The Bonsai Collection

Bonsai is a more than 1000-year-old Japanese art form that involves growing living images of trees in pots. Most bonsai are between 25 and 90 cm tall, and is a highly refined art form in Japan. Here it is an artistic expression on a par with theater and music.

The trees are common trees such as oak, beech and pine, which can be used for bonsai, and the trees are outside all year round. However, protection during the wettest and coldest winter months is necessary. In the summer heat, the trees require daily watering to prevent them from drying out and dying. They must also be cared for with pruning, pinching and lacing to maintain the appearance of the large tree in nature.

It takes a long time to create a bonsai from scratch, but it is also not important whether the tree is finished in this life. The perspective is that a bonsai is not finished until the next generation. However, you can create good bonsai in between 5 – 20 years from material collected from nature. In Japanese it is called Yamadori.

Is it difficult?
It would be a mistake to say that it is easy. The cultivation of a bonsai requires good insight into the tree's living conditions, and a certain artistic sense and patience. Here it is almost a special prerequisite for success in growing bonsai that you are more interested in the process than in the final result.

Techniques
The trees are pruned with special tools and laced to shape them in the image of a tree in nature. Different techniques are used depending on the type of tree and how it is being developed.

The bowl
An equally important part of the whole of a bonsai is the use of the bowl. This is an important part of the image you want to create with the tree, just like the frame is in a painting. So it is no wonder that bonsai means “tree in a bowl”.

All bonsai in Bangsbo Botanical Garden are donated by Connie and Orla Pedersen, Hedensted, and the Bonsai House is donated by the Friends of the Botanical Garden.