How do you cultivate a fingertip-sized bonsai? Detailed method shared
Bonsai shapes are endlessly varied, but have you ever seen a bonsai that is only fingertip-sized? The editor can't even imagine how such a tiny, cute bonsai could be cultivated. If I told you the method, would you dare to grow one? Curious readers can follow along with the editor and take a look at the cultivation methods for fingertip bonsai!
Bonsai is a reproduction of the strange and beautiful mountains, water, flowers and grass of nature. According to size, bonsai can be divided into large bonsai, regular bonsai and miniature bonsai (palm-sized bonsai). Now there is a kind even smaller than palm-sized bonsai, called fingertip bonsai. This kind of bonsai is small and exquisite, beyond imagination, lush and green, with a unique scene of its own.
The plant materials chosen for fingertip bonsai should have characteristics such as small leaves, thick and short trunks, strong adaptability, tolerance to pruning, ease of shaping, and ease of cultivation and survival, such as Serissa japonica (snow-in-summer), Ulmus parvifolia (Chinese elm), Loropetalum chinense var. rubrum (Chinese fringe flower), Carmona retusa (Fukien tea), Gardenia jasminoides 'Radicans' (dwarf gardenia), Podocarpus macrophyllus var. maki (small-leaf Buddhist pine), Damnacanthus indicus, Buxus sinica var. parvifolia (boxwood), Buxus sinica var. parvifolia 'Japonica', Buxus sempervirens 'Suffruticosa' (dwarf boxwood), Caragana sinica (Chinese peashrub), and so on.
Fingertip bonsai mostly use antique-style purple clay pots or glazed ceramic pots. The shape, depth and color of the pot should harmonize with the leaf shape, leaf color, and flower and fruit colors of the planted material, and should closely match the posture of the tree.
The sources of fingertip bonsai plant material are mainly obtained through grafting, cuttings, division, seedling cultivation, and digging up small wild tree stumps. Shaping uses methods such as wiring, pruning and root raising. During operation, one must be careful and meticulous, delicate and refined, striving to apply skill and force properly, expressing it on the branches and trunk, so that the original small tree and tender branches take on the appearance of a composed "ancient great tree," and so that the outward form and inner character are well combined.
Fingertip bonsai is a miniature bonsai, giving people a miniature visual impact. Its novel shape can add vitality to a room. At present the market response is relatively good. Interested friends can try cultivating one!
What is miniature bonsai? Introduction to the development history of miniature bonsai (pictures)
Miniature bonsai refers to potted plants with small pots and tiny trees, which people call palm-sized bonsai or miniature bonsai. Specifications: 15-20cm. The miniaturization, refinement and conciseness of miniature bonsai structure (shrinking a dragon into an inch, perfectly natural) truly tests every bonsai enthusiast's creative ability, production skills and maintenance level.
In the Yuan Dynasty, the eminent monk Yun Shangren traveled everywhere and condensed the beautiful scenery of nature into a tiny space, hence the name "Xiezi jing" (what is now called miniature bonsai). He is the originator of miniature bonsai.
In the 1930s, the Chinese horticulturist and writer Mr. Zhou Shoujuan and the horticulturist Mr. Shen Yuanru both began creating and cultivating miniature bonsai, with gnarled trunks and twisted branches, like poetry and painting.
In the late 1940s, Mr. Shen Yuanru's son, Shen Yinchun, followed his father and devoted himself to the study of miniature bonsai, and collected miniature pots from the Daoguang, Tongzhi and Guangxu periods of the Qing Dynasty, doing a great deal of meticulous and fruitful work for the study of the history of miniature bonsai development in China.
In the early 1980s, the book "The Art of Miniature Potted Landscapes" by the miniature bonsai artist Mr. Shen Yinchun was published by Jiangsu Science and Technology Press, becoming China's first monograph on the art of miniature bonsai. Many countries and regions around the world have organizations and individuals engaged in research on this art. A cypress cultivated by the French horticulturist Andre Montagny, with a tree age of 4 years, was no taller than a thumb, and its pot was only about 2 cm.
In the 1990s, the development of China's miniature bonsai art made a great breakthrough. Starting from the first China Bonsai Art Competition, miniature bonsai was officially included as a competition category, entered thousands of households, crossed national borders, became active on the international cultural and artistic stage, and became an important part of China's export of commercial bonsai for earning foreign exchange.
