Bonsai How The Called Good

By: Robert Stevens

Not all plants that we arbitrarily established and planted in pots can be called as a bonsai. A good Bonsai should meet some basic criteria, and bonsai as beautiful as anything if not accompanied by the appropriate container, it can not called as a good bonsai.

There are still many people who think that a good bonsai dwarf trees that formed just a neat and planted in pots, but to make a good bonsai work, many other disciplines who have under our control including knowledge of aesthetics of art, the science of botany including plant physiology and morphology and flair to observe natural phenomena.

A bonsai works great if it can be said to satisfy three basic requirements are: the beauty of artistic, horticultural law and implied meanings. We can form a tree full of keroposan on the trunk and we are planting in pots pelastik with horizontal position with perantingan and perdaunan the mess with a theme message in the wild old tree that collapsed due to wind storm. The work is quite significant, but if not beautiful, it can not be called a bonsai container especially cropping is not necessarily appropriate. We can also create a group of trees of various species of plants with arbitrary configuration and embedded in a beautiful ceramic pot. Work trsebut quite meaningful and reflect the real natural phenomena according to the law of horticulture, but can not be called a work of a good bonsai because of its configuration is not beautiful and harmonious. So the conclusion is that artistic beauty is an absolute requirement that must be met in a work of bonsai and horticulture law, although perhaps not too subtle message meaning.

Artistic beauty of the absolute tree juxtaposed with the container planting as appropriate; without harmoniously integrated combination of tree with container planting, the work is still yet to be said as a work of great bonsai!

What is meant by the law of horticulture in the art of bonsai, there are three aspects: the basic character of species, aspects of environmental conditions and factors which atmospheric nature.

Each type of plant has its own character and basic shapes, for instance different from the tamarind tree kapok tree, cypress acasia different from shrimp, but the same types of plants can be changed shape due to different environmental conditions in which the tree grows. Banyan tree that grows in the open field will be different shapes with banyan trees growing on the riverbank, the tree that grows in the hills wahong differently shaped stone with wahong that grows in the lowlands. This can be caused by factors of water sources, soil conditions and the direction of sunlight and others. In addition to the environmental conditions mentioned above, the shape of a tree can also be caused by interference from outside, for example due to lightning in sambar, a result of diseases, disorders of the human or animal, exposure to waves, wind or snow, so the shape of pine trees that grow in tropical mountains is different from pine which grows in the mountains of Huangshan in China.

There are other things which resulted in a very fundamental difference in character and shape of the tree and the morphological aspects of plant physiology. The second aspect is the sub-disciplines of botany that studies plant physiology and all aspects that affect tree growth form. Needle leaved tree species have the physiological and morphological aspects of different types of broad-leaf trees, that's why pine or fir tree has a character of anatomy and basic shape is very different from the banyan tree from the trunk line to the line ramifications.  

Knowledge is very important for artists in order to form a bonsai bonsai closer to the reality of nature so that the character and nuances generated will be more relevant. Although the extent of plant species is not an important factor in shaping a bonsai design, but we should avoid designing bonsai species with wide leaves form a needle leaved tree species because both species have a completely different character. For example, it would be strange if we like the character design Beringan bonsai pine with liukan and keringannya; or rather we design bonsai pine tree-like acasia.

In fact, these errors often occur, especially in the way of forming branching and perantingan. This is caused because most of us learn the art of bonsai from the Japanese book that most of the examples of needle leaved tree species or type of maple tree whose features vary with acid; so that we filter design all our trees with trunks and branches twist like pine or neat round like shape maple trees. Fundamental error, which eliminates the character of tropical trees we except a few kinds of trees that did have such a unique basic character and wahong santigi sea.

The more we learn discipline, especially relating to the aesthetics of art and botany, will be widened our horizons so that our ability to design a bonsai work will increase, which will eventually be able to bring bonsai work closer to natural phenomena, spirited, nuanced artistic beauty with the content of implicit meaning as a work of art, not crafts assessed only neatness and level of difficulty of manufacture. 

Make a beautiful bonsai work, reflecting the natural phenomena that are relevant

with the meaning of the soul ... and most importantly,

A good bonsai work can not be separated from the three main elements

ie trees, container and pallet.

(One of the basic concepts Penjing: Shu Yi - Er Pen - San Ji Jia)

Good work!