To appreciate bonsai, you must know these professional terms

[Bonsai Enthusiast's Reflections]

Text | Xiamen, Fujian @Zhou Yingzhi

Bring your own sunshine to light up the confusion within. Wherever a flower blooms, there is fragrance; wherever a seed falls, it will grow; wherever a ray of sunshine falls, there is warmth. Everyone in this world has their own place, their own place to go, their own people and things to experience. Time turns, years change. Year after year the flowers are alike, year after year the people are different. There will always be unspeakable sorrow. Learn to adapt, accept all imperfections, learn to choose and let go, understand how to release, and life will be calm and light. There is no such thing as quiet and peaceful years; it is simply knowing how to let go.

There are many things in life. What can be forgotten is called the past; what cannot be forgotten is called memory. A person's loneliness, sometimes, is hard to hide for too long. When time goes on too long, a person becomes silent, and by then, some feelings of days gone by can no longer be found. Perhaps, when a tireless journey ends, only the person standing at the finish line will feel tired. Time wears life in, yet does not leave us time to adapt.

A Collection of Bonsai Professional Terms

Recommended article | Yiguang Culture - Yiguang Bonsai

Every trade has its own professional terms, and outsiders sometimes really cannot understand them.

If you do not understand, you cannot communicate with them.

You can only sit foolishly beside them as a listener, unable to get a word in.

Extremely awkward!!!

What are "professional terms"?

"Professional terms" refer to the unified industry names for certain specific things in a particular field, and are also brief expressions used for names during professional communication. In most cases, they are familiar to professionals in that field.

Today, we have compiled some bonsai-related professional terms, hoping they will be helpful to fellow bonsai enthusiasts.

One

Terminal bud: a bud growing at the tip of a branch.

Axillary bud, lateral bud: a bud growing at the base of a branch.

Fixed bud: a bud whose growth position is fixed.

Adventitious bud: besides fixed buds, buds growing in other positions.

Wild bud: a bud that grows with strong vigor and easily makes the tree shape messy, so it should be removed as early as possible.

Two

Curved trunk: a tree shape in which the trunk bends at less than 90 degrees.

Slanting trunk: a tree shape in which the trunk leans.

Straight trunk: extending straight down from the base without obvious arc bending.

Wind-swept form: a tree shape in which the branches and trunk, as if struck by strong wind, all lean to one side.

Three

Double trunk: double-trunk tree forms include high-leg double trunk and low-leg double trunk.

Three trunks: a tree form with three trunks emerging from the ground at the same time.

Multiple trunks: a tree form with more than three trunks emerging close to the ground at the same time.

Cliff: the name of a tree form that shows the tree hanging down from a cliff.

Waterside style: the name of a tree form like a tree by the water, extending toward the distance close to the water surface.

Literati tree: a tree form with a slender, upright trunk, full of elegant and refined charm.

Four

Leaf character: refers to the innate qualities of leaves such as size, shape, thickness, and color.

Leaf watering: watering or spraying water on the leaves with a sprayer can effectively prevent the tree's vigor from weakening and remove dirt.

Seedling-grown: a propagation method of cultivating by sowing seeds.

Stone-attached: refers to all bonsai planted on stones.

Mountain-collected: refers to transplanting back from the wild. Tapering: the trunk gradually becoming thinner from the base to the crown.

Five

Bud pinching: pinching off newly sprouted buds, "pinching the core" or "pinching green buds," is called bud pinching.

Bud cutting: cutting off overly long new buds, then letting them sprout again.

Bud rubbing: rubbing off most of the buds growing from the same growth point, leaving only one bud.

Leaf pruning: a temporary pruning to reduce leaf size and increase small branches. Branch pulling: cutting off excess unused thick branches.

Six

Shaping: using metal wire to guide and correct.

Pruning and shaping: cutting messy branches to create appropriate space.

Suppression: to prevent branches from being too sparse, vigorous shoots should be pruned to shorten the internodes.

Trimming: using scissors to trim in order to shape the tree. For tree species that dislike wire binding, this method may be used for shaping.

Twisted trunk: the trunk, like a wrung-out wet towel, grows while being twisted. This is the most commonly seen trunk form in pomegranate and similar trees.

Group planting: planting several trees together in one pot to express the scenery of mountain forests.

Seven

Coarse wood: branches are messy and lack aesthetic appeal in either length or thickness.

Cold tree: the appearance of a deciduous tree after it loses its leaves in winter.

Cavity: a part of the trunk withers and decays to form a hollow.

Raised base: refers to the state in which the trunk bulges from the root.

Connected roots: a group-planted state in which the roots are connected, a tree form with linked roots.

Eight

Crown: the clustered growing area at the top of the trunk.

New shoot: a branch that grows after sprouting among the leaves.

Deadwood trunk: a part of the trunk is withered and exposed, appearing bone-white; generally the trunk is flat.

Branch spirit: when a branch tip withers and becomes bone-white, it is called branch spirit.

Spirit core: the part of the tree core that has become bone-white is called spirit core.

Nine

Main branch: an important branch forming the skeleton of the tree shape.

Back branch: a branch located behind the trunk, used to express depth and three-dimensionality.

Drooping branch: a branch hanging down from the upper-middle part of the trunk. In terms of tree shape, a branch growing in the direction in which the trunk leans.

Cascading branch: a branch hanging down from the lower-middle part of the trunk. In terms of tree shape, a branch growing in the direction in which the trunk leans.

Trailing branch: a branch growing in the opposite direction from the trunk's lean.

Gnawing trunk: among important branches that are thick at the base. A branch growing from the main trunk and shorter and more abrupt than other branches.

Ten

Frog-leg branch: a branch spreading in a double fork like the two feet of a frog, one of the taboo branches.

Inner-angle branch: a branch growing from an inward bend, an inelegant branch.

Door-bolt branch: a branch in which the left and right branches pass through the trunk in a horizontal straight line, one of the taboo branches.

Wheel branch: many branches growing from the same point, one of the taboo branches.

Crossing branch: a form in which a branch crosses another branch; it can be classified as an inelegant branch, and is an effective branch.

Vigorous shoot: a branch that grows excessively.

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