Would you like to have in your flowerpot a 40 cm high oak tree, which may be older than you?

Of course, only the Japanese art of bonsai would allow you that...

The most appreciated bonsai are those made with an azalea species (Rhododendron) (photo above), which in May can be completely covered by flowers. Grafting may permit the existence on the same bonsai of varied colored flowers.

Bonsai lovers or cultivators number reaches between 10 and 20 million in Japan alone.

A great variety of coniferous and deciduous trees like pine, yew, juniper, holly, beech, maple, but also fruit trees like plum and apple, Japanese varieties, can be grown as bonsai.

To achieve dwarf trees, first the experts put the seeds in very small pots. They germinate and are left in these pots till their numerous roots embrace all the soil, depleting it of mineral salts. After that, the seedling is transplanted to a little larger pot with a very small amount of soil. The action is repeated several times in progressing to larger pots till the final pot. The reason of moving the plant from one pot to another is to accustom the plant to a low metabolism, which does not allow it a normal growth, and the plant remains underdeveloped, dwarf.

This type of feeding makes it to grow slowly, the trunk and the branches barely grow as the root system is underdeveloped. But growing bonsai does not limit to dwarfing the trees: the trunk and the branches can be modeled, too.

They can be forced to grow in any direction, to spin, to fold in different planes; the tree can be turned spherical, ovoid, conic, pyramidal, and so on. Some branches are underdeveloped or removed, other can be cut in order to be replaced by others regenerating from near-by.

Some tree species are very docile, like the conifers, while the dycotiledon trees are more rebel: a cut branch regenerates another. Those who grow bonsai must have a lot of patience. Sometimes, instead of cutting branches, they slowly atrophy them.

Bonsai art have reached such a level that experienced growers can obtain from the trees human faces, animal, diverse objects, and even animal or human caricatures.