#BonsaiNews: Japanese Maple makes for an excellent bonsai!

AS most of my followers should by now know, bonsai is something I am super passionate about and thoroughly enjoy - sadly, Winter has pretty much arrived here in South Africa so, my hands are pretty much tied at the moment in terms of most of the things I can do with my bonsai, aside of watering them every now and again.

As such, I'll have a lot more free time on my hands to start putting out some quality content for those interested in bonsai.

To get back in the swing of things, I thought I'd share a little piece on which trees are best for bonsai.

It just so happens that one of my favorite trees for bonsai, is one of the most beautiful trees on the planet - well, in my opinion anyway.

The Japanese Maple - which has quite a few varieties, has got to be one of the most suitable tree species for bonsai and many bonsai artists love using these species for bonsai, not just because they are beautiful but also because they are somewhat easy to maintain.

(IMAGE SOURCE: eBay)

Of which is possibly the most easiest of the species to work with, the Japanese Red Maple ranks number one - please just don't leave the leaves lying in the bonsai pot like above.

Why do I think this species is brilliant? Because simply put, they flourish in all four seasons!

Now, aside of its very clear aesthetic value, this tree does still require a hands on approach and despite the various trimming styles preferred for this tree, I enjoy keeping them in a canopy style almost like an umbrella.

A few key points I'd love to make about trimming a Japanese Red Maple would be to avoid trimming (depending on the style you apply) higher up branches where possible especially if you are trying to achieve the same style. Branches which should be trimmed, are branches which have died off or are crossing directly into 'neighboring' branches. (See ***)

One of the most amazing tree designs I've seen in a maple like this:

(IMAGE SOURCE: pinterest)

It is important to note that trimming more than one fifth of the maple's crown will result in stimulating unwanted regrowth.

Should your tree sprout from the bottom or near the base of the trunk, these sprouts should be cut off as they will not add value to the tree.

When it comes to repotting the tree, only do so once every two years and ensure that roots are trimmed efficiently.

Focus on using a soil that does not allow water to be retained - a bonsai soil mixture can be purchased at your local nursery (I use akadama, black lava, pumice, haydite and charcoal mixture).

When allowing the tree to grow, keep an eye out (obviously not every second of the day like me) for branches which could become troublesome in the future - either trim these, or wire surrounding branches to make space for the incoming one. ***

Japanese Red Maple thrives in most conditions however, and despite loving airy, sunny conditions, the tree should be moved into a shady area as the warm afternoon sun could damage the tree. Fortunately, this is a tree that is also very resistant to cold temperatures - even temperatures as low as -5°C.

Move the tree indoors once temperatures reach -10°C.

Below is a prime example of each different design style you can apply on this tree. Some designs require multiple trees*:
(IMAGE SOURCE: bonsaiempire.com Bonsai styles)

A further reason why the maple is an ideal choice, and why I shared the above image showcasing various styles you can apply, is because the maple is in fact one of the easiest trees to train, meaning you can shape them in almost any way.

And another cool point I would like to make is that this tree takes really well to leaf removal and will even produce smaller leaves as time passes.