Bonsai Style: Group Planting, Tips & Care

There are four styles which look like group plantings. True group plantings are made up of all individual trees; bonsai landscaped, termed BONKEI, is an art form using bonsai to create landscapes; raft uses one continuous base upright multiple growth; and multiple trunk consists of several trunks arising from one root system.

True Group:

In both bonsai and horticulture practice, odd numbers are used for group plantings. You may if you wish use even numbers, but you will find odd numbers more effective when creating an informal group, rather than a rigid, straight lined, formal effect.

We are looking for an optical illusion and there are two ways of creating it.

1) Firstly there is the railway like effect; you may remember this from your art class back in high school, the width at the front appears to converge in the distance. To create this effect, you will need one large tree at the front of your group, behind which are trees of decreasing height.

2) The second effect yo can create is to place one very tall tree in the center, then plant from the center outward towards the rim of the pot with trees of decreasing height. The dish is an important factor in group planting, and many shapes and sizes are used, most of them very shallow. This also adds to the illusion.

Individual Tree Group:

First:

Choose a suitable pot or tray, but before preparing the mesh, gravel and compost, draw a diagram of your desired outcome. Then you can make a framework made up of either thin bamboo canes or thick training wire. This frame is used to tie the individual trees into the very shallow dish used for the group planting. By using such a frame, you are not restricted to  only placing the trees close to drainage holes which would otherwise be the only way to wire the groups into position.

Once you have made your frame, place it at the bottom of the pot and secure it with wire that is pushed through the drainage holes and the mesh.

Having done this, secure pieces of wire to the frame at the position where you will place your trees.

Then continue to fill the bottom of the dish with 6mm gravel as you would for re potting.

The trees used should have been chosen prior to planting for their size and shape, such as a tall, straight tree with a clean trunk, another smaller tree with its main growth of branches to the right and one with its branches to the left. If you have not already done so, draw a plan of how and where you will plant your trees, choosing a back and front also. Try as far as possible to show every tree trunk in the group.

Step Two

Once you have secured the mesh and covered it with gravel, lightly cover the gravel with compost as for normal re potting. Place your trees in the same position as shown on your plan and tie in each tree with the wire that has been secured to the frame.

Cover the root systems with compost, then carefully work the compost down into the root area whit a chopstick. Remember the important of mixing the compost into the root system should now have the beginnings of a group  planting. The after care, pruning and wiring is basically the same as for an individual tree, except that the shape of the tree should blend with the rest of the group.

RAFT:

The raft is basically one long trunk placed its side, thus allowing the side branches to grow either as individual trees if creating a group effect of a multiple trunk with a long woody base, or to give the illusion of a fallen tree that is still growing. There are two ways to produce a raft, firstly by pot growing and secondly by layering.

Step one:

Find a pot grown seedling; choose the side which is to produce the growth and prune all the branches from the opposite side, or as we term  it the "underside". The pot is then laid on its side and secured to the bench with the growth area facing toward the light.

Remember to tilt the pot on an angle and cut away part of the pot to allow for watering.

Step Two:

Now think through the design and individual tree or branch shapes you  wish to create, and draw a plan to use for future reference. For the next growing season, leave the pot tied to the bench and continue to train the raft into the desired shapes. During the spring of the following year, remove a small section of the under side of the main trunk.Cover these sections with a rooting hormone and transplant into a long, deep tray with 6mm gravel placed at the bottom, then covered with compost

Step Three:

Do not root prune for the next three or four years. Remove some of the compost from the surface and replace with fresh compost. Continue to train the top section of the raft and feed after the first month but remember to use a compost low in nutrients and therefore feeding is a very important factor. Water as you would for normal  bonsai. During the spring of the fourth year, remove from the seed tray, root prune and transplant into a long bonsai dish.

MULTIPLE TRUNK:

This formation is a tree with several trunks extending from the root base. Odd numbers will give the best results. Each trunk is treated as an individual but at the same time the top growth should blend together as one unit.

Thanks Dave Pike.

How to fertilize your Orhids!!! (Videos)

Hybridization of Orchids

When the Horticultural Society of London (now the RHS) was founded in 1809, it soon began to organize flower exhibitions and competitions with prizes and awards that in due course were nationally an internationally recognized. They played an influential role in the growth of the orchid craze which swept England and continental Europe in the latter half of the century. Awards were often  based on the strange and novel character of these flowers introduced from overseas' and before hybrids made their appearance, they were given to individual species.

When, in 1856 John Dominy introduced the first horticultural hybrid ever obtained by orchid growers, the Calanthe Dominyie, it received the highest award then available. This first hybrid plan, and those which followed, were judged both for their unusual character, which completely upset contemporary attempts at classification, and for the horticultural skill displayed in their cultivation. Their intrinsic qualities were far removed from those recognized today.

Thanks to increasingly successful research into the methods of raising orchids from seed, and following the work of Bernard and Knudsen, crosses became ever more frequent. Uniform tendencies appeared and aesthetic criteria for hybrid (or cultivated) orchids were imposed. Overall forms, mixed and contrasting colours, size of flower, surface proportions of sepals and petals, structure of lip, dimension and shape of tendrils in Phalaenopsis species...these are some of the important criteria by which orchids are nowadays judged.

