Chapter 13: Planting and Care (4)

Miniature climbers bloom on last year’s wood. They can be cut back to six inches when first planted, but are otherwise not pruned except to control ungainly canes or remove dead ones. Train the climbing canes into an attractive, open pattern as they grow, by tying them to the arch, fence, or other support they are to climb on.

Miniature tree roses can be cut back to a small but symmetrical head in spring and all dead wood should be removed. To keep them shapely, prune as needed during the growing season.

_Insects and Disease_

I protect my miniature roses, as I do the others, with an all-purpose rose spray or dust applied first when leaves begin to unfold, and repeated every week or ten days until the plants go dormant. Occasionally, during a long spell of hot, humid weather, I see signs that mildew threatens. If the all-purpose spray contains a fungicide (which most of them do), I use it immediately. If not, I may resort to dusting sulfur (which does mar the beauty of the flowers) or whatever sterilant is on hand.

_Winter Protection_

What you do to protect miniature roses in winter, or whether you do anything at all, depends not only on your climate but also on the health of the plants. If they’ve been growing well, they’ll take lots of abuse; if they’re weak and ailing, their chances of survival are reduced.

Sometimes, a flower pot inverted over the leafless stems is all that’s needed. Or you may mulch with salt hay or evergreen boughs. In Connecticut we mound up soil so it covers the first three or four inches of the stems, and remove it gradually in spring. It is most important to make sure that water does not stand around the roots in winter, next most important that alternate freezing and thawing don’t heave the roots out of the ground and break them.

If they are likely to be whipped by wind or covered with ice, the canes of climbing varieties are removed from their support and laid flat on the ground, where they can be covered with either soil or mulch. Since tree roses are inclined to be touchy, we wrap ours in burlap, with an extra layer or two around the graft and crown.

PROPAGATING MINIATURE ROSES

I’ve grown many miniature roses from seed, and had a lot of fun doing it. They usually germinate in about three weeks (best temperature about 60 degrees), quickly send out tiniest true rose leaves, and are ready for transplanting into small pots in another two or three weeks. I usually pinch the tip growth at least once, when the plant is about five inches tall. The flowers can appear within three months after sowing.

Of course, seedling plants are not named varieties. Most of them, in fact, have small single flowers in pale shades of pink or white. Your chances of double, more brightly colored flowers increase if you can get seeds of a good strain.

For new plants of named varieties, take cuttings in August or September--three-or four-inch pieces of healthy wood produced in the current season. If the stem can be pulled off gently with a sliver of the main stem still attached (a heel), rooting may be faster and is surer. Dipping the cut ends in hormone rooting powder is also helpful.

Make the moist propagating material firm around the base of the cutting, and make sure the air is kept humid in the propagating box or plastic tent, or invert a glass jar over the cutting. New growth is the signal that roots have formed and the cutting is ready for potting. These plants, too, will grow more compact and bushy if the tips are pinched out when the stems are about five inches tall.

NAMED VARIETIES OF MINIATURE ROSES

Although new varieties of this popular plant are constantly being introduced, and most likely will have a wide appeal eventually, it may be some time before they appear in plant and seed catalogues. In compiling this modest list I have thought chiefly of what is available at the moment, miniature roses I have either grown, seen in friends’ gardens, or admired vicariously on the printed pages of magazines, books, and booklets. If you are interested, I am sure these bushes are readily available. If I am old-hat and you feel avant-garde, there are many persons propagating new varieties. Talk to some of them, or try it yourself, a most gratifying hobby:

‘Baby Bunting’--A delightful, small rose with red flowers of
a deep, startling shade. This variety is an inch or so taller
than some, but many of my friends think it ideal in that they
like to make miniature flower arrangements and appreciate
slightly longer stems. Among its other charms, the rose is most
delightfully fragrant.

‘Baby Crimson’--I’ve never had this one grow taller than six
inches. Since I have maternal instinct for the wee ones, I love
it. Under the right conditions it will bear tiny crimson flowers
and exquisite buds up until frost time.

‘Bo-Peep’--This one has a charm in its name, and is one of the
more popular miniature roses. It has double pink blooms, forms
a bush with a neat conformation, and is another favorite with
those who make miniature arrangements. You needn’t worry about
cutting its blooms. It is always growing more.

‘Cinderella’--This one fits beautifully into the legend
about the girl with the glass slipper. It has dainty white
blooms touched with pink and is in the true tradition of rose
shapeliness. Seemingly, it loves to bloom.

‘Granada’--In some listings I find the name spelled ‘Granata.’
Regardless of the spelling, I love the bushes I have grown, for
the lovely, semidouble, red flowers which the bush bears so
profusely. A tiny vase filled with them makes one wish to build
a doll house in which to display it.

