Detailed Explanation of Peony Bonsai Production Techniques and Care Management Methods

The peony is a deep-rooted flowering plant with fleshy roots and relatively few fibrous roots. As a bonsai, however, the limited volume of the pot causes a relative reduction in the root nutrient area, resulting in an imbalance between the underground and above-ground parts, which in turn affects the normal growth and development of the peony. Therefore, the scientific preparation of the growing medium is crucial. According to the characteristics of the peony, the growing medium should be loose, fertile, high in humus content and long-lasting in fertilizer effect. According to our research, a relatively ideal formula is to mix leaf mold, horse manure, garden soil and furnace slag in a ratio of 2:1:2:1, mix them evenly, seal and compost them with human urine and feces, and use the mixture after one month.

Selection of Peony Varieties and Tree Stumps

Peony bonsai has relatively strict requirements for varieties. Varieties with a relatively high flowering rate, moderate growth and easy shaping should be selected, such as 'Zhusha Lei', 'Zhao Fen', 'Hu Hong', 'Qinglong Wo Mochi', 'Zhi Hong' and others. In addition, although 'Sheng Dan Lu' has fewer flowers and a large growth volume, it grows vigorously, with sturdy and upright branches and a good natural plant form, making it suitable as bonsai material.

For the selection of peony tree stumps, from the perspective of rapid formation, one should choose stumps that are suitable for shaping or have an ancient and dignified trunk and a relatively old seedling age. Natural stumps with good bonsai form are the most ideal.

Potting Time

The timing of potting directly affects the quality of root development of the bonsai and normal flowering the following year. Practice has proved that potting in mid-to-late September is relatively suitable.

Shaping

Peony wood is hard and brittle, prone to breaking, and difficult to work.

① For bending the trunk, follow its natural form as much as possible. When potting, plant it at an angle. First wrap the part to be bent with binding string or palm fiber, then insert metal wire of corresponding thickness (No. 12-18) from the base, and wind it at a 45° angle in the same direction as the intended twist, so that it becomes tighter as it is wound. Alternatively, use hemp rope for bow-shaped pulling, operating in stages and gradually bending until the shaping goal is achieved.

② For the treatment of branches (small branches), pruning is the main method. The layering of the bonsai, the retention or removal of branches and buds, etc. should take into account density, the relationship between solid and open space, and spatial layout, so as to achieve the ideal effect.

③ Root treatment: The exposed roots can be balanced with the center of gravity of the canopy, echoing each other above and below, making the roots resemble tiger paws or eagle claws with a strong sense of power. Root exposure can be achieved by gradually washing away the potting soil, lifting the roots year by year. Peony leaves are large and fat; this can be controlled by controlling water and fertilizer and spraying chlormequat.

Pot Surface Treatment (Stone Arrangement and Moss Placement)

For stone arrangement, Taihu stone and stalagmite stone are preferable; they can be placed lying down or standing upright, taking care to ensure the harmony and balance of the entire work. Placing moss can increase the aesthetic appeal of the work and serve to retain moisture and insulate temperature.

Management

Watering: Because bonsai pots are small and hold limited water, timely watering is essential to ensure normal growth. Immediately after potting, water thoroughly once, then water once a week depending on whether the soil is dry or moist. If watered excessively, branches and leaves tend to grow leggy, and prolonged waterlogging can cause root rot. Especially in summer and autumn, watering should be controlled, following the principle of not watering until the soil is dry.

Fertilizing: Nutrients in the pot are limited, so only timely fertilization can ensure normal growth. Liquid fertilizer must be fully composted and diluted with water before application. Solid fertilizer can be applied by making uniform holes in the pot, followed by watering. In addition, note that heavy fertilizer should be applied in winter, light fertilizer in spring and autumn, and in the slag season [summer] apply as thinly as possible or use foliar feeding.

Note on Overwintering and Summering: In regions with severe winter cold, the bonsai can be placed in the ground with soil mounded around it to seal the root system; by early-to-mid March of the following year, remove the surrounding soil and resume normal management. During the intense heat of midsummer, move the bonsai onto a shade frame and ensure good drainage and ventilation, spraying water on the branches, leaves and surroundings every day to increase air humidity and ensure water supply during the peony's flower bud differentiation period.

