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Trees to bonsai


Common tree species used for Bonsai

In this section, we'll take a closer look into tree-species that are used for growing Bonsai, and Bonsai tree types. Each tree species has specific requirements for its cultivation, training, and care, so Bonsai tree identification is crucial to take proper care of your tree.

SELECTING TREE SPECIES

Find your tree species

We categorized the tree species into Broadleaf evergreen (leaves year-round), Deciduous (sheds leaves in fall) and Conifers (with needles or scale-like foliage). If you need more help, try our Identify my Bonsai guide.

Broadleaf evergreen tree species

Tree species that never lose all of their leaves at a single time, though they do shed their leaves gradually throughout the year. We have 29 guides available in this category.

Ficus Ficus retusa or ginseng, Fig Dwarf Jade Crassula or portulacaria Fukien tea Carmona Azalea Rhododendron Bougainvillea Bougainvillea Snow rose Serissa Box or boxwood Buxus Sweet plum Sageretia theezans Olive Olea europaea Money tree Pachira aquatica Privet Ligustrum Hawaiian umbrella Schefflera arboricola Cotoneaster Cotoneaster Citrus or Lemon Citrus limon and sinensis Fuchsia Fuchsia Brush cherry Eugenia myrtifolia and syzygium Brazilian rain tree Pithecellobium tortum Japanese holly Ilex crenata Jasmine Gardenia Premna Premna Crepe myrtle Lagerstroemia indica Myrtle Myrtus communis Firethorn Pyracantha Water jasmine Wrightia religiosa Wattle Acacia Camellia Camellia Eucalypt Eucalyptus Hibiscus Hibiscus Bamboo Bambusoideae

More Broadleaf evergreen (24)

Deciduous tree species

Tree species that shed leaves in fall or in the dry season. We have 30 guides available in this category.

Japanese maple Acer palmatum Chinese elm Ulmus parviflora Cherry Prunus, Sakura Oak Quercus Wisteria Wisteria Japanese elm Zelkova Pomegranate Punica granatum Jacaranda Jacaranda mimosifolia Trident maple Acer buergerianum Desert rose Adenium obesum Apple and crabapple Malus Hornbeam and beech Carpinus and fagus Star magnolia Magnolia stellata Chinese pepper Xanthoxylum piperitum Ginkgo Ginkgo biloba Hackberry Celtis Flame tree Delonix regia or Royal poinciana Weeping willow Salix Japanese winterberry Ilex serrata Baobab Baobab Birch Betula Chinese quince Pseudocydonia Judas tree Cercis Rose Rosa Hawthorn Crataegus Silk tree Albizia or Silk mimosa Jabuticaba Plinia cauliflora, Jaboticaba Ash Fraxinus Dogwood Cornus Liquidambar Sweetgum

More Deciduous (25)

Pines and Conifers

Tree species with needle or scale-like foliage. We have 14 guides available in this category.

Juniper Juniperus Pines Pinus Spruce Picea Bald cypress Taxodium distichum Larch and Golden Larch Larix Redwoods Metasequoia and sequoia Buddhist pine Podocarpus Cedar Cedrus Yew Taxus or taxaceae Hinoki cypress Chamaecyparis Japanese cedar Cryptomeria Hemlock Tsuga Thuja Northern white cedar Fir Abies

More Pines and Conifers (9)

16 Common Bonsai Tree Species to Grow

These types of bonsai trees are best for training into different shapes at home

By

Cori Sears

Cori Sears

Cori Sears specializes in home decor and houseplants. For more than 10 years, she's been on a mission to transform her urban apartment into an indoor jungle. She's been a contributing writer for The Spruce since 2019.

Learn more about The Spruce's Editorial Process

Updated on 08/23/22

Reviewed by

Kathleen Miller

Reviewed by Kathleen Miller

Kathleen Miller is a highly-regarded Master Gardener and Horticulturist who shares her knowledge of sustainable living, organic gardening, farming, and landscape design. She founded Gaia's Farm and Gardens, a working sustainable permaculture farm, and writes for Gaia Grows, a local newspaper column. She has over 30 years of experience in gardening and sustainable farming.

Learn more about The Spruce's Review Board

The Spruce / Evgeniya Vlasova

Bonsai is an ancient living art form that utilizes growing and training techniques to produce miniature trees that mimic the appearance of their full-sized counterparts. These techniques include heavy crown pruning, root pruning, and root confinement in shallow containers.

Nearly any perennial, woody-stemmed tree or shrub that produces true branches can be trained as a bonsai tree. However, some species are more well-suited to growing as bonsai than others. Some bonsai tree species are more popular due to aesthetic reasons (such as having small foliage or gnarled-looking bark), while others are popular because they are notorious for being low-maintenance and resilient when grown as miniatures.

