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Special Techniques of Bonsai (Part 1): SAIKEI

Saikei (pronounced "Sigh-kay") , is a form of bonsai in which trained plant specimens are brought together in a realistic, proportionate interpretation of a landscape. Although it sounds simple, several horticultural skills are involved, all of which must work together to create a natural scene.
As far as plants are concerned, some of the smallest and youngest, bonsai material can be used in saikei. Distinctive, and with some unique properties of their own, these plants can be the small, imperfect,  material frequently rejected for traditional bonsai. They can be so small that ones reserved for mame bonsai can be used. Even seedlings, which are far from aged and branched, are appropriate.

Another distinct difference between Saikei and the more familiar forms of bonsai is that the use of a variety of plants in one setting is more the norm than the exception.  Since saikei is an attempt to translate a brad natural scene into miniature terms, the realistic use of different varieties of plants is necessary.  However, saikei is not confined to the use of multiple plants, and there are justifiably famous examples which use a single, well grown plant in the finished landscape.


The bonsai is planted in a tree stump, chosen, as in a rock planting, for its aesthetic qualities and to complement the other plants. Providing enough water is the biggest problem, but it can be partly solved by placing the planting in a pond in the garden.


It is important with saikei to use plants that require the same conditions. Without cultural similarities, the job of maintaining the health of the landscape can be an overwhelming, if not impossible, chore.
Involved in saikei too are the rocks, sand, shrubs, and accompanying plants common to both woodland and shore; in fact all the natural phenomena, streams, rivers, fallen trees, beaches, craggy outercroppings or ledges, waterfalls, ponds, marshes, and glades, can be captured in saikei.
Your task is to combine all these elements with the trees, shrubs mosses, and lichens into a harmonious whole, using material that will live together in one container.

The language used in saikei is the same as in traditional bonsai: the formal and informal, windswept and cascade styles are used; the scale and proportion of plants to each other and to the rock or rocks (it is not essential to use any rocks in a saikei composition and there well known examples in the bonsai world that do not; most, however, do feature one or more) is vital; and a harmonious overall effect is the goal.


In choosing rocks suitable for planting, look not only for distinctive, craggy rocks but also for those that have a meandering thread of white or beige coursing down their faces, to resemble a waterfall or stream.  Keep a sharp eye out for a stone that loos like a hillside undulating downward in terrace after terrace, or a craggy rock with a generous plateau that could represent the meadow below a precipice in your final picture.  Use whatever the rock can offer you as a head start toward realism.

Remember to turn your bonsai periodically so that the plant can grow evenly and have enough sunlight from every side.


Rocks for saikei plantings should be prepared in the same ways as for root over rock bonsai.  Muck and wire, moss and awl are the tools and materials you need, and trays of clay or interesting stones, cement or wood are also desirable.  Wash the soil from the roots, but take care to keep the rootball whole.  Separate the roots into quadrants to ascertain where they will naturally fall, if you are using a variety of plants, select leaves, trunks, and branch positions that are in scale and color harmony with one another.  When planting ground cover and accompanying plants, be sure that soil and rock will still be visible.
If the stone has been cast in the role of a mountain, the plants should be proportionally smaller.  If no, the plants can dominate the scene, with the rock or rocks partially hidden beneath the soil, more nearly approximating the way rocks are found in nature.


Saikei offers an opportunity to use tiny horticultural gems.  Mosses, lichens, and tiny violets kept even smaller by judicious pinching, grasses, miniature veronicas, and thymes are all possibilities, depending on the scene you are painting and the appropriateness of the plants to that scene.  Some of these can be found growing wild in cities and in the countryside, and have the advantages of being native to the area, hardy to the climate, impervious to pollution and drought, and available at the lowest possible cost.

As with other rock plantings, watering is essential.  Keep saikei in dappled shade and water two or three times a day.   Since drainage is quick and water retention capabilities are at a minimum, this is imperative.




Thanks Susan Bachenheimer

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.