Ginkgo Bonsai Has Elegant Leaf Shapes; Learn the Care and Styling to Make It Even More Charming

Ginkgo bonsai is an ornamental bonsai cultivated and created using the ginkgo tree as material. Ginkgo is an ancient relict tree species, with an upright tree form and very distinctive fan-shaped leaves; it is verdant green in spring and summer and turns golden yellow in autumn, offering something to admire in every season, and it has long been deeply loved by bonsai enthusiasts. It has quite a few advantages: a long lifespan, strong resistance, a well-developed root system that tolerates pruning, and branches and trunks that are easy to shape into a vigorous, ancient-looking posture. An old-trunk ginkgo bonsai has powerful, forceful branches and trunks, with leaves layered and spreading out, and intense autumn color; it retains both the weathered feel of a stump bonsai and the brilliance of a colored-leaf tree species, giving it very high ornamental value. To make a ginkgo bonsai, you can sow seeds to grow seedlings, or buy young plants to cultivate, and if conditions allow, you can also dig up old stumps and transform them. For daily care, place it in a spot with ample light; ginkgo likes sun, and insufficient light easily leads to leggy growth and loss of shape. Water according to the principle of watering when dry and letting it dry out between waterings; supplement fertilizer appropriately during the growing season, and the leaves will turn color even more beautifully in autumn. Pruning is mainly done during the dormant period, cutting off crossing branches and leggy branches, then combined with wiring to adjust the direction of the branches; repot once every two to three years. It should be noted that ginkgo does not grow very fast, so shaping requires patience; only through year-by-year wiring and pruning can you develop an ideal plant form. Normally keep the environment well ventilated and avoid long periods of stuffy humidity that can cause leaf diseases. As long as it is managed properly, a pot of ginkgo bonsai can accompany the family for many years, becoming more charming the longer it is grown.