Bonsai Tree Species for Beginners

If you are just getting started growing and training bonsai, you may prefer to work with varieties that are easiest to train. Here are common bonsai tree species for beginners:

There are many types of species you can try out to create bonsai trees. Read on to find out more about the four species above for beginners and other popular flowering and non-flowering tree and shrub varieties that make good bonsai specimens.

Tip

Nearly any tree variety grown as a bonsai will grow best in a special potting mix that is usually marketed as a bonsai soil mix. This mix is really not a soil at all, but rather a mixture of hard Japanese akadama (a claylike mineral), pumice, and black lava, sometimes with some horticultural additives included.

Bonsai Tree Plants and Feng Shui

The Best Succulents

Indoor Bonsai Care Instructions

Indoor Bonsai Care Recommendations

It is a common misconception that bonsai are kept indoors. In fact, most types of bonsai trees need to stand outside to be exposed to natural phenomena throughout the four seasons, just like ordinary trees. Only tropical and subtropical plants can be permanently indoors, where a high and stable temperature is maintained throughout the year. nine0003

Choice of tropical tree species for indoor bonsai

There are several types of trees that can be grown indoors. Today, the most common (and easiest to care for) is ficus bonsai. Ficus, which tolerates low humidity and is resistant to various adverse conditions, is a good choice for beginners.

Other common indoor tree species are the money tree (Crassula), privet (Ligustrum), eretia (Carmona), sheflera (Schefflera arboricola) and sageretia (Sageretia). nine0003

Indoor bonsai trees; ficus, carmona and Chinese elm.

Why can't temperate (non-tropical) trees be kept indoors year-round?

As noted above, the most important reason is that these trees require a dormant period in winter. At this time, the annual growth cycle ends and the tree prepares for the next cycle, which will begin in early spring. It gradually sinks into a dormant state as temperature and light intensity decrease over several weeks. This does not happen if the tree is kept indoors. nine0003

An example of an "indoor" ficus bonsai

In terms of care, an "indoor" bonsai is different from ordinary "home" potted plants. The main difference is that bonsai are kept in small containers and therefore have a limited supply of nutrients and moisture. Even more importantly, tropical trees require an abundance of light and high humidity, i. conditions that are quite difficult to recreate indoors. nine0003

Specific recommendations for indoor bonsai care:

1. Lighting

The main problem with tropical bonsai indoors is the significantly lower light intensity indoors compared to outdoors. At low light intensity, trees, of course, do not die immediately, but their growth slows down, which ultimately leads to their weakening. Therefore, put your bonsai in the brightest place, best of all - on the south window. nine0003

However, even if you have a south-facing window, the light intensity may still be too low. Then additional lighting with lamps, for example, fluorescent (with a spectrum that stimulates plant growth) or LED, for at least 10 hours a day, can help.

2. Air Humidity

Another problem with keeping tropical bonsai indoors is that they need relatively high humidity, much higher than what is usually found indoors (especially when the heating or air conditioning is running). You can increase the humidity around your bonsai by placing it on a tray filled with water, or by misting it several times a day. It also helps to ensure the flow of air from the street through the window. nine0003

3. Watering and feeding

The most important rule is never water on a schedule. Ignore the tag attached to your bonsai, which may say that the tree needs to be watered every so many days. Instead, watch your tree and only water it when needed. Please see the section on watering and fertilizing for more information.

4. Temperature

Tropical tree species need a relatively warm temperature throughout the year, which is the normal room temperature of your living room.

Subtropical trees can tolerate slightly cooler temperatures in winter and usually do well when wintered at temperatures well below standard room temperature.

In a nutshell, choose the right kind of wood and follow the appropriate care instructions and you'll be fine! nine0003

Bonsai: the tree in your hands | GreenMarket Blog

Traditionally, we plant trees in the garden so that they create a monumental decor with their trunks, branches and crowns - and we can keep small and fragile herbs with wonderful flowers almost anywhere: even in the garden, even on the windowsill. Isn't it strange to read such a seemingly logical pattern? Suggests that trees can also be grown at home on the window. If it leads, then alas, but you are late - the inhabitants of the east thought about it first! nine0003

Bonsai ("grown in a tray" - from Japanese, literally) - a whole direction of garden and decorative art, dedicated to the cultivation of miniature variants of tree crops; sometimes dwarf forms are used. It got its development and fame in Japan, although it was brought there from China, where it arose at the end of the 1st millennium AD. The bottom line is to create a small woody plant, in which the ratio of roots and aerial parts remains consistent with the normal, large version. This is achieved through pruning, limiting root growth and other shaping methods. nine0003

Diversity

It would not be out of place to say a few words about the traditional features of shaping tiny trees. There are several classifications of plants in a pot, for example, according to the shape of the resulting tree.

