What is and is not Bonsai （盆栽）?

 

When I was little, my parents used to have close to 100 bonsai plants, almost all of them were azaleas. I thought Bonsai was a hobby among old people, and never paid attention to what my parents were doing.  

So when I started to do some research about Bonsai on the web, I was surprised to encounter two young men who are so passionate about Bonsai.

First, let me introduce to you a website called Bonsai Empire. According to its About page, this website was created by Oscar in 2000 when he was 15 years old. The website became so popular that now it is translated into 12 other languages!

In a movie that he created, Oscar describes what is and what is not Bonsai.

"Bonsai is a combination of techniques in order to grow styled tree with a goal to miniaturize it.... Bonsai is Not a genetically dwarf plant, nor a tree species. In fact, any tree species can be used to grow bonsai plant."

"Bonsai （盆栽）literally means a plant in a shallow container in Japanese."

"The ultimate goal of a bonsai is to create a realistic depiction of nature. The smaller the tree gets, the more abstract the image becomes."

Thank you, Oscar, for your clear description of Bonsai.

Here is his video. Enjoy!