Flowering Bonsai

Although flowering bonsai are very popular in some regions of the world, particularly in Japan and the USA, beautiful flowering bonsai in South Africa are fairly rare. Most our indigenous trees do not produce huge masses of flowers like many of the trees in Japan, and the few that do are not really suited for bonsai. One of the most commonly used exotic species is the bougainvillea, while azaleas are also quite popular.

- Gary English

To grow bonsai that produce flowers or fruit you need to understand the growth patterns of the species you are using. Also, be aware that although you can reduce the size of the leaves and branches of a tree, the flowers and fruit will remain the same size. The trick is to select a species that has quite small flowers to begin with.

Some species, like the bougainvillea, produce flowers at the ends of new shoots. This is important to know because if you use the normal technique of constantly cutting back the shoots to retain the shape of the tree, the flowering bits constantly get cut off so no flowers will develop. The longer branches need to be allowed to grow out a bit, which then breaks the shape and style you have taken so long to achieve. Flowering bonsai should be cut back quite a lot shortly after a crop of flowers has wilted and died. This gives the new buds time to develop before the next flowering season. Prune the whole tree at the same time so that the regrowth is even all over the tree. If you leave one or two shoots untrimmed all the nutrients will go to those shoots and the tree will grow unevenly.