Days in the life of a miniature rose:

a. Leafed out]

b. A growing bush]

c. First bud]

d. Full bloom]

‘Little Princess’--So many of my small roses are either pink
or red, I always try to find white ones for contrast. This
is a variety I have often depended on. Sometimes the blooms
are alone, but then again they may be in clusters. A cluster,
snipped from the bush and wrapped in foil, looks very lovely
when pinned on a little girl’s pink dress as she leaves for a
party.

‘Mon Petite’ (sometimes spelled ‘Mon Petit’)--This one is truly
petite, not once in a dozen times over five inches tall. But
those five inches never seem to stop flowering with cherry-red
blooms. And then, to make themselves even more fascinating, they
often have a delicate haze of purple.

‘Patty Lou’ (patented)--This one is so delicate I imagine its
creator must have had some particularly sweet little girl in
mind when he named it. In bloom it is a pink bicolor, and it
always seems to be blooming. A truly lovely little rose.

‘Perle d’Alcanada’ (sometimes spelled ‘Perle d’Alconada’)--May
I warn you, this is a real charmer. Being somewhat on the
stately side, it may grow to nine inches. It makes a neat and
most attractive bush and then comes forth with pink blooms that
slowly change to a white pearl-like effect.

‘Pixie Gold’--This is another dainty one, a yellow miniature
with a lovely soft color to add to its beauty. It is really a
miniature, and would consider itself a giant if it topped five
inches. It has an attractive bush, but that is only part of it,
the blooms follow a perfect pattern from the time they are buds
until they are full-blown. It follows all rose traditions.

‘Red Imp’--Many persons consider this beauty the most perfect
of all miniature roses. Certainly, with its deep-red blooms, it
is one of the best known. Such a feeling of affection must be
deserved. I think the first miniature I ever owned was a ‘Red
Imp.’ If for no other reason, that would make me love it.

‘Rosa Oakington Ruby’--Some years back the English Royal
Horticultural Society thought so much of this rose they gave it
the Award of Merit, and well they might. The blooms are a rich
ruby-carmine, are double, and are around all summer. In planting
this variety, remember it tends to be an inch or so taller than
the wee ones.

‘Rosata’--I love this one for its fragrant, pinkish flowers,
which also have a touch of salmon. The blooms are delightful
when made into corsages or miniature bouquets.

‘Rouletti’--This is a great favorite in rock gardens, and in
edgings around beds of big roses. It is a true “shorty” and
seldom exceeds five inches in height. But the buds, rose-pink,
are so exquisite one wishes to put them into a setting for a
ring to be worn on the finger.

‘Scarlet Gem’--This is what is known as a newcomer among
miniature roses. But it has so much charm, I know it will be
called an old favorite in the years to come. The flowers are
an orange-scarlet, and fairly cover a handsome bush of nice
conformation. Remember when setting it out in your garden, it
may grow an inch or so taller than some of the others.

‘Sunbeam’--From the very name you may guess that this is a
yellow rose, literally, a beam from the sun. It is a cheerful
little dwarf, and has a tea-rose type of bloom. You’ll love it.

‘Sweet Fairy’--This is something out of a book of fairy tales,
delicate and fanciful. It has pinkish blooms and a fragrance
that will charm you.

‘Thumbelina’--Looking at this rose will bring back the memories
of that delightful story “Thumbelina” which we all loved as
children. As a rose, and not a story, it is semidouble and has
lovely red flowers that open from delicately pointed buds. It
flowers freely, and the blooms are most enchanting in small
vases.

‘Wayside’s Garnet’--As I first bought this rose from the
catalogue of Wayside Gardens, I’ll let them describe it for
you: “... a neat, compact small plant with many perfect,
fully-double, garnet-red little flowers. It is a prolific
bloomer and a good grower ... much like Oakington Ruby, which is
one of its parents. It probably has the brightest, darkest and
deepest red to be found among miniature roses.”

‘Yellow Miniature’--This is a charming little rose, yellow, with
a cheering tint. Many consider it to be the most attractive of
all yellow miniatures. I will not argue with them. I’ve always
been enchanted with it.

_CHAPTER 8_

MINIATURE SINK GARDENS

Take the concept of dish gardens and model landscapes, but execute it with miniature garden plants. Take the outdoor plants of bonsai, but don’t dwarf them unduly or train them into unusual shapes. There you have the mixture that makes up these specialized miniature gardens, called “sink” or “trough” gardens for the old-fashioned stone sinks and horse troughs they were planted in when the fad first swept England, some thirty years ago.