Today the development of miniature bonsai has become mainstream and is favored by people from all walks of life. In recent years miniature bonsai has developed rapidly at home and abroad, is widely welcomed, and has received a flood of praise. The characteristics of miniature bonsai stand out: tiny in stature, convenient to transport, easy to exchange, and showing an aged appearance. Each pot is a unique piece, treasured like a gem---. People of all ages, old, middle-aged, young and children, are all enjoying miniature bonsai.
As an art, miniature bonsai, with its rich forms, constitutes a unified and harmonious color effect, and with its outstanding expression within limitations, displays its fresh and elegant artistic charm. Miniature bonsai uses plants and rocks as its main materials, and through artistic conception and artistic techniques such as exaggeration and condensation, achieves "an inch of wood with feeling, a sliver of stone with grace." Expression within limitation is an outstanding artistic creation. The reason miniature bonsai is favored by most people, besides containing many artistic genes, is importantly that it has its own specific artistic language and exquisite technical expression, distinct from others and uniquely styled.
Miniature bonsai embraces heaven and earth in the palm, and unfolds creation at the fingertips. With extraordinary techniques, miniature bonsai condenses, summarizes, distills and vividly expresses the beauty of nature and the beauty of art; expressing within a limited space, although it can only depict a certain part, a certain fragment, a certain posture, yet a successful work may also enable the viewer to feel the infinite that exists indirectly within the finite that is directly expressed.
The art of miniature bonsai, with changes beyond the ordinary, creates a novel visual impression and arouses the viewer's desire to explore; through the potential connotation of the limited form, the triggering force and appeal it produces arouse symbolism and awaken rational thinking, from narrow to broad, from form to spirit, from shallow to deep, from the finite to the infinite. It is both a figurative, generalized expression and an expression of rich inner meaning. In a space the size of a pellet, it so freely, naturally and thoroughly expresses a unique artistic language. Here art and technique, content and form, wisdom and will achieve full harmony and unity; the aesthetic characteristics of using the small to reveal the large, viewing the many from the few, and seeing the macro from the micro, highly difficult and ingenious, astonishingly concentrate vast connotations within the smallest area, becoming a strong embodiment of the artistic individuality of miniature bonsai.
"Poetic sentiment and pictorial beauty in the palm." Miniature bonsai, no larger than a palm and as small as being placed on a fingertip, thus also has the elegant names "poetry and painting in the palm" and "gardening on the fingertips." Arranged on balconies, in front of windows, on desks, coffee tables and curio shelves, one can enjoy and appreciate the charm of nature without leaving home, satisfying the longing for nature; through unexpected and unusual forms, it boldly uses human visual illusion, producing magical suspense and deep interest. Tiny to almost the limit, yet full of life and vitality, it lets the viewer spread the wings of imagination, integrating interest and philosophy, utterly lifelike. Many "coarse and cheap" plant materials, and moss, small grasses and stone fragments that can be found everywhere, can in miniature bonsai become, without any inferiority, verdant dripping green lawns, towering tall trees reaching the sky, and undulating hills and dense forests.
Miniature bonsai is a four-dimensional expression of time and space, differing from miniature carving and miniature painting. The changes in form and color of plants in different seasons constitute a rich aesthetic landscape, giving people endless reverie. Pot after pot of miniature bonsai are exquisite and translucent, nimble and varied; some are elegant and antique, some bright and pretty, some simple and vigorous, some quietly refined and fresh, as if it were a miniature plant kingdom of a thousand postures and dazzling colors.
The display and appreciation of miniature bonsai has a broad field of expression: richly colorful plants, pots of various shapes, and varied stands, as well as the compositional changes among these three, free, casual, flexible and changeable. Miniature bonsai is also a comprehensive, multi-dimensional art, seemingly like vivid "poetry and painting," in which rhythm, color and lines give people a sense of beauty, "the form exists in the painting, the spirit extends beyond the image." As a carrier of emotion, miniature bonsai breaks through limited space, transcends the constraints of external materials and images, and to a great extent evokes people's imagination; the artistic charm of miniature bonsai lies precisely in this.
How to grow Cotoneaster horizontalis bonsai: teaching you the cultivation methods for Cotoneaster horizontalis
Cotoneaster horizontalis is a semi-evergreen creeping shrub, growing on slopes above 1000 m in elevation, in mountain ridge thickets or rock crevices. Its branches are dense and leaves small, and its red fruits are brilliant. It is now often cultivated in various places, suitable for garden ground cover and making bonsai, etc. Today the editor shares with you how to grow Cotoneaster horizontalis bonsai. Let's take a look.