Apart from purely floral standards, growers also concentrate on other aspects: the harmonious distribution of flowers on the stem, mainly with a view to display, handling and transport by specialized florists, proflific flowering, strength of stem, capable of bearing a large number of flowers without support (often a problem with Cymbidium); flowering season, etc.

Some growers and orchid lovers talk to "creating" new hybrids, but this is really a misuse of language. The term "obtaining" is surely more apt for what is, after all, only a rearrangement of genes, the results of a cross which could not have occurred in nature, given the following insuperable barriers:

• Spatial isolation: separate ecological niches for species
• Temporal isolation: species flowering at different times
• Mechanical incompatibilities: e.g. pollinia too large for dimensions of stigma
• Physiological incompatibilities: only those species not too dissimilar will lend themselves to hybridization.  If the relationships (phlogenetic affinities) are weak, fertilization cannot take place or the seed will not attain maturity.

During the 1940's Carl Withner, taking a lead from methods already used for other plants, overcame this barrier in successful experiments involving the aseptic development of immature seeds, this immaturity being compatible in vitro with normal embryonic development, even though there was no natural development of the seed within the capsule. He thus made it possible to obtain hybrids from two genera markedly removed from each other (e.g. Vanda and Phalaenopsis) and opened the way to a new era in orchid cultivation.

At present, important research on orchid genetics is taking place in many countries. The main difficulty is that there is still no way of growing or multiplying a plant cell in isolation from its membrane (protoplast).

Thanks again Jean Parisot.

Naming the orchids

Since Linnaeus and his binomial system of nomenclature, the habit has been to describe living things by two Latin terms, one being the name of the genus, the other of the species.
But nomenclature is much more than just giving an organism a label: there has to be a large amount of additional information to the chosen name:

• Reference to the common features of all plants of the same genus;
• Recognition of a sufficiently large difference between two specimens to justify the attribution of two different specific names;
• Position of the named plant within its classification, theories as to its origins and its phylogenetic affinities with plants of the same group.

Nomenclature thus reflects, to a large extent, up to date knowledge of the plants in question. This is why published works of botanists often include changes of name, although these are not accepted by orchid lovers, who tend to be creatures of habit.

The rules of nomenclature are extremely precise, being codified by the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature (ICBN). According to the code, plants are given botanical names designed to define their place within the general classification. The following special endings are used to indicate the particular group or taxo concerned:

TAXON            ENDING                    EXAMPLES

Order                 -ales                   Orchidales

Familiy               -aceae                 Orchidaceae

Subfamily           -oideae                Orchidoideae

Tribe                  -eae                    Epidendreae

Subtribe              -inae                   Coelogyninae

The Latin name of the genus is always written with a capital initial letter and the name of the species with a small initial letters. Both are set in italics. The generic and specific nomenclature is usually followed by the name of the author who first described or observed it (set in roman and often abbreviated) (e.g. Coelogyne mooreana Rolfe)

When a specie originally described in one genus is, after subsequent investigation, transferred to another genus, the first author is mentioned in parentheses, e.g. Paphipedilum insigne (Lindley) Pfitz.

The genus and species may be followed by the name of the variety, e.g. Chysis bractescens var. aurea.

The nomenclature of horticultural hybrid orchids is likewise subject to complex rules governed by the International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants. They are described by three names; thus, for example, for the cultivar Sophrolaeliocattleya Jewel Box "Sheherazade", Sophrolaeliocattleya is the name of the genus (a combination of the generic name of both parents), Jewel Box is the grex epithet and
Sheherazade" is the cultivar epithet.

Classification of Orchids

Every system of classification should reflect a natural order, but in the case of orchids, the situation is unbelievably complicated.
So, How is it possible, by observing and studying the 25000 (yes you read well, 25 thousand) species of orchids that exist worldwide, to form any idea as to how they have evolved and become differentiated in the course of time?
What criteria can be used to group them in such a way as to take into account their potential genetic affinities?
Little wonder that botanists have come up against such a wealth of complex problems in their attempts to formulate a coherent classification.
The task of the taxonomists, the specialists in classification, is all the more difficult because there are extremely few orchid fossils, since for various reasons these plants are highly unsuited to fossil formation. The existence of such fossils would, needles to say, have been invaluable for establishing a so called natural classification, based on archaic forms that an understanding of the genetic affinities of modern forms, Unfortunately, the most ancient orchid fossil dates back no more than 12 million years, all too little in relation to present day notions as to the origins of the species, but too much in the context of ideas prevailing 20-30 years ago.
Orchids in fact, are plants which are still in an active phase of evolution, as indicated by a multitude of species, that are often capable of being hybridized. This might suggest that it is an extremely young family which appeared on  Earth only about 2 million years ago.
This, presents a paradox that must lead us to reconsider many of our conceptions relating to the organization of living things.
In fact, orchids are a very ancient and at the same time, evolutive family. As a result, it is the most diversified of all families of flowering plants.
After a good deal of trial and error, it ow transpires that the most reliable cirteria, for example which best reveal the relationship between species and genera, are the structural features of the sexual organs (anthers and pollinia) and hence, in the case of orchids, the structure of the column, the pollinia, the viscidium and the stigma. Linnaeus, in the early 1800's deserves credit for having underlined the merit of this method of classification.
More recently, the examination of embryonic forms has emerged as an excellent taxonomic criterion (Yvonne Veyret), in accord with the ideas of other authors who have based their classification on macroscopic criteria.
However, one of the most decisive criteria is still the study of chromosomes, particularly their numbers.