Now, the old sinks and troughs are practically nonexistent, and the name is anachronistic. But I have been totally unable to dream up anything better. “Sink garden” is a specific title for a composition of plants or a landscape scene in small scale, planted in a sturdy, sink-like container, grown outdoors and used in limited ways to decorate the garden and grounds. No other phrase seems to define it.

My interest was originally aroused by the books of Anne Ashberry, England’s sink-garden specialist, and by the warm affection she has for her specialty. But it was not until I began to work with miniature plants in our Connecticut gardens--and to find out what a great variety is available--that I was inspired to plant a sink garden of my own. Originally, I was intrigued; soon, I was fascinated; now, I’m an addict. With the flimsiest excuse I’d have so many of them it would look as if our grounds had broken out with measles.

These sink gardens are not for big, burly gardeners who like cabbage roses and gaudy shrubs. They’re for connoisseurs who appreciate the minuscule perfection of a tiny plant, more effectively displayed at eye level. They’re for those who grow alpines and other difficult plants and find them less finicky under these controlled conditions. They’re for gardeners who can’t, or don’t want to, squat in the hot sun for hours, weeding or transplanting; who want the pleasure of creating gardens, but take the accompanying chores in small doses. And sink gardens are for people, like me, who simply find irresistible charm in the miniature.

If our grounds were spacious, I’d find a place where I could have a collection of sink gardens, set up on pedestals and arranged in neat rows, so I could move easily from one to the next with the watering can. But they’re probably much more ornamental and distinctive if used the way the few we have now are.

Instead of a sundial at a break in the shrubbery border, we have a sink garden set on a two-foot column of mellowed brick. Two narrow gardens outline the corner of the small patio by the front entrance. A small sink garden enlivens a shelf beside the door to the lath house. There’s one at the end of an old stone bench.

Or you can display one of these gardens against the wall at the end of a garden walk; as a centerpiece on the lawn or terrace; on top of a low wall or at the edge of a balcony; in place of an inanimate statue or urn. If possible, let the background be light and not bright-colored; neutral shades show off the plantings to best advantage.

CONTAINERS

Picturesque old sinks are obviously not available to us, and any horse troughs I’ve seen have been much too monstrous. Miss Ashberry casts her own containers of concrete (its porosity is excellent for plants), and we can do the same.

Sometimes I think the sinks and troughs look a little heavy in relation to the plantings. Certainly they _are_ heavy, and almost impossible to move, when filled with soil. But I’ve found a goodly number of acceptable substitutes. First, of course, I shopped my favorite junk yard and found the round concrete planter and the wash-tub lid that served as containers for my first sink gardens. I also saw possibilities in a big old butter tub that could be cut down, and in a leaky birdbath.

Some of today’s building tiles are perfectly beautiful and, if shallow enough, could be fitted with a metal or wooden bottom. They come in all sizes, shapes, and colors. Thick, old wood is another possibility. I’m thinking of some weathered planks we found at the seashore last summer; they’d make a handsome and sturdy container for a wind-blown, woodsy garden.

Miniature garden of dwarf evergreens, _Cyclamen neapolitanum_,
and tiny trumpet narcissi not yet blooming]

In designing or selecting a container, you have few rules to go by. It should be strong and weather-resistant, of course, because it is to be placed outdoors. It must have drainage holes in the bottom, so fallen rain won’t stand in it. It should be deep enough (six to eight inches) to give small trees and plants root-room. And artistically, it should be in harmony and proportion with the garden to be planted in it, not as a feature in itself, but as a subordinate element in the picture.

Unless a sink garden is to be placed on top of a wall or some other existing support, it will probably need a base to hold it two or three feet off the ground. This can be made of cement blocks, rustic brick, tile, or concrete, according to the design of the container itself.

PLANTS FOR SINK GARDENS

Unlike bonsai, these plants are not to _be_ dwarfed, they _are_ dwarf by nature. Miniature perennials, such as _Calceolaria biflora_, never top two inches, nor do some of the tiny narcissus species. Some trees have never been known to grow taller than six inches. And if you can’t find trees that are small at maturity, you can find many that grow so slowly they’ll stay in proper scale (even without pruning) for five years or more. There are miniature garden plants of all habits and shapes--stiffly erect, tufted, bush-like, sprawling, creeping, hanging, climbing--and even pinhead-size water plants for tiny pools.

Actually, there are miniature plants in every horticultural category--annuals, biennials, perennials, bulbs, shrubs, trees, aquatic plants, and wildlings--and most of them are suitable for sink gardens. You have only to select those that are in scale and sympathy with your design, and that are culturally compatible, one with the other. You can grow many of them from seeds or cuttings. Miniature perennials are available in widest variety from growers of alpine and rockery plants. Trees and shrubs can be bought by mail from suppliers of small plants for bonsai work. Native and aquatic plants are plentiful from mail-order wild-flower houses.

