Thursday, October 3, 2013

Tortured for Beauty

Bonsai is an old art practice by the Chinese and Japanese that focuses on long-term term cultivation of trees in a container to make them look like miniature old trees. Bonsai making is a continuous regular shaping and pruning of plants to the desired shape and look. A layman in me thinks that the plant is subjected to a lifetime torture to attain a desired beautiful art. There are different bonsai styles, to mimic the normal tree shapes in nature. Some of these styles are nicely portrayed by the exhibits below.

These are presented during the last Philippine Orchid Society Show at the Quezon Memorial Circle, September 2013. There are normally two locations for the show: the landscape design exhibit, which is also a contest; and the commercial booths that sell plants, ornamentals, and garden accessories and supplies.

informal upright style

 formal upright style

 windswept style

 cascade style

a formal setting arrangement of bonsai in a landscape design

a pile of cut tree trunks and branches make a beautiful background

It was a very elegant formal design, that looks like a front door landscape. There was even the steps leading to the main door, partly open to show the welcome entrance. The bonsais are placed on some elevated cylindrical pedestals to provide beauty and balance. But everyone is mostly impressed with the pile of tree trunks and branches, cut into equal lenghts and piled in a very organized mix depending on the diameter of the trunk. It literally exemplifies a very organized chaos, and very beautiful. 


10 comments:

  1. i was just looking at bonsais last sunday when we were in the nursery. instead we went home with a passion fruit vine and princess flower bush.

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  2. The art of bonsai is fascinating. And that background is gorgeous!

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  3. I've admire bonsai before, but I can't begin to imagine the patience it must take to create these beautiful works of art. I must admit that the stacks of wood are also beautiful.

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  4. Bonsais are truly works of art. Some of the things some people create amaze me. These are some beautiful examples.
    Cher Sunray Gardens

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  5. How neat... Bonsais are so gorgeous.... My fav's are the windswept one and the cascade style one.... Fantastic.
    Hugs,
    Betsy

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  6. Fantastic! I have wanted to try to create a bonsai ever since I went to the Brooklyn botanical garden while there was a bonsai exhibit.
    Thank you for sharing.. I also love the way your stacked wood has made such a great screen.

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  7. The stack of wood looks similar to my giant stack of 4 cords of wood that we will burn this winter to keep warm :) I like bonsai as long as the plant used is small.

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  8. Bonsai will appeal to those with who love miniatures, have limited garden space and who have the time to dabble in it. The logs provided a lovely background.

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  9. I really love that last picture...although it looks like torture somehow it seems so restful and peaceful to look at bonsai

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