Happy Bonsai
Choose It, Shape It, Love It
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
Begin your lifelong love affair with the mindful art of bonsai.
Do you know your shari from your nebari? Can you tell literati styling from informal upright? Want to know how to create that gnarled and twisted look?
Let Happy Bonsai guide you along the path to enlightenment, with care and display profiles for 40 top trees and fully illustrated step-by-steps of more than 20 bonsai techniques and styles.
Find your perfect tree and discover how to prune, shape, and tend to its needs to create a beautiful living sculpture. Fall in love with this most meditative of garden crafts.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Tran, a nursery owner and longtime bonsai grower, earnestly approaches his craft in this overly abbreviated how-to guide. He encapsulates the form as an "idealized representation of nature in miniature" and briefly touches on obtaining a specimen (buying or collecting one from nature), where to grow them ("most will only flourish outside"), choosing a container and tools, potting, maintenance, and pruning, but will leave serious bonsai students wanting more. On aesthetics, he contrasts the classical Japanese style with the approach developed by modern American practitioners, which is to "accept the natural growth habit of trees, often making them older and wilder in appearance." He also profiles 40 specimens, including the Japanese maple and Chinese juniper, accompanied by beautiful color photographs, with information about origins, growing habits, watering, feeding, pruning, and repotting, along with suggestions for both traditional Japanese and contemporary displays. However, since Tran maintains that "the art of creating and maintaining a beautiful tree in a small pot requires care and skill," readers may feel a more comprehensive look at process is warranted. This skimpy guide doesn't give enough room for Tran's expertise to fully express itself, and seems intended for couch admirers rather than serious practitioners.