ACCESSORIES

The worst thing you can do with one of these little outdoor gardens is to clutter it up with little artificial props such as benches, bridges, and old oaken buckets. At all costs, avoid the cute and the trite. Practice moderation and the utmost restraint.

One prop--a hand-carved well-head, an alabaster birdbath, a lichen-covered rock--is usually plenty for any one garden. If it is handsome in its own right, the whole garden may be designed to set it off. If it’s a supporting element, play it down and let the plants stand out in the picture.

The same is true of streams, pools, walks, walls, and other miniature landscape constructions. They’re pretty and they’re fun to make; but just one too many can spoil a garden.

Naturally, any accessories and props to be used in a sink garden should be sturdy and weather-resistant. And as in any other miniature composition, proportion and scale are terribly important.

THEMES AND DESIGNS

Many of the principles and suggestions for dish gardens and model landscapes in Chapter 3 are equally applicable to sink gardens. The design needs, first, a basic idea or theme. Will the garden be formal, or informal and woodsy, or simply an artistic arrangement of living plants with or without a piece of tree stump or rock? Should it be built around an important accessory, or will one plant or a group of plants be the center of interest? Does the style of the container suggest the style of the garden to go in it?

Since a sink garden is usually planned to have some permanency, it is particularly important to plan the design in every possible detail and, if at all possible, to put the plan on paper--and in proper scale. You can tell, before it’s too late, whether a tree will be too large, a fence too high or prominent, a grouping of plants too far off balance.

When you plan the planting, keep proportion and perspective clearly in mind. If the design is to have formal balance, arrange pairs of trees, clipped hedges, straight walks, and other elements with geometric precision. If the effect is to be informal, make sure the center of interest is off-center, with a large airy area or low planting to balance it at the other side.

In crowded plantings the beauty of the form of individual plants is lost. Be sure to space them so that they have room to grow without becoming entangled with their neighbors. To blend the garden with its container, plan to have a creeper or trailer dangling over the edge.

Artistic plant compositions are arranged, like dish gardens, with outstanding accent plants, low growers often around the base, usually arranged naturally at the base of a rock or around a piece of log or stump. Colors and textures of flowers and foliage are contrasted and blended as they are in arrangements of cut flowers. Setting the plants in the empty container and rearranging them until the best effect is achieved may save shifting them about during planting.

All kinds of landscape designs can be re-created, in miniature, in sink gardens. And the scenes can change naturally with the seasons of the year. One of my informal gardens has a basic arrangement of rocks, small evergreens, and ground cover. In spring, miniature narcissus species bloom; in summer, tiny annuals such as _Ionopsidium acaule_ and perennials such as _Erodium chamaedryoides roseum_; in fall, small cyclamen species.

Woodsy wild gardens can also have basic, permanent plantings--seedling evergreens, moss, foliage plants such as small ferns, rattlesnake plantain, and pipsissewa--through which spring-blooming squirrel corn, hepatica, and spring beauty can push up their flowers.

One of the most effective formal-garden designs makes good use of miniature roses as a flowering hedge in front of a high wall at the back, or as twin specimens on each side of an arch. Other formal gardens adapt the designs of the Victorian age, or the Colonial gardens of Williamsburg.

Someday I want to try an Oriental garden featuring a bonsai-style dwarf tree and planted sparsely, in the Japanese manner, with tiniest shrubs and perennials and a ground cover of fine moss or sand, and perhaps a curved bridge over a still stream.

With a suitable container you could do an outdoor desert garden. Many miniature desert plants are hardy or semihardy and would live through the winter with some protection. There are many other possible themes, and many types of plants and containers with which to carry them out.

PLANTING AND CARE

Unless you can control watering (which means keeping the garden out of the rain), make sure that the container has plenty of small holes in the bottom for drainage. And for extra insurance that drainage will be perfect, start out with a layer of pebbles or sand. A covering of burlap or sheet moss will keep soil from sifting down into it.

Soil should be light and porous, capable of holding some moisture but not too much. The standard recipe of one-third garden loam, one-third humus, and one-third sharp sand is a good basic mixture to start with. Add extra sand if the plants are succulent-like, extra humus for woodsy plants, a sprinkling of lime for plants that dislike acid soil. A slow-acting organic fertilizer such as bone meal can be mixed in, but in very small amounts. Run the mixture through a coarse sieve, to remove stones and debris.