Many others criteria may also be utilized as a possible reference for classification, such as the form, function or structure of this or that vegetative or floral organ. But their value is, in most cases, merely complementary. It has often happened, indeed, that the same characteristic will have appeared at different moments in the evolution of different subfamilies or distinct tribes.
This seems to be the case of epihytism but also of numerous other features.
Although, to some, orchid classification may seem a fruitless exercise, the purely intellectual pursuit of grouping plants with common origins and characteristics is in itself rewarding, while for growers the value is immense.  Close relationship points to the existence of close inherited genetic traits and thus important possibilities for hybridization. Moreover, although there are many exceptions, close relationship of them implies common cultural needs.




Dressler's Classification:


Among the principal authoritites in the classifcation fo orchids over the years are John Lindley (1860), Rudolf Schlechter (1926), Robert Dressler (1974) and Peter Hunt (1978). Although all classifications proposed to this day remain the subject of debate and controversy, the one referred to most frequently is that of Robert Dressler.
His method of classification distinguises the following categories of groups or subsidediary groups (taxons):

• Subfamilies (total of 6)
• Tribes
• Subtribes
• Genera
• Species
• Varieties

Much controversy has surrounded this classification and different authors have challenged it on particular points:

• Should one subfamily or part of the subfamily be included in another? Or should 2 subfamilies be grouped to make a third one? (thus, Garay's classification takes a part of the Orchidoideae, a part of the Epidendroideae and the Spiranthoideae to make up the single subfamily Nettioideae
• Should 2 or 3 closely related genera be combined in a single one? (as it happens with Bulbophyllum and Cirrhopetallum)
• Should a variety become a distinct species?
• Should a genus be broken up?

These dscussions are often superficial, not to say irritatin, because they sometimes give impression that, in nature, such precise limitationds and catergories do not exist. But they do have the merit, in many instances, of furthering knowledge of orchids whilst enabling botanists themselves to establish their own rudiments of classification according to their personal preconceived ideas; broadly speaking, they go for lumping or splitting.

It is now generally believed that the orchids became differentiated about 120 million years ago, deriving from the ancestral order Liliales. Of these the Cypripedioideae and above all, the Apostasioideae (an archaic form of orchid) whould seem to be closely related, at least with regard of the structure of the column (2 fertile staments in the Cypripedioideae and 3 in the Apostaisioideae).
According to Dressler, there are 4 subfamilies of orchids characterized by the presence of one fertile stamen, with pollen clustered in masses of pollinia; the structure of the pollinia and of the column distinguishes between these subfamilies:

• Orchidoideae: One anther joined to the column, pollinia divided into packets and linked to a viscidium. These plants are almost exclusively terrestrial.
• Spiranthoideae: The stamen is affixed to the rear of the column; the pollinia are soft and friable; the viscidium is anterior. These plants are also almost always terrestrial.
• Epidendroideae: the stamen is protected by an easily lifted operculum; the pollinia are waxy in texture, with an adherent part but no viscidiu. These plants are either epiphytic or terrestrial.
• Vandoideae: the stamens are protected by an operculum, the pollinia are attached to one or two hard viscidia. These plants are almost exclusively epiphytes.

By taking into account many other features of both, the plant and flower apparatus, the 4 subfamilies are divided into 21 tribes:

• Subfamily Spiranthoideae: 

Subfamily Epidendroideae:

1. tribe Erythrodeae
2. tribe Cranichideae

• Subfamily Orchidoideae:

1. tribe Neottieae
2. tribe Diurideae
3. tribe Orchideae
4. tribe Diseae

• Anomalous tribes

1. tribe Triphoreae
2. tribe Wullschlaegeliae

• Subfamily Epidendroideae:

1. tribe Vanilleae
2. tribe Gastrodieae

• Tribe Epipogiaeae

1. tribe Arethuseae
2. tribe Coelogyneae
3. tribe Malaxideae
4. tribe Cryptarrheneae
5. tribe Calypsoeae
6. tribe Epidendreae

• Subfamily Vandoideae:

1. tribe Polystachyeae
2. tribe Vandeae
3. tribe Maxillarieae
4. tribe Cymbidieae

Enough for today right? too much information in only one post...

Thanks to Gerald Leroy-Terquem & Jean Parisot for this wonderful learning material.