Bonsai Basics

Bonsai trees are a beautiful addition to a plant collection and a popular gift. Bonsai masters spend years refining prized trees and a mature bonsai tree can be worth over £1000.
Fortunatley for us, Bonsai masters need to make a living, and now, many garden centres stock ready made bonsai trees. These may be between 5 and 10 years old, and how much you pay will often dictate the quality with lower priced trees often being untrained plants at less than a year old.
But by no means write it off as an expensive hobby. Bonsai enthusiasts say thay the person who still has their first tree is rare. As with any plant, the care of these little trees can be trial and error. Even if you plan only to admire the beauty the tree already has, there are still a few techniques required to mantian it.
If you were given a Bonsai as a gift, chances are it'll have a layer of stones glued over the soil. Remove these. they will stop the soil from getting water and allow it to harbour pests.
When you bring any plant home from the garden centre, it will take a month or two to acclimatise to your home. Even an evergreen will drop a few leaves at first, so don't worry about this. Just get into a routine of watering and feeding the plant regularly.
First of all, give the soil a good soak as soon as you bring the plant home. There's no need to submerge the pot in water, just a mug or two of water over the soil in the pot. Then forget watering for a few days. Over watering is a bigger killer of houseplants than underwatering. In the words of many an expert; Just leave it.
After a few days, test the soil with your finger to see if it's still moist. If it is, there's no need to water. If not, give the plant a little water (not too much, though).
Don't even think about fertilising for at least a month, and then, only in Summer.
The best indoor Bonsai are derivatives of the Ficus or rubber plant. These are tropical plants from hot, humid environments, so will probably thank you for a daily misting of the leaves. All that's needed is a spray bottle of water and a few squirts to make sure all the leaves get some moisture.
Non tropical trees - such as Juniper, Maple and pine don't do well indoors. The air will be too warm and dry for them. If you have one of these, keep it in the garden unless a frosty night threatens to kill the plant.
If you plan to work on the tree at all, leave it alone for at least six months before you start and then another six months between each treatment. Unfortunatley, Bonsai is not the hobby for you if you like instant results. Any living thing will take time to recover after any treatments ant trees are just the same.
The most basic treatment is pruning. To prune correctly you must find out the type of plant your bonsai is and research when the best times are to prune old and new season growth. Generally, new growth is pruned during the growing season to maintain the shape of the bonsai, whilst pruning of hard wood (old season growth) is done in mid-autumn.
One of the main forms of pruning for bonsai, especially evergreen coniferous bonsai such as junipers and cedars is 'finger pruning'. This involves pinching back new growth which does not come within the general shape of the bonsai or is at the top of the bonsai - helping to encourage bushy foliage and a more tree-like looking bonsai. To do this, take the growth between your thumb and forefinger whilst holding the branch with your other hand and remove with a twisting movement. This is better than trimming the growth with scissors, this leaves an unnatural look and leaves the foliage an unsightly brown.
Bonsai is an art that has been around for thousands of years and it's impossible to even scratch the surface in one article. Fortunately, there are hundreds of specialist sites devoted to bonsai on the internet and evn clubs devoted to the art.