The two "straight" styles are distinguished by the straightness of the trunk itself: the informal straight can be a curved, but still tending upward trunk. Slanted styles range from a simple slant, to a "cascade" where the plant hangs from the pot, to a "semi-cascade" where the beginning cascade wraps back up to the pot. nine0003

traditional styles of bonsai

Some styles involve the tree growing on a piece of stone, among stones, or penetrating with its roots into a crack in the stone (imitating mountain trees). A separate group of styles works with several plants: growing from one lying stem or one branching root, planted side by side or obtained by splitting the main trunk. Moreover, often the number of shoots / plants should be odd, which is associated with the traditional beliefs of the Japanese. nine0003

classic bonsai stand

bonsai on stone

There is a classic size scale for bonsai trees: tiny, small, medium, large and huge - each category with its own subsections. Feel the main idea: “huge” are called trees that exceed 120 cm!

Species

For the simplest reasons, species and varieties of trees with small leaves and capable of dense branching should be well suited for bonsai. Approximately so it also is actually. Among suitable for growing bonsai there are both coniferous and deciduous trees - both ours, the temperate zone, and tropical exotics. Of those familiar to us from nature, these are birch, beech, maple, hornbeam, elm, hawthorn, as well as spruce, pine, fir and cypress. More exotic: boxwood, acacia, ficuses, wisteria, bougainvillea, calamondin and a number of other citrus fruits, pomegranates. And this is not an exhaustive list! nine0003

The method of turning a tree into a bonsai will be similar for all of them - only the nature of care will be different, because each of them will require a special soil composition, light regime and watering regime, the required feeding and protection.

Growing

One of the longest ways to get a bonsai tree is to grow it from seed. This can take more than a decade, depending on how the tree grows. This method is usually resorted to in cases where shaping is needed from the very first days of growth - these include, for example, elm. Seed forcing techniques are not suitable for seed germination of bonsai - you need to imitate the conditions of the wild as carefully as possible! More often they use technologies for obtaining a plant from cuttings and layering of large trees or already bonsai. nine0003

planting bonsai from seed

bonsai planting from cuttings and cuttings

This is probably one of the fastest ways. Cuttings and layering are obtained according to the methods generally accepted for a given species and variety of wood. Growing "ready-made bonsai" - dwarf trees - is much easier than other methods, but also much less peculiar. The lignified trunks of adult, albeit small, trees are already difficult to form.

But the most acceptable way for a true connoisseur of oriental gardening art is to purchase a small, regular seedling! That is, you will no longer need to waste energy and make mistakes when germinating - but you can still grow your tree in any style that you like. nine0003

Bonsai should be grown in flat containers, so the seedling should be transplanted there. Plant transplantation is carried out in the season characteristic of it: coniferous before winter, deciduous in early spring. There is a practice to transfer the part of the earth in which the seedling has sprouted. When transplanting, all roots are cut short so that the newly grown ones are located horizontally. Don't forget the drainage at the bottom of the new container!

Care and shaping

The main idea of ​​growing a tiny but full-fledged tree is to create full-fledged conditions sufficient for all-round growth - but with the strictest restrictions. Restrictions - moisture, available size for the roots, constant pruning and shaping - are very stressful factors for the plant. Therefore, you need to carefully monitor his well-being, apply the necessary techniques carefully, and treat the diseased plant immediately - such a tree's own defenses are weakened. All manipulations, starting from planting, should be carried out only with healthy plants. nine0003

how to properly trim bonsai

bonsai molding

It is recommended to grow bonsai not quite in indoor-greenhouse conditions, but in close to natural conditions - on a balcony, terrace, open window. In winter, sufficient coolness should be ensured: even subtropical crops need to be cooled to at least 5-8 ° C. Watering should be regular, perhaps even more frequent than for this species in a normal size: small roots weakly absorb water, the plant experiences a lot of stress. Water should be settled, rain or melt. Watering is best by drip method or by irrigation - so as not to erode the soil. Before transplanting, the bonsai is usually slightly “dry” - they do not water it for a day or two, so the tree will better tolerate the procedure. nine0003

The most important part of bonsai is molding. Pruning should be carried out at a time suitable for the plant (for each his own). Usually pruning a seedling begins by cutting off the entire top of the tree, including the side branches. By doing this, you will achieve the growth of the trunk in breadth and its strengthening. Over the following years, the newly growing lateral branches are pruned again - and so on until the main stem of the shape that satisfies you is obtained. At the same time, the roots are regularly cut, trying to give them a more branched shape in the horizontal plane.

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