Introduction to Cotoneaster horizontalis
Cotoneaster horizontalis (scientific name: Cotoneaster horizontalis Decne.): a semi-evergreen creeping shrub, less than 0.5 m tall. Branchlets are arranged in two rows, covered with strigose hairs when young. Leaves are nearly round or broadly elliptic, rarely obovate, apex acute, base cuneate, margin entire, glabrous above, sparsely appressed pubescent below; petiole pubescent; stipules subulate, early deciduous. Flowers 1-2, terminal or axillary, nearly sessile, petals pink, obovate, apex rounded and obtuse; stamens about 12; ovary apex pubescent, free. Fruit nearly spherical, bright red. Flowering period May-June, fruiting period September-October.
Cotoneaster horizontalis grows on slopes above 1000 m in elevation, in mountain ridge thickets or rock crevices. It is distributed in China's Anhui, Hubei, Hunan, Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan, Shaanxi, Gansu and other provinces. It is often cultivated in various places. Its branches are dense and leaves small, and its red fruits are brilliant. It is suitable for garden ground cover and making bonsai, etc.
I. Morphological characteristics
Branches: Cotoneaster horizontalis is a deciduous or semi-evergreen creeping shrub, not more than 0.5 m tall, with branches spreading horizontally in neat two rows; branchlets cylindrical, covered externally with strigose hairs when young, shedding when old, dark brown.
Leaves: The leaves of Cotoneaster horizontalis are nearly round or broadly elliptic, rarely obovate, 5-14 mm long, 4-9 mm wide, apex mostly acute, base cuneate, margin entire, glabrous above, sparsely appressed pubescent below; petiole 1-3 mm long, pubescent; stipules subulate, early deciduous.
Flowers: The flowers of Cotoneaster horizontalis are 1-2, nearly sessile, 5-7 mm in diameter; hypanthium campanulate, sparsely short-pubescent outside, glabrous inside; sepals triangular, apex acute, slightly short-pubescent outside, pubescent on the inner margin; petals erect, obovate, apex rounded and obtuse, about 4 mm long, 3 mm wide, pink; stamens about 12, shorter than the petals; styles usually 3, sometimes 2, free, shorter than the stamens; ovary apex pubescent.
Fruit: The fruit of Cotoneaster horizontalis is nearly spherical, 4-6 mm in diameter, bright red, usually with 3 pyrenes, rarely 2 pyrenes.
The flowering period of Cotoneaster horizontalis is May-June, and the fruiting period is September-October.
II. Ecological habits
Cotoneaster horizontalis likes a warm, humid, semi-shaded environment, tolerates dry and barren land, does not tolerate damp heat, has a certain cold resistance, and fears waterlogging.
How to grow Cotoneaster horizontalis bonsai
1. Management
The temperature in the shed is kept at about 28°C, and the humidity is kept above 90%. Water is sprayed once each at 8:00-9:00 and 16:00-17:00 every day, but the soil should not be overly wet; keeping the leaf surface moist is appropriate. To prevent fungal infection, spray once with 0.2% carbendazim solution on the 7th day after cutting for comprehensive disinfection. After 40 days, begin hardening the seedlings; after 5-6 days of hardening, they can be transplanted.
2. Humidity
It likes a humid or semi-dry climate environment, and requires the relative air humidity of the growing environment to be 50-70%. When the relative air humidity is too low, the lower leaves turn yellow and fall off, and the upper leaves lose their luster.
3. Temperature
Because Cotoneaster horizontalis originates from subtropical regions, it has very strict requirements for winter temperature, and stops growing when the ambient temperature is below 8°C.
4. Light
It has a relatively strong ability to adapt to light. When kept indoors for maintenance, place it in a place with bright light as much as possible. After maintaining it indoors for a period (about one month), move it to an outdoor place with shade (with heat-preservation conditions in winter) for maintenance for a period (about one month), and alternate in this way.
5. Fertilizer and water
For potted plants, besides adding organic fertilizer when potting, appropriate fertilizer and water management should also be carried out during ordinary maintenance. In the winter dormant period, the main task is to control fertilizer and water well, with an interval period of about 3-7 days; the interval is shorter on sunny days or during high temperatures, and longer or no watering on cloudy and rainy days or during low temperatures. For field-planted plants, in spring and summer, according to drought conditions, apply fertilizer and water 2-4 times: first dig a small ring trench 30-100 cm outside the root crown (the larger the plant, the farther from the root crown), with the trench width and depth both 20 cm. Sprinkle 25-50 jin of organic fertilizer into the trench, or 1-5 liang of granular compound fertilizer (chemical fertilizer), then water thoroughly. After winter begins and before spring arrives, apply fertilizer once more in the above manner, but do not water.