As you place the plants, firm the soil gently around the roots. Don’t fill the container so full that the soil is level with the rim; leave an inch or so to hold water while it seeps down to the roots below. Place the ground-cover plants, and those to dangle over the edge, last. Some gardens are finished with a thin mulch of stone chips or sand, some with a carpet of moss.

_Location_

A sink garden planted in a real trough or sink is a mighty heavy thing, once it’s filled with soil and planted; and so may be many others. If you can place the empty container in its permanent spot and plant it there, you may save someone an aching back.

These gardens are meant to grow out in the open air, but not where searing sun and hot dry winds can dry the soil too fast and burn the plants. If the plants are all of the type that need sunlight, give them only the dappled shade of a high-branched tree or the windbreak and slight noonday shade of a low wall. Woodland plants and others that like shade can be grown in more protected spots. Naturally, the two types are not combined successfully in the same garden.

Don’t place sink gardens where they will receive the drip from eaves or an overhanging tree. Don’t set them tight up against a wall. Newly planted gardens need some special protection--a cheesecloth tent or newspaper on a temporary frame overhead--until plants are well settled in their new home.

_Watering_

A safe general rule is never to let the soil dry out all the way through, never to water so much that it is soggy and sour. For most plants, you can scratch into the soil surface with your fingers. If it feels moist, don’t water; if it feels dry, do. However, succulent plants should be grown drier, boggy plants more constantly moist. Frequency of watering depends upon type of plant, size and type of container, the soil, the weather--depends, in fact, upon how often each individual sink garden needs water.

_Fertilizing_

If a fertile soil mixture is used in the first place, and particularly if it is enriched with a slow-acting fertilizer such as bone meal, most gardens will not need extra feeding for many months after planting, often not for the first year. The point is to give the plants just enough food to keep them healthy, not enough to make them grow out of proportion to the garden.

If you see signs of malnutrition--few, small leaves with poor color; failure to bud and flower; sickly, stunted growth--feed quickly but lightly. A weak solution of organic food such as fish emulsion or liquid manure is usually recommended. Established gardens can take this light feeding once in spring when active growth begins, and once or twice during the early summer, without outgrowing their bounds.

Rock garden set in an old wash-boiler lid]

_Pruning and Grooming_

Pick off all faded flowers promptly, so the plants will not exhaust themselves by setting seed. Remove any dried or fallen foliage so it will not rot and invite disease. Pinch the growing tips of plants that threaten to grow too tall and lanky. Shear hedge plants regularly and nip back creepers that spread out too far and strangle other plants. Refresh and renew any mulch or moss carpet as needed. In a garden so small, the least imperfection seems magnified.

_Insects and Disease_

Once a week, all summer long, my sink gardens get a quick treatment from an all-purpose aerosol bomb, used according to label directions. So far, with one exception (the mysterious plague of “inchworms” we had in the spring of 1961), this has kept insects and disease at a safe distance.

_Winter Care_

In mild or warm climates, sink gardens should not need any special protection in winter. But in Connecticut, the deep-freeze is so long and severe, I move my gardens to the cold frame. To make sure that the soil does not freeze and crack the container, I sometimes sink it to the rim in the soil. I’ve also packed salt hay tightly around them successfully. Or a garden could be wintered over on an unheated porch.

But most of the hardy plants used in sink gardens should not spend the winter indoors or in a warm greenhouse. They must have a cool rest period for several months to complete their natural growth cycle.

_CHAPTER 9_

MINIATURE PLANTS,
BONSAI-STYLE

Only in the true Oriental bonsai do art and horticulture combine in such an extreme state of perfection--and in miniature to boot. Paintings may be as magnificent, but they’re inanimate. Ancient trees of the forest may have equal artistic virtue, but they’re not shaped by the hand of man. Living bonsai trees, sometimes centuries old, become masterpieces because, says Claude Chidamian, “they’re planted in philosophy, shaped by art, grown with love.”

If that sounds as if I am awed by bonsai--I am. I would never have the talent and patience to prune and shape, trim and train, in minute detail year after year, so that every branch, twig, and tiny needle or leaf would be perfectly placed and proportioned. Even if I were an artist, I doubt that I could create the illusion of grandeur in minuscule scale. Nor would I ever dare assume the responsibility for caring for these priceless, age-old plants.

But that doesn’t mean that bonsai is beyond me, or any other gardener who admires it. Without committing the sacrilege of inept imitation, we can have our own version of these miniature trees and make them artistic and satisfying in our own way.

The original bonsai trees look old and weather-beaten because they _are_ old and weather-beaten. The Japanese adopted this art from the Chinese many centuries ago. Our trees in bonsai-style are not likely to have that venerable age, but they can have character. They can have the lines of trees that have held a precarious footing on the side of a rocky slope, have been bent by the wind or twisted by mighty storms.

