How to Name Landscape Bonsai? Sharing a Few Practical Naming Tips

  Bonsai differs from potted plants; the single word "landscape" elevates the entire art of horticultural creation to a higher level. The wonders of heaven and earth, the shadows of mountains and waters, a thousand miles within a foot - all are contained in the marvelous expression of this one pot and one handful of soil. Landscape bonsai are all displayed indoors, and can also be placed in garden corridors and under eaves; they must not be exposed to sunlight, nor rained on, and special care must be taken against wind, to prevent stones from toppling and pots from shattering.

  Naming a landscape bonsai is extremely important, yet also rather difficult. A vivid and apt title can set people's imaginations racing and make it all the more thought-provoking; it can tightly link the scene before one's eyes with its inner meaning, greatly raising the value of the bonsai.

  If you lack the artistic cultivation to be moved by the scene and recite poetry on the spot, you can quote some quatrains from ancient pastoral poetry to name your bonsai. "Guilin's landscape is the finest under heaven" seems too commonplace; when a mountain peak towers in the pot and a single leaf-like boat floats on the water, quoting Li Bai's "the light boat has already passed ten thousand mountains" gives the scene quite a profound artistic conception. When a huge rock juts out of the water and a low reef lies in the distance, with a temple placed on the rock, and the water surface is wide in front and broad behind, naming it with the four characters "Peng Lai in a Painting" is also quite apt. On the main mountain of a multi-peak bonsai, there is verdant green moss, and from the cliff a miniature five-needle pine in the waterside style leans out; at this point, naming it "The Spring Wind Greens the Southern Bank of the River" is also full of poetic charm.

  In short, our country's literary treasury holds an extremely rich store of poetry and vocabulary. You can buy a copy of Tang poetry as a reference and ponder it slowly; you will surely come to grasp some principles from it, and over time, vivid and apt bonsai titles will naturally emerge.