Bonsai Project: Kickoff

Bonsai (Japanese: 盆栽, literally "tray planting") is the Japanese art of growing and training miniature trees in pots, developed from the traditional Chinese art form of penjing. Unlike penjing, which utilizes traditional techniques to produce entirely natural scenery in small pots that mimic the grandiose shapes of real life scenery, the Japanese "bonsai" only attempts to produce small tress that mimic the shape of real life trees.

Several years ago, my wife gave me a bonsai starter kit. I think that she thought that this was perhaps a good stress relief activity for me along with getting me involved in an activity related to her Japanese culture. I was quite excited when I first got the kit. I even ordered a set of four bonsai pots to which I could eventually transplant the seedlings.

Unfortunately, I never got around to planting the seeds. When I first read the instructions that came with the kit, they contained a Darwinian approach that I wasn't too keen on: for each of the four varieties of seed provided, plant five each and then "weed out" the weaker seedlings. Ugh... I don't like killing things, even sickly tree seedlings. I just want to let all of them live out their lives. I know though that this isn't the right approach to developing and training a strong bonsai for the long run. Yet, I still hesitated.

During the current Christmas vacation season, I decided to pull out the bonsai kit and give it a go with my kids. So, we started our little "bonsai project". In total we have four pots containing the seeds of four different varieties of trees:

• Jacaranda Mimosifolia
• Pinus Aristata
• Picea Mariana
• Ficus Relgiosa

Whether or not the seeds are still good and will eventually germinate is uncertain. I cannot recall how long I've been hanging onto this kit - perhaps three to five years. The seeds apparently take between four to eight weeks to germinate so we're going to have a bit of a wait before we potentially see any plants emerging from the soil. Even if we can get a few seedlings, I will consider this project off to a good start.

Assuming that we get some seedlings going and they survive, I will continue to update on this blog their growth and our progress in shaping them over the next few years. Hopefully this will turn out to be a great project for myself and the kids to start off what will hopefully be a great year in 2023!