If you've mastered the art of gardening and turned your backyard into a lush utopia, why not take on a new challenge? The ancient Japanese art of bonsai is a challenging but beautiful and rewarding experience once perfected. A railing planter box is the perfect way to display your beautiful bonsai trees on your patio. This is because bonsais are meant to be housed in confined spaces. The term bonsai consists of two separate Japanese words. "Bon" means tray, while "Sai" means growing. And keeping them outside on your deck gives them natural sunlight and moisture.
What are bonsai trees?
Many people think that bonsais are their own unique series of miniature plant species, but this isn't so. Rather, it encompasses many different species of trees and plants, but ones that are miniaturized and fit neatly into a railing planter box. In theory, any large enough plant can be transformed into a bonsai, but this can be quite a task, and many plants have specific space and root needs. Some plants that are better suited to the practice include evergreens such as Pine, Azalea, Pomegranate, Cypress, Fig, Serissa, and Cedar. On the other hand, many deciduous trees also work well for this purpose, like Maple, Cherry, Zelkova and Beech.
Seeds
To begin your new hobby, you will first need to purchase seeds. Bonsai seeds and tree seeds are one in the same. If left unattended, your tree seed would grow normally into a full-sized tree. It's the cultivating techniques that make a bonsai tree what it is. These techniques include the following: leaf trimming, pruning, wiring, clamping, grafting, defoliation and deadwood, all of which can be done right in the railing planter box.
Location
Positioning your railing planter box can be limiting if you're sticking to the confines of your deck railings. However, you can also place most models of planter boxes on the ground or around your deck, not just on the railings themselves. As a rule of thumb, bonsai trees should be positioned away from direct sunlight. They should also be exposed to a good amount of air circulation and a moderate amount of humidity. Remember to also place your planters somewhere that you can get to them easily for watering and pruning.
Styles
The two basic schools of design in bonsai making are Classic (koten) and Informal (Bunjin). In the classic style, the trunk of trees are bigger at the base and taper towards the top, whereas with informal style it's just the opposite, though this is more difficult to get right. But either style will fit nicely into a railing planter box, or you can mix and match. From there, the main styles are further divided into five designing subcategories defined as formal upright, informal upright, semi-cascade, cascade and slanting, or windswept.
Tools
The tools you will use for cultivating your bonsais are in some ways similar to regular gardening tools, especially hand tools. Oftentimes, your regular gardening hand tools can be implemented for this purpose, but other times the delicate and miniature nature of the cultivation often requires specialized equipment. A few of the tools you might want to pick up beforehand include pliers, root cutters, shears, soil sieves, branch bender, trunk splitters and tweezers.
Accessorizing
If the few bonsai trees in your railing planter box look somewhat barren, you can add to it by growing some moss or creeping ivies down the side of your deck. Just remember not to overcrowd too many things into your planter, as some species will naturally thrive while others will suffer trying to get to the same water.
Tonya Kerniva is an experienced research and free lance writing professional. She writes actively about Railing Planter Box and Window Planters.
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