Because every part of it is in perfect proportion to every other part, a fine bonsai tree creates an illusion of tremendous size--as if you were looking through the wrong end of a telescope to a giant more than a hundred years old. Our dwarfed trees can be perfectly proportioned and create the same illusion. Although there is no substitute for true antiquity, our dwarfed trees can be artistic in their own way without pretending to be ancient.

By making some concessions (without desecrating the art) we can take suitable trees and turn them into “Orientalized” garden ornaments, and do it in one year, not ten. If the pruning and training is done with care and artistry, the result will be a bonsai which is a distinguished ornament and particularly appropriate for contemporary architecture, and also for landscape architecture.

I have seen a bonsai of Sargent’s juniper set beside a garden pool, its twisting branches swaying out and over the water, and reflected in it. Twin (but not identical) bonsai trees are startlingly effective; for example, one on each side at the top of a set of formal steps. Bonsai can be used as a center of interest on a patio or terrace to accent an entrance, on top of low walls, or against the wall at the end of a path.

Last summer, in our wild garden, my husband dammed up a tiny stream at a point where it began to run down a short but rather steep and shaded slope. This created a small pool from which the water trickles over the dam and drops onto a series of rock ledges below. We planted the banks on both sides with ferns, wild ginger, bloodroot, trillium, and other wildlings. But something was needed at the top, some small tree or shrub that would integrate the dam into the picture and would be in harmony with the woodsy surroundings.

We considered all the dwarf, shade-tolerant evergreens our local nurseries had to offer, but nothing seemed just right. We scoured our woods, but the only low-growing trees (which are mighty few in our area) were too straight and erect. The mountain laurels and other shrubs with interesting lines would eventually grow too large. So we decided to try what, for us, is an experiment.

We found a white pine less than two feet tall with a suggestion of the irregular shape we had been looking for. We lifted it carefully, took it home, root-pruned it, and planted it in the best bonsai tradition, in a sturdy box just large enough to hold the roots but leaving a little room to spare around the edge. Then we took the tree to the top of the dam and planted it by sinking the box in the soil. After some weeks, when the pine showed no sign of ill effects from being moved, and was making new growth, we shaped and pruned it, and then wired it, bonsai-style, along the lines of the tree we had been hunting for.

With sensible care and winter protection, pruning and root-pruning when it threatens to grow too large, and training in the way we think it should grow, the little pine will, we hope, mature into a gnarled gnome in proportion and harmony with its woodland setting. Of course, we plan to provide a new box at root-pruning time before the old one can rot and set the dwarfed roots free to roam the soil around it.

INDOOR BONSAI, HARDY OR SEMIHARDY

The real Japanese bonsai is an outdoor inhabitant, usually one of a collection that is brought indoors for display purposes and for only a few days at a time. But by using tender plants that want more warmth, growers are beginning to create bonsai that can be used decoratively indoors the year round. In a shadow box, on a coffee table or special stand, even as a table centerpiece they should always be alone and with no accessories to detract from their unique style.

Last winter I thoroughly enjoyed starting a collection of indoor miniatures, frank copies of Japanese _name_ bonsai, and even the wee fingertip _shinto_ type. These are a special challenge because to preserve proper proportion, leaves and needles must be extra small, and pruning and training are particularly crucial. Water is applied with an eyedropper; fertilizer is administered in microscopic amounts. To provide protective humidity and warmth, and to help keep the small amount of soil in tiny containers from drying out, we rigged up plastic-covered quarters on a window sill, with a layer of moist vermiculite. Our tray was also improvised from a double layer of heavyweight aluminum foil. Now, all but the youngest, and the very smallest, miniatures are strong enough to grow on glass shelves outside the plastic tent.

Indoor plants, bonsai-style, are more than just tender seedlings, or cuttings, kept small in small containers. They are patterned after true bonsai, with interesting character, artistic lines, and perfect proportion. The mechanics of pruning and training are very much the same. But because they are not hardy outdoor growers that resent the hot dry air of a house, and because they don’t need annual dormancy, they are fascinating indoor ornaments to be lived with and enjoyed the year round.

Different types of bonsai trees and containers]

Bonsai in citrus]

Once we became intrigued with the concept of “indoor bonsai” we found so many house and greenhouse plants with picturesque prospects that I fear we will never get to try them all. I have seedlings and cuttings of all sorts, even including those from a breakfast orange and a pomegranate out of the fruit bowl. And, of course, small plants sold by mail-order suppliers are just the right size to begin the process of dwarfing and shaping.

