outdoor trees

You can only grow trees outside…

Very nearly true! No plant ever evolved under a roof, except for a few fungi perhaps!! So that statement has a lot of truth in it.

Still, some plants, not native to this country, would end up as compost fodder if kept outside over winter. The opposite is also true. Native trees, kept indoors over winter, would also suffer. You only have to see people picking up pine needles with their feet on Boxing Day to realise that a dim centrally heated room is not every tree’s idea of arboreal heaven. So, decide where you want to grow your tree, then choose the tree that will thrive in conditions found there. In a nutshell, outdoor trees stay out and in general, tropical ones can be kept in.

Any plant, regardless of whether it has been ‘bonssi’ed or not’ will not do well in adverse conditions, so check that out first before you buy any plant.

Bonsai can be expensive, so can paintings; paintings can also be cheap so can bonsai. However, if you want a Picasso or Canaletto, you’d he hard pressed to find one that will cost the same as a painting from a Sunday supplement. What you pay is what you get. Usually the younger the tree, the cheaper, but it’s all down to style, and the way it looks which puts the price up.

Saying bonsai trees are an investment, no-one likes spending a lot of money on something that keels over with roots reaching for the sky, within a matter of weeks. Still, are you good with plants? does your house look like Kew Gardens? Why not convert one of your house plants into a bonsai, it’s easy!

Anyone who has ever pruned or re-potted anything at all, already has all the skills required. Are you digging up that old rosemary bush or lavender, because it has got old or leggy?

Instead of slinging it on the bonfire, trim it back (saving some pieces to use as cuttings) and re-plant in a spare corner of the garden, or a pot big enough to take it. Then, train and shape the new growth, and before long, you could be the proud possessor of a beautiful, old bonsai.

To sum up, anyone with green fingers can grow bonsai, and to anyone accusing you of crimes against nature, smile sweetly and ask them when it was they last chopped down their roses, or beech hedge. Continue to maintenance tips..

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