Serissa foetida. 'Foetida' referres to the unpleasant, vomit-like, odour that the trees give off if their leaves are pruned or bruised. Snowrose and tree of a thousand stars are different cultivars. The only method of differentiating is measuring the difference in the shape and size of the flowers produced.
Malus is a genus of about 30–55 species of small deciduous trees or shrubs in the family Rosaceae, including the domesticated orchard apple – also known as the eating apple, cooking apple, or culinary apple. The other species are commonly known as crabapples, crab apples, crabtrees, wild apples, or rainberries.
Juniperus chinensis, the Chinese juniper is a species of plant in the cypress family Cupressaceae, native to China, Myanmar, Japan, Korea and the Russian Far East. Growing 1–20 metres tall, it is a very variable coniferous evergreen tree or shrub.
Penjing, also known as penzai, is the ancient Chinese art of depicting artistically formed trees, other plants, and landscapes in miniature.
A bonkei is a temporary or permanent three-dimensional depiction of a landscape in miniature, portrayed using mainly dry materials like rock, papier-mâché or cement mixtures, and sand in a shallow tray. A bonkei contains no living material, in contrast with related Japanese art forms bonsai and saikei: bonsai contain living trees, and saikei contain living trees and other vegetation.
John Yoshio Naka was an American horticulturist, teacher, author, and master bonsai cultivator.
Deadwood bonsai techniques are methods in the Japanese art of bonsai that create, shape, and preserve dead wood on a living bonsai tree. They enhance the illusion of age and the portrayal of austerity that mark a successful bonsai.
Saikei (栽景) literally translates as "planted landscape". Saikei is a descendant of the Japanese arts of bonsai, bonseki, and bonkei, and is related less directly to similar miniature-landscape arts like the Chinese penjing and the Vietnamese hòn non bộ. It is the art of creating tray landscapes that combine miniature living trees with soil, rocks, water, and related vegetation in a single tray or similar container. A saikei landscape will remind the viewer of a natural location through its overall topography, choice of ground materials, and the species used in its plantings.
Bonsai aesthetics are the aesthetic goals and characteristics of the Japanese tradition of the art of bonsai, the growing of a miniature tree in a container. Many Japanese cultural characteristics, particularly the influence of Zen Buddhism and the expression wabi-sabi inform the bonsai tradition in that culture. A lengthy catalog of conventional tree shapes and styles also helps provide cohesion to the Japanese styling tradition. A number of other cultures around the world have adopted the Japanese approach to bonsai, and while some variations have begun to appear, most hew closely to the rules and design philosophies of the Japanese tradition.
The Larz Anderson Bonsai Collection at the Arnold Arboretum in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts is one of the premier collections of bonsai in the United States and includes a Hinoki Cypress over 250 years old.
Goshin is a bonsai created by John Y. Naka. It is a forest planting of eleven Foemina junipers, the earliest of which Naka began training into bonsai in 1948. Naka donated it to the National Bonsai Foundation in 1984, to be displayed at the United States National Arboretum; it has been there ever since. The individual trees represent Naka's grandchildren.
Chrysanthemumbonsai is a Japanese art form using cultivation techniques to produce, in containers, chrysanthemum flowers that mimic the shape and scale of full size trees, called bonsai.
Indoor bonsai are bonsai cultivated for the indoor environment. Traditionally, bonsai are temperate climate trees grown outdoors in containers. Tropical and sub-tropical tree species can be cultivated to grow and thrive indoors, with some suited to bonsai aesthetics shaped as traditional outdoor or wild bonsai.
Hòn Non Bộ is the Vietnamese art of making miniature landscapes, imitating the scenery of the islands, mountains and surrounding environment as found in nature. It is a particular local development of the Chinese art of penzai, as was bonsai in Japan.
Bonsai cultivation and care involves the long-term cultivation of small trees in containers, called bonsai in the Japanese tradition of this art form. Similar practices exist in other Japanese art forms and in other cultures, including saikei (Japanese), penjing (Chinese), and hòn non bộ (Vietnamese). Trees are difficult to cultivate in containers, which restrict root growth, nutrition uptake, and resources for transpiration. In addition to the root constraints of containers, bonsai trunks, branches, and foliage are extensively shaped and manipulated to meet aesthetic goals. Specialized tools and techniques are used to protect the health and vigor of the subject tree. Over time, the artistic manipulation of small trees in containers has led to a number of cultivation and care approaches that successfully meet the practical and the artistic requirements of bonsai and similar traditions.
Acer palmatum, commonly known as Japanese maple, palmate maple, or smooth Japanese maple (Japanese: irohamomiji, イロハモミジ, or momiji,, is a species of woody plant native to Japan, Korea, China, eastern Mongolia, and southeast Russia. Many different cultivars of this maple have been selected and they are grown worldwide for their large variety of attractive forms, leaf shapes, and spectacular colors.
The balete tree are several species of the trees in the Philippines from the genus Ficus that are broadly referred to as balete in the local language. A number of these are known as strangler figs wherein they start upon other trees, later entrapping them entirely and finally killing the host tree. Also called hemiepiphytes, initially, they start as epiphytes or air plants and grow several hanging roots that eventually touch the ground and from then on, encircling and suffocating the host tree. Some of the baletes produce an inferior quality of rubber. The India rubber plant, F. elastica were earlier cultivated to some extent for rubber. Some of the species like tangisang-bayawak or Ficus variegata are large and could probably be utilized for match woods. The woods of species of Ficus are soft, light, and of inferior quality, and the trees usually have ill-formed, short boles.
Bonsai is a Japanese art form using miniature trees grown in containers. Similar practices exist in other cultures, including the Chinese tradition of penjing from which the art originated, and the miniature living landscapes of Vietnamese hòn non bộ, but this article describes the Japanese tradition.
Bonsai is a Japanese art form using trees grown in containers. Similar practices exist in other cultures, including the Chinese tradition of penjing from which the art originated, and the miniature living landscapes of Vietnamese hòn non bộ. The term "bonsai" itself is a Japanese pronunciation of the earlier Chinese term penzai. The word bonsai is often used in English as an umbrella term for all miniature trees in containers or pots. This article focuses on the history of bonsai in Japan and, in modern times, worldwide.
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