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Top Billing learns the art of bonsai cultivation
Top Billing learns the art of bonsai cultivation
Few objects in the world spark as many questions as bonsai trees do. These mini-me versions of giant maples, elms and many other kinds of trees are Henk Swanepoel’s happy obsession.
Invented by the Chinese and redeveloped as part of Japanese Zen Buddhism, this craft shapes ornamental miniatures of real trees and is ideal for Nature lovers who have no garden.
Henk has been doing this since his teens and public demonstrations are his way of exciting others to try it.
At Henk’s Bonsai Studio it’s clear that smaller leafed trees are easier to design but any plant with a woody stem or trunk and which grows true branches can be used.
The idea is to shape the trees to resemble the silhouette, character and trunk texture of their fully-grown, naturally-sculpted counterparts. It’s a collaboration between you and Nature.
It is hard not to be drawn in by these trees. In nature we instinctively sit under or near them and find their presence comforting. These miniature versions have much the same effect.
Bonsais live as long as regular willows or oaks or birches, so it is a kind of marriage between you and your tree so best be sure before you say ‘I do’.
