Bonsai trees have increased in popularity over the recent decades and they are no longer strange, tiny looking, plants imported from a foreign land. Bonsai growing is known a well known and respected pastime and they are now regarded as being very beautiful and artistic plants.
Finding a Bonsai used to be a bit of a challenge, you would have to search far and wide to find a specimen. However, now with their increasing popularity, almost all gardening centers and local shopping malls sell either bonsai trees or their seedlings. These prices for trees range very greatly, some will cost you only a few dollars whereas others will cost you almost an arm and a leg! Seedlings for bonsai plants are very, very cheap although you will have to put in the time and effort into growing your tree over the years. On the other hand, award winning bonsai plants can cost thousands of dollars.
The prices might be explained by the fact that bonsai plants can live up to hundreds of years and so a serious collector of bonsai trees does not consider their trees as just plants. They actually regard them as works of living sculptures and they know if they’re properly looked after they’ll last the lifetime of the owner.
In fact some people regard bonsai growing as much more than just a gardening activity or a hobby, they consider it a form of art, something that reflects the bonsai growers bond with nature. Taking it even further, others consider it as a spiritual activity and it’s pretty common in East Asian Countries for tree growing to be practiced by monks and holy men. This may be because those who practice bonsai growing realise that it has a calming effect upon the body and mind as it makes you contemplate and slow down, helping to remove yourself from the hustle and bustle of everyday busy life.
Unlike growing other forms of plants, bonsai trees can be a challenge and quite a bit of care and maintenance must go into them. Whilst a painting or a sculpture gets completed, the bonsai tree has no finish date and a period during which the bonsai looks perfect is only transitory. Sooner or later the tree will begin to grow again and more work must be done before that beauty can be achieved once more.
Whilst bonsai tree care does require quite a bit of time and effort, the rewards and benefits of seeing a tree grow are worth it and that is why bonsai tree care has become so popular around the world.