6. Pruning
In winter, when the plant enters dormancy or semi-dormancy, cut off weak, diseased and pest-infested, dead, and overly dense branches. Branch organization can also be combined with cuttings.
7. Repotting
As long as it is maintained properly, it will grow very quickly. When it grows to a certain size, consider giving it a larger pot so that it can continue to grow vigorously. For the potting soil and component proportions used for repotting, one of the following can be chosen: vegetable garden soil: furnace slag = 3:1; or garden soil: medium-coarse river sand: sawdust (mushroom residue) = 4:1:2; or one of paddy soil, pond mud, or leaf mold.
Place the flower to be repotted on the ground, first tap the sides of the pot lightly with the palm to make the root system vibrate and separate from the pot wall, then turn the flower pot upside down on the left hand, gently clamp the plant between the index finger and middle finger of the left hand, brace the wrist and fingertips against the pot rim, tap the bottom of the pot with the right hand, then use the thumb to push the root soil downward from the bottom hole, letting the plant come out. After it comes out, gently tap the pot soil with both palms to let excess soil fall off.
Choose a flower pot of an appropriate size. Cover the bottom hole of the pot with two pieces of tile or thin foam sheets, ensuring both that the pot soil is not washed out by water and that excess water can flow out in time. On top of the tile or foam, place a layer of ceramsite or crushed red brick as a drainage layer, about 2-3 cm thick. On the drainage layer, place organic fertilizer, about 1-3 cm thick. On the fertilizer, place a thin layer of substrate, about 2 cm thick, to separate the root system from the fertilizer. Finally, put the plant in, fill with nutrient soil, leaving about 2-3 cm from the pot rim.
Propagation methods of Cotoneaster horizontalis
Cotoneaster horizontalis is commonly propagated by cuttings and seeds. Cuttings can be taken in spring and summer, and softwood cuttings in summer have a high survival rate.
1. Seed propagation
Seeds are sown in autumn or stored in wet sand and sown in spring. Fresh seeds can be sown immediately after collection, while dry-stored seeds should be sown in early spring from January to February. Transplanting should be carried out in early spring, and large seedlings need to be moved with a soil ball.
2. Cutting propagation
Prepare in advance a cutting bed 2.0 m wide, 10 m long and 40 cm high. The bottom of the cutting bed is laid with a 20 cm thick layer of pumice, and the upper layer is laid with a 20 cm thick layer of fresh river sand, vermiculite or perlite as the cutting substrate. Use 0.3% carbendazim solution or 0.3% potassium permanganate solution to disinfect the substrate. Then set up an arched frame, cover with plastic film, and set up a shade net firmly. Water to keep the cutting substrate moist.
From mid-June to early July, select current-year semi-lignified, robustly growing, disease- and pest-free leafy softwood shoots with plump axillary buds, and cut them into 10-15 cm cuttings. When cutting the cuttings, the lower cut is made 0.5-1 cm below a leaf or axillary bud, and the upper cut is made 0.5-1 cm above a leaf or axillary bud; the terminal bud may also be retained. Keep 2-3 leaves on the upper part of each cutting. The upper cut is flat, and the lower cut is horse-ear shaped. The cuts should be smooth without cracking or torn bark. Put them into 0.3% carbendazim solution in time for disinfection. To prevent softwood shoots from wilting, it is best to collect cuttings in the morning or on cloudy and rainy days, and insert them as soon as they are collected.
Before cutting, in a place at room temperature without sunlight, dip the lower 2 cm of the cuttings quickly in 0.1% ABT No. 1 solution. To prevent injury to the base of the cuttings, use a wooden peg slightly thicker than the cutting to make the insertion hole before cutting. The plant spacing is 5-10 cm, and the insertion depth is 8-10 cm. Place the cuttings in and press firmly with the hand.
After cutting, callus tissue begins to form on the 15th day, adventitious roots begin to form on the 23rd day, and on the 30th day the callus formation rate is 99% and the rooting rate is 84%, with an average of 5-7 roots per plant and an average root length of 8.5 cm.