Pest and Disease Control: Before potting, cut off residual branches (unless needed for the stump bonsai), diseased roots and rotten roots, and disinfect the wounds with 0.1-0.3 lime sulfur mixture. For potting soil disinfection, mix in carbofuran to kill insects and sterilize (0.5 kg/cubic meter). Spray lime sulfur mixture or carbendazim once each before bud break at the Spring Festival and after leaf fall in autumn every year. When scale insects are found, before wax formation, spray with 25% phosmet at 800 to 1000 times dilution, or 80% dichlorvos at 1000-1500 times dilution; after wax formation, brush them off with a brush.

Peony Bonsai Production and Care

Peony Bonsai Production and Appreciation

Appreciation of Peony Bonsai
Bonsai is a unique and beautiful treasure of Chinese garden art, with a history of 1500 years in China. It is a clever combination of pot cultivation techniques and shaping art, an organic unity of scenery, pot and stand, and is ranked alongside traditional arts such as painting, calligraphy, sculpture and music. It has been described as "silent poetry, three-dimensional painting."
Peony bonsai is an emerging flowering-type bonsai. It combines the magnificent peony with the quaint and elegant art of bonsai, forming an art form with a unique Central Plains regional style, and has been praised by experts and scholars in China's bonsai circles. Chinese bonsai master Chen Sifu praised it: "Peony bonsai displays the charm of bonsai and the poetry of painting." Chinese bonsai artist He Quansun said: "Looking at peony bonsai works overall, they reflect beautiful shaping, appropriate material selection, suitable, harmonious and unified arrangement. For example, the stone arrangement in 'Fragrance' is appropriate, with hardness and softness complementing each other; the branches of 'Competition' are ancient and vigorous, with tension and release following proper rules; 'Hometown' has contest and concession, call and response, full of wild charm; 'Tang-Song Legacy' has a complete composition, dignified and luxurious; 'Dead Wood Meets Spring' has both withered and flourishing elements, with solid and open space depending on each other, and so on. It reflects the artistic attainments of these peony bonsai. It is the sublimation of the artistic beauty of peony cultivation." Chinese bonsai artist Meng Lanting called peony bonsai "an unprecedented pioneering creation..."
The appreciation of peony bonsai is roughly the same as that of other bonsai. For example, first appreciate the scenery (the stump bonsai), second appreciate the pot, third appreciate the stand, and fourth appreciate the scene name (the title), etc.
Viewing the Stump Bonsai
Peony stump bonsai can be enjoyed in all four seasons. In spring and summer, view the flowers; in summer and autumn, view the leaves; in winter and spring, view the buds; in winter, view the trunk. This provides richer ornamental content than ordinary peonies, breaking the centuries-old habit of viewing only the flowers.
Viewing the Trunk: Peony branches are thick and sturdy, with grayish-brown or blackish-brown bark that is mottled. After shaping art treatment, it has the posture of a thousand-year-old pine and the bone of a century-old plum, either upright, suspended, lying or slanting, "having the meaning of hiding the sky and covering the earth, with the momentum of a coiled dragon a hundred feet long."
Viewing the Flowers: Peony bonsai is mainly for flower appreciation. Its flower forms are varied, and the flower colors range through "red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue and purple," with fragrance overflowing everywhere. A pot with several graceful peony flowers will leave you with endless aftertaste.
Viewing the Leaves: Peony leaves are uniquely beautiful, being pinnately compound. In spring the leaves are emerald green, and after autumn frost they turn yellow, red, purple and other colors, very beautiful and eye-catching, with the charm of "a forest dyed in layers."
Viewing the Buds: Appreciated after leaf fall and in early spring, the bud shapes and colors vary. Bud colors include red, pink, purple, etc., and bud shapes include torch type, eagle-beak type, narrow and pointed type, etc., which can set the imagination wandering.
Viewing the Fruit: The fruit is of the exotic fruit type, that is, about five oval fruits arranged in a radiating wheel shape. Seen from a distance, they resemble a "starfish" in the sea or the "five-pointed star" on a national flag.
Viewing the Roots: After "root exposure treatment," people can directly appreciate the twisted and interlocking peony roots. This gives a strong sense of power and the beauty of nature, satisfying people's desire to return to nature.
Appreciating the Pot
The choice of pot for peony bonsai is very particular; the pot serves as the "background color" that sets off the "peony" painting. Whether using Jingdezhen colored porcelain or blue-and-white porcelain bonsai pots, or selecting Yixing purple clay pots, all must reflect the peony's dignified luxury. The best are antique famous pots with simple, antique elegance and diverse styles, with those from the Ming and Qing dynasties being the finest.
