Detailed Explanation of the Methods and Steps for Making Plum Blossom Bonsai

  Plum blossoms are deeply loved and favored by many friends because of their unique charm, and in home life many people often carefully craft them into plum blossom bonsai so that they can stand alone as a scenic display for viewing, while also achieving the effect of bringing plum blossoms into the home environment, and their decorative effect should not be underestimated.

  Once made into bonsai, plum blossoms are not only vigorous and elegant, but also reveal a strong beauty of structure; they are both gracefully curvaceous and pleasantly fragrant. In particular, by using plum trunks through split-trunk or exposed-root techniques, and then matching them with purple clay antique-style pots of moderate size, while also adding peak stones and moss, even more natural pleasure will be added. So, how are plum blossom bonsai made?

  1. Choosing the Pot

  Considering aesthetics and permeability, the pots used for making plum blossom bonsai should preferably be purple clay ceramic pots or glazed ceramic pots. At the same time, considering that the plum tree's root system is widely and deeply distributed, there are certain requirements for pot depth, and it cannot be too shallow. If the plum trunk is in a slanting-trunk or curved-trunk style, it is suitable to use manger pots, round pots, square pots, polygonal pots, etc. of medium depth; if the plum trunk is in a cliff-hanging style, then tall cylindrical pots are mostly used.

  2. Preparing the Soil

  Plum blossoms have strong vitality and also strong adaptability to soil, so the requirements for potting soil are not very strict; loam that is fertile, loose, and has strong air and water permeability is sufficient. As a growing medium, some pond mud can be used in combination, and it is sufficient to mix 3-4 parts of frost-crumbled rice husk ash into the pond mud.

  3. Potting

  Plum blossoms can be potted in spring, but can also be done in autumn and winter. The best potting time should be selected during November-December each year. But before potting, the plum trunk can appropriately undergo a simple shaping and pruning treatment. At the same time, considering the needs of styling and momentum, the plum trunk should be planted at a slant when potting. Of course, when potting, sufficient base fertilizer also needs to be placed in the pot as bottom fertilizer, mostly mainly organic fertilizers such as livestock manure.

  4. Processing

  Before styling the plum trunk, we need to carry out appropriate pruning and branch training so as to facilitate shaping the tree form later; generally the method of "coarse wiring and fine pruning" is adopted. That is, when the main trunk part of the plum reaches 1 cm in diameter, it can be coiled and wired. In addition to the main trunk, side branches can also be appropriately coarse-wired using palm fiber or metal wire, and branches in other parts can be appropriately pruned.

  5. Styling

  In order to make the plum trunk show an antique, vigorous, elegant, and beautifully clear charming posture, people in ancient times had many standards of appreciation. But generally it is shaped into a state of "slanting and horizontal main trunk, with branches and leaves spread out," which can satisfy the aesthetic and artistic effect needed by the general public. However, the spreading of branches and leaves should not be made too sparse; rather, it should be "sparse within dense, dense within sparse, sparse and dense alternating, with sparse and dense appropriate," so that the plum blossom bonsai created can be full of poetic charm.