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Types Of Bonsai Trees

Bonsai types are referred as bonsai styles. In general, bonsai trees can be categorized into five standard styles: formal upright, informal upright, slanting, cascade, and semi-cascade. These styles are defined on the form of the bonsai and how much the trunk is tilted away from a virtual vertical axis. The multiple Japanese bonsai styles are basically variations of these five standard styles.

Formal Upright

The formal upright style has classic composition and is the foundation of all types of bonsais. It is the simplest for a beginner to start experimenting with bonsai because it requires the minimum experience, pruning is easy because not much difficult decisions to make, and should quickly become a bonsai that you could be proud to display. In this style, the shape is conical or sometimes cylindrical and the tree has horizontal branches. Plants in the formal upright style are best displayed in oval or rectangular pots. Never center the plant when planting it in the pot. Place it about a third of the distance from one side.

In selecting a nursery plant for formal upright, make sure the trunk shoots up from the soil in a good straight line. The trunk should be straight up and not branch out from the entire height of the bonsai. Prune off the small branches that are too close to the stem and near the main base. These branches change overall formal upright composition.

Informal Upright

The informal upright style has much the same branch composition as the formal upright style, but the top — instead of being straight up as in the formal upright style — tilts slowly to the side. This inclination makes the bonsai’s branches seem to be in constant motion and improves the appearance of informality.

The informal upright style appears best in an oval or rectangular pot. It should be placed, not in the center of the pot, but a quarter of the distance form one side.

Many nursery trees are initially slanted. This slight natural inclination makes them well candidate to the informal upright style. Check the bonsai’s slant by looking from above down to the trunk from top — from this view the top must tilt to the side or front. If this view is not pleasing, you may displace the root to tilt the tree in different direction. If you select a vertical straight up tree at the nursery, and decide to train it to the informal upright style, just tilt the tree when planting it in the pot. When you do this, prune the branches and leaves so they are leveled to the proportions of the tree.

Slanting

With slanting style, the base is in sharp angle than in the above styles. The lowest branch should extend in the opposite direction to which the tree trunk tilts. The top of the bonsai is slanted a bit toward the side or front. The lower branches are set in groups of three, starting about one-quarter the way up the trunk. The shape of the slanting style is positioned between the upright and cascade styles. This style appears best planted in the center of a round or square pot.

Cascade

Cascade style the base begins by growing straight up from the ground, then turns downward suddenly, and touches a level below the bottom corner of the pot. Because of this turn, the pot should be placed on the edge of a stand. The cascade style has most of its shrub below the soil level.

Bonsai training in the cascade style takes longer than the slanting style. Select a slow-growing tree instead of training a tree that normally grows straight up into an unnatural

shape. Tilt the tree to the front so one rear branch is upright and the front branches fall naturally. A cascaded planting usually displayed best in a round or hexagonal pot that is high and narrow. The tree should be placed away from center starting from the cascading side.

Semi-Cascade

The semi-cascade style trunk is allowed to develop upright for a certain distance, and then is cascaded down at a less sudden curve than in the cascade style. The cascading branches are trained as of the front of the tree, and the rear branches are pushed closer to the base than in the other styles. The semi-cascade never should reach below the soil level of the pot, but should grow below the edge of the ground level.

Before planting a tree for bonsaification* in any of the five styles listed above, remember the shape of how the bonsai will be displayed in the pot. Don’t pot a bonsai one way, and then uproot the tree to perform some changes. Keep your overall composition intact when growing bonsai. Straight up trees should have a stable look in the pot; slanted and cascaded styles in general have their top root levels uncovered to produce more realistic illusion. Whatever style you choose — whether single trunk or groups of trunks from same roots — it will depend on your final choice of tree type, and your imagination capacity to visualize the bonsai’s final shape.

*Bonsaification – is the process, tools and materials used to train the shape of a bonsai.