Round shallow pots, antique square seal pots, round Peng pots and cylindrical pots are mostly used. The most beautiful colors are antique bronze, agarwood, black-green, sesame, cinnabar red metallurgy and grape purple. Pots engraved with "calligraphy" related to peonies are the best.
Appreciating the Stand
The placement of peony bonsai requires great care. It is to elevate the spatial status of the bonsai, separate the bonsai from the ground and surrounding environment, make it prominent and eye-catching, and further set off the peony bonsai. The stand itself is a work of art. Nowadays, imitations of Ming and Qing styles are mostly used. Ming style is concise and generous, simple and vigorous; huanghuali wood and red sandalwood are mostly used, with lighter color and obvious wood grain. Qing style carving is fine and luxurious, mostly using red sandalwood and rosewood. Both Ming and Qing have relatively high craft achievements.
Modern stands are mostly made of rosewood, red sandalwood and boxwood, with fine and hard wood texture and bright, smooth color. In addition, imitation rosewood and red sandalwood are also used; because of the fine craftsmanship, the ornamental effect is also quite good. Styles include "scroll stand," "fret-pattern stand," "curio shelf stand," "small qin table stand," as well as "root-carving stand," "Tang Sancai drum stand" and so on. Those carved with peony patterns on the stand are the best.
Savoring the Scene Name
In the appreciation of bonsai, the title is very important. It can increase the ideological and artistic quality of the work and further express the artistic conception. Chinese painting emphasizes the four-in-one artistic effect of poetry, calligraphy, painting and seal, and the title of a peony bonsai, like the scenery, pot and stand, is an indispensable part. Concise and summarizing words and phrases express the content and spirit of the work, playing a finishing touch role. "National Beauty and Heavenly Fragrance" can be used to reflect the place of the peony in the hearts of Chinese people; the beauty of the peony and the beauty of the bonsai can be expressed at the same time; "Tang-Song Legacy" can be used to express the ancient history of the peony, making people look at the present and trace back to antiquity, seeking flavor to the utmost. In short, through the limited scenery in the pot, unlimited associations are produced, leaving the viewer with endless aftertaste.
In addition, the decoration of the pot surface is also very important, such as stone arrangement, moss dotting, planting small patches of turf, and treatment of terrain and landforms, as well as the placement of various accessories (pavilions, terraces, towers, chambers, pagodas, waterside pavilions, rafts, bridges, figures and various animals), etc.
The stone arrangement for peonies is very particular. In Chinese painting there is the "peony and stone picture." Peonies are commonly paired with Taihu stone, Ying stone and bamboo shoot stone, making the landscape vivid and varied, the composition more perfect and full of mountain wilderness charm. Placing moss or grass makes the pot surface a stretch of emerald green, full of vitality and closer to the natural landform. The placement of accessories makes the picture more poetic and picturesque.
Appreciation of Excellent Peony Bonsai Works
Peony bonsai "National Beauty and Heavenly Fragrance": once won an award at the 2nd Henan Province Bonsai Art Competition and Exhibition in 1985.
This work adopts the stone-attached style. In a rectangular shallow purple clay pot stands an exquisitely carved Taihu stone. Beside the stone, several peony branches pass through the stone holes. The branches are old and vigorous, with several peony flowers blooming at the tips, and two peony flowers in bud at the base of the stone. The whole work has clear layering, perfect composition and a fresh picture, just like an ancient freehand "peony and stone picture" painting.
Peony bonsai "Tang-Song Legacy": once won the Excellent Work Award at the 2nd China Bonsai Art Competition and Exhibition in 1989.
This work adopts the single-trunk style shaping method. In a round purple clay golden bell pot with a small base is planted an upright shaped peony. The peony branches and leaves are free and easy, with clear layering. The trunk is thick and the bark is mottled, and the roots are exposed and twisted and interlocking, just like a thousand-year-old ancient tree. Beside the roots is a lying stone, with green moss covering the soil beside the stone. Below the pot is paired a Tang Sancai imitation antique peony-pattern drum stand. Several peony flowers bloom on the stump, reflecting local characteristics and artistic effect, hence having the lingering style of Tang and Song peonies.
Peony Bonsai Production and Care
Preparation of Growing Medium
