Selection of Bonsai Material

Almost any ordinary garden plant can be trained, according to the rule set for designing of a good bonsai plant; however, selecting the right plant material from amongst the choices available at a nursery is very important.

A lot of time and effort can be wasted while trying to train a wrong plant, into a potentially & commercially viable designer Bonsai. To avoid such a situation, one needs to bear in mind the following point while selecting a Plant.

First and foremost, the inherent qualities of a given nursery / garden plant should uncompromisingly mimic the Plant / Tree of the same genus commonly found in nature.

Elucidating the same with the help of an example:-

The plant in this photograph below is called Poplar.
(Populus fastigiata)
Visible Characteristic Features of the Plant:
As one can see, this plant has a mature, short & bent main trunk line, which abruptly ends and then branches out into four almost straight and parallel branches of the same length, girth and one eye poking branch pointing towards the viewer. Some aerial roots are growing as extended stubble from the tree’s bent main trunk line, which accentuates the beauty of this plant. The leaves are gradually diminishing in size, healthy, bright green, heart shaped with alternate branching pattern.

Characteristic Features of Poplar Trees Found in Nature:
In Nature, these broad-leaved deciduous trees have rounded contours, whilst some conifers, at least when young, present a conical, or rather pyramidal, outline. They usually have a remarkably erect or fastigiate habit of growth of its branches, to which it owes its specific name “fastigiata.”

Critiques Point:
The under training Bonsai plant, bears ‘no inherent similarity’ nor does it ‘mimic’ the other plants of its genre found in nature, therefore, under no circumstances, it can be considered as a suitable Plant Material, to be trained into a futuristic Bonsai.

Concluding Point:
The plant has been wrongly shaped / trained by the Nursery Grower and unfortunately wrongly hand picked / selected by a naïve Bonsai collector / beginner.

However, the plant is healthy and presentable, and therefore, can be used only as a ‘decorative plant’ but not as a good BONSAI.

Point To Ponder:
It is of utmost importance to study and then SELECT the RIGHT Plant Material to be trained into a good Bonsai, which, in essence is merely a ‘Miniaturized Representation’ of commonly found Trees of the same Genre, growing ordinarily in there natural habitats.