Guide on Caring for your Bonsai

This guide will help you to care for your bonsai and keep it happy for the years ahead. Look out in-store and around the outdoor plant area for both our indoor and outdoor bonsai species.

Indoor or Outdoor?

Indoor varieties are mainly tropical or sub-tropical trees which benefit from being kept warm throughout the year. They can be kept indoors in a window position with natural light (avoid full summer sun as this will scorch the tree). Minimum recommended temperature is around 10 degrees centigrade. Make sure you don’t trap your bonsai behind curtains during the winter months. They will benefit from being placed outside for periods during the summer.

Sub-tropical trees are reasonably hardy and can be kept indoors and outdoors, but they must be protected from frosts during winter. They will benefit from being placed outside in summer and when indoors, in a cool, light position.

Outdoor varieties are hardy outdoor trees that must be kept outside all year, except during the worst winter freezes, when they are best kept in a cold greenhouse or porch.

CARING FOR YOUR BONSAI

Humidity

When a bonsai is kept indoors the atmosphere is often too dry. To create ideal conditions, mist the foliage daily and keep the tree standing on a humidity tray. The tray should be filled with gravel which is kept moist, though the bonsai pot should not be standing in water. As the water evaporates it creates a humid microclimate around the bonsai tree.

Do not keep your bonsai on a TV or near a gas fire – this will be too and dry.

Watering

Check you bonsai daily. It should be watered when the soil is becoming dry.

Immersing your bonsai – this technique is the most effective way to water your indoor tree. Stand the bonsai in a tray of tepid water up to the rim of the pot to that the water may be drawn through the drainage holes underneath the pot. Leave until the compost is completely soaked. This may take up to 20 minutes. Drain off excess water.

The soil should be allowed to become a little drier before being immersed again, but not to the point where the leaves begin to wilt. If the soil is dry and dusty to the touch, now is the time to water again. However, if the soil underneath the surface is still damp, then do not water yet. Remember not to let the compost be continually soggy, as the roots will rot.

Feeding

Feed your bonsai every 7-10 days during the growing period, which is usually April to October. Do not feed a tree in flower. Feed with a

If you have re-potted your bonsai, leave 4-5 weeks before feeding again.

Maintaining & Training

Maintaining and developing your tree can be done in two ways:

Leaf-pruning – Using bonsai pruning scissors or leaf cutters, prune new growth regularly in the growing season to maintain the desired shape. Allow shoots to develop 4-6 new leaves then cut back to 2. New growth on conifer varieties should be pinched out using a twisting movement between the thumb and forefinger.

Wiring – Using specialist bonsai training wire, the style of your bonsai can be developed by shaping the branches into the desired position. Do this, by coiling an appropriate thickness wire around the branch, bend the two together and the wire will hold the branch in position. After a suitable period the wire can be removed using wire cutters. The branch will remain in place. Always remember to remove the wire before it starts to cut into the bark.

Watering your bonsai

Leaf Pruning

Wiring branches to train to the desired shape

Re-Potting

Periodic re-potting is required to maintain the health of your bonsai. If the roots become visible all around the root ball then it is time to re-pot. Spring is the ideal time, just before the start of the growing season.

First, choose yourself a slightly larger pot than your existing one, then…

Carefully ease the tree from its pot
Loosen the compost from the edge of the root ball
Comb out the roots and trim back by 20-25%
Cover the drainage holes of the pot with mesh
Thread wire through the drainage holes and mesh (to secure the tree firmly in the pot)
Place the tree into its new pot with fresh compost and secure it with the threaded wire
Water well
Allow the roots to recover for 4-5 weeks before starting to feed.