The peony is a deep-rooted flowering plant with fleshy roots and relatively few fibrous roots. As a bonsai, however, the limited volume of the pot causes a relative reduction in the root nutrient area, resulting in an imbalance between the underground and above-ground parts, which in turn affects the normal growth and development of the peony. Therefore, the scientific preparation of the growing medium is crucial. According to the characteristics of the peony, the growing medium should be loose, fertile, high in humus content and long-lasting in fertilizer effect. According to our research, a relatively ideal formula is to mix leaf mold, horse manure, garden soil and furnace slag in a ratio of 2:1:2:1, mix them evenly, seal and compost them with human urine and feces, and use the mixture after one month.
Selection of Peony Varieties and Tree Stumps
Peony bonsai has relatively strict requirements for varieties. Varieties with a relatively high flowering rate, moderate growth and easy shaping should be selected, such as 'Zhusha Lei', 'Zhao Fen', 'Hu Hong', 'Qinglong Wo Mochi', 'Zhi Hong' and others. In addition, although 'Sheng Dan Lu' has fewer flowers and a large growth volume, it grows vigorously, with sturdy and upright branches and a good natural plant form, making it suitable as bonsai material.
For the selection of peony tree stumps, from the perspective of rapid formation, one should choose stumps that are suitable for shaping or have an ancient and dignified trunk and a relatively old seedling age. Natural stumps with good bonsai form are the most ideal.
Potting Time
The timing of potting directly affects the quality of root development of the bonsai and normal flowering the following year. Practice has proved that potting in mid-to-late September is relatively suitable.
Shaping
Peony wood is hard and brittle, prone to breaking, and difficult to work. ① For bending the trunk, follow its natural form as much as possible. When potting, plant it at an angle. First wrap the part to be bent with binding string or palm fiber, then insert metal wire of corresponding thickness (No. 12-18) from the base, and wind it at a 45° angle in the same direction as the intended twist, so that it becomes tighter as it is wound. Alternatively, use hemp rope for bow-shaped pulling, operating in stages and gradually bending until the shaping goal is achieved. ② For the treatment of branches (small branches), pruning is the main method. The layering of the bonsai, the retention or removal of branches and buds, etc. should take into account density, the relationship between solid and open space, and spatial layout, so as to achieve the ideal effect. ③ Root treatment: The exposed roots can be balanced with the center of gravity of the canopy, echoing each other above and below, making the roots resemble tiger paws or eagle claws with a strong sense of power. Root exposure can be achieved by gradually washing away the potting soil, lifting the roots year by year. Peony leaves are large and fat; this can be controlled by controlling water and fertilizer and spraying chlormequat.
Pot Surface Treatment (Stone Arrangement and Moss Placement)
For stone arrangement, Taihu stone and stalagmite stone are preferable; they can be placed lying down or standing upright, taking care to ensure the harmony and balance of the entire work. Placing moss can increase the aesthetic appeal of the work and serve to retain moisture and insulate temperature.
Management
Watering: Because bonsai pots are small and hold limited water, timely watering is essential to ensure normal growth. Immediately after potting, water thoroughly once, then water once a week depending on whether the soil is dry or moist. If watered excessively, branches and leaves tend to grow leggy, and prolonged waterlogging can cause root rot. Especially in summer and autumn, watering should be controlled, following the principle of not watering until the soil is dry.
Fertilizing: Nutrients in the pot are limited, so only timely fertilization can ensure normal growth. Liquid fertilizer must be fully composted and diluted with water before application. Solid fertilizer can be applied by making uniform holes in the pot, followed by watering. In addition, note that heavy fertilizer should be applied in winter, light fertilizer in spring and autumn, and in the slag season [summer] apply as thinly as possible or use foliar feeding.
Note on Overwintering and Summering: In regions with severe winter cold, the bonsai can be placed in the ground with soil mounded around it to seal the root system; by early-to-mid March of the following year, remove the surrounding soil and resume normal management. During the intense heat of midsummer, move the bonsai onto a shade frame and ensure good drainage and ventilation, spraying water on the branches, leaves and surroundings every day to increase air humidity and ensure water supply during the peony's flower bud differentiation period.
Pest and Disease Control: Before potting, cut off residual branches (unless needed for the stump bonsai), diseased roots and rotten roots, and disinfect the wounds with 0.1-0.3 lime sulfur mixture. For potting soil disinfection, mix in carbofuran to kill insects and sterilize (0.5 kg/cubic meter). Spray lime sulfur mixture or carbendazim once each before bud break at the Spring Festival and after leaf fall in autumn every year. When scale insects are found, before wax formation, spray with 25% phosmet at 800 to 1000 times dilution, or 80% dichlorvos at 1000-1500 times dilution; after wax formation, brush them off with a brush.