(_In the list at the end of Chapter 6, plants suitable for indoor bonsai use are indicated._)

OUTDOOR PLANTS FOR DWARFING, BONSAI-STYLE

With proper care, any woody plant--any tree, shrub, or vine with persisting trunk or stems--can be grown indefinitely in a pot. With some skill in pruning branches and roots, it can be permanently dwarfed. And with imagination and artistry, it can be trained to re-create in miniature one of the majestic pictures of nature. However, some plants are more amenable to rigorous dwarfing than others; some adapt more willingly to growing in containers; and some are by nature more suitable in habit and appearance.

The easiest plants to dwarf are those that are naturally small, or slow growing, and those with small leaves or needles, flowers or fruit. Proportion is the most important factor. Every element--leaf, twig, branch, trunk, root, container--must be in harmony and balance with all others.

It’s not impossible to use larger-leaved plants. It’s just a little more difficult. Long needles can be cut shorter, for example, but they must be kept the proper length. Large leaves can be thinned to relieve any feeling of heaviness, and each leaf can be used to represent a branch. With some types of deciduous trees--say, maples--the leaves that come out first in the spring can be pinched off. The leaves that come out to replace them will be smaller.

Almost equally important is the “character” of a dwarfed plant--its irregular or fluid lines, illusion of age, unusual aspect of bark or twig that make it dramatic and vibrant. Any form of art can be dull if it has nothing except perfect proportion to offer. With good proportion, plus intriguing line and design, it becomes interesting.

In the original bonsai the artist transplanted a tree he found growing in the wild and carefully conserved the misshapen lines made by buffeting weather, or he very carefully copied, or re-created, a tree he had seen holding a precarious footing high on a rocky ridge and perhaps dipping down into a windy gorge. These shapes and forms are now the basis for specific classes of bonsai which we can borrow or adapt. So the “character” of a plant may suggest that it be trained as if it were growing out at a right angle from a rocky slope with its roots covering a stone; as a grove, to weep or cascade; or as a gigantic, single-trunked forest monarch with pitted, weather-worn bark.

Or perhaps, lightning might have split the trunk, leaving part of it jagged and dead. The two trunks may have become entangled with each other. Branches may have been blown in one direction so long that they bend that way permanently.

_Types of Plants_

Any woody plant whose parts are in proper proportion for dwarfing--and particularly, any that shows promise of interesting lines or “character”--is a good prospect for bonsai. The coniferous evergreens are most popular, because they hold their foliage all year, and because small-needled types are comparatively plentiful. Small-leaved deciduous trees can be at their most attractive best with spring’s budding new growth, summer’s airy foliage, fall’s brilliant color, or with the silhouette of a naked trunk in winter.

With flowering trees and shrubs the choice of varieties narrows even more. Large flowers with brilliant color and overpowering fragrance may destroy balance and proportion, and detract from the beauty of the plant itself. More delicate plants are more likely to enhance the picture. For obvious reasons, plants that bear fruits and berries in the proper scale are the hardest to find, and culturally the most difficult.

(_For plants that are suitable for outdoor bonsai, see list at the end of Chapter 14._)

_Sources_

Bonsai becomes a reality faster, of course, when you start with a fairly mature plant. The most fruitful source is the selection of three-year-old trees and shrubs at your local nursery. Those growing in gallon-sized cans, or other containers, naturally accept pruning and transplanting with the least setback. They should be healthy plants, not overgrown or neglected, that have been regularly root-pruned and transplanted through their infancy. It is perfectly safe to buy them pot-bound if that condition has not persisted for several seasons, with the outer roots all dead as a result.

In selecting a specimen, first examine varieties that are by nature slow-growing and have leaves, or needles, in perfect scale. Be selective, pass up the symmetrical specimens that are best for ordinary landscaping purposes, and look for that one plant in a thousand, the one with interesting “character”--peculiarity of shape, irregular branches, low horizontal growth, stocky or twisted trunk. The most ideal plant has its largest branch near the base, and has no regular or opposite branches to be pruned away. Next to above-ground development in importance, is the below-ground root system. To be ideal, the root system should be a compact, shallow mass rather than one long taproot with a few offshoots. To make it even more ideal, the stoutest roots should be growing near the surface.

Younger, smaller bonsai plants are readily available from mail-order suppliers who specialize in them. Here, make your selection according to variety, and then train your plants as you grow them. But beware of cheap “bargain offers.” I speak with this advice because of the experience of some of my friends. They were too intrigued by Sunday-newspaper ads. Buy only from reliable growers who have invested time and care in developing healthy plants and, better yet, have labeled them true to name. For those who are more interested in the finished work of art than in the growing and creating of it, some florists and nurseries advertise mature, or nearly mature, bonsai. Again may I say, “Beware.” The supplier’s reliability is even more important.

Sometimes you can find precious bonsai-type shrubs or trees growing in the wild. Small seedlings of hemlock, ash, birch, maple, and some elms, if they are dug very carefully--and at just about any time of the year--can be used as miniature bonsai, or they can be planted in the garden for a few years until they are larger. Usually, the taproot has to be cut back rather severely to encourage the development of a spreading mass of smaller roots. Start your regular pruning as soon as the plant recovers from transplanting shock.

The larger native plants should be taken when they are dormant, in late fall or the earliest spring. In searching, look for those that have been naturally dwarfed and misshapen by misfortune. In digging, make sure the soil is so moist that much of it will cling to the roots. Keep the roots moist and well covered against drying sun and winds until the transplant is safely in the soil again. For any such wildlings, take along enough of the surrounding soil to fill the container into which they are going. This will make them feel at home in their new place in the garden bed.

Many growers now propagate their own bonsai plants; thus they can control shape, root-spread, line, and design from the very beginning. Almost all of the propagating methods outlined in Chapter 10 are useful here, some especially so. Cuttings of all kinds will produce stout-trunked plants much faster than seeds. Plants such as willow, holly, ginkgo, and ivy can be started from stems as thick as an inch or so in diameter. With cuttings you can have quantities of new plants from one parent, all with the same variegations or other characteristics.

Either ground or air layering can give you plants that are larger than those obtained from cuttings. By selecting a certain branch you can be surer of getting the characteristics and shape you want. If your bonsai is to be well balanced, select a well-proportioned branch with close twiggy growth. By layering you can also correct an unattractive bonsai, growing a new one from a plant that has become too tall and gangly, or one that has badly formed roots.

Grafting for bonsai plants is not widely practiced because too often it leaves a visible scar or some other sign of artificiality, and also because there is the danger of undesirable sprouts shooting up from the roots. Plants from a graft are generally weaker than cuttings or layers which have their own roots. If your plant happens to be a valuable one, you can often improve its shape by grafting on new branches where they will do the most good; or good branches can be grafted onto picturesque, gnarled roots. I have never made a serious effort to graft in such cases, but I have seen some good results from the work of other growers.

Growing bonsai plants from seed requires infinite patience--as a warning, the process takes years. But seedlings, once you have them going, and with the healthiest of root systems, will live indefinitely. Seeds of bonsai-type plants are available from several growers. Should they need special preparation, such as nicking or stratifying, the seed packets should say so.

When seedlings have several true leaves and are ready for transplanting, cut back the strong taproot (should there be one) by at least one-third. This will encourage root-branching. When potting seedlings, spread the side roots so they will develop evenly near the soil surface. Pruning and training can begin while the plants are still quite young. Plant the stem on a slant. Pinch new tip growth for development of side branches. Tie straight trunk stems to a bamboo cane, or perhaps just a sliver; or otherwise guide the young shrub, or tree, toward the lines you have in mind for its mature effect.

BONSAI CONTAINERS

In no other art form is it more obvious that a subordinate element such as a container can make or mar the perfection of a picture. For instance, with a painting the frame can have small faults without lessening the impression of a masterpiece. But bonsai is so stark that a slight imperfection can become a glaring error. So, although the container is merely a supporting feature, it becomes only a little less important than the center of interest, the plant. It must harmonize with the plant, reflect and supplement its beauty, and not detract from its leading role.

Imported Japanese bonsai containers of the traditional type, now readily available, are usually shallow bowls or dishes of glazed (or unglazed) ceramic. They are never glazed on the inside and are usually sold in sets of three matched units of graduated size. Contemporary American artists and manufacturers are also turning out pans and trays made of dull metals, tile, and wood. The wood may be either of a natural finish or artistically weathered. For outdoor bonsai, wood must necessarily be treated for durability and weather resistance.

For indoor plantings, containers can very often be improvised. I’ve used bronze ash trays, wooden salad bowls, shapely plastic dishes (shallow), and odds and ends of pottery--anything of the right motif in which it is possible to bore, drill, or chip drainage holes on the bottom. Many of our modern ceramics are in complete harmony with bonsai. But you must have those drainage holes, otherwise your watering problems are compounded.

The ideal bonsai containers are seldom ornate; really they shouldn’t be. They should have the grace and elegance of “expensive simplicity,” which doesn’t mean they are expensive. They just look as though they were. Colors are subdued, not bright or showy. As a rule to follow, darker and somber shades are used for evergreens, lighter shades for flowering plants, the specific choice depending on the color of the bloom. In shape and form, bonsai containers are simple and graceful and are selected to set off the shape or lines of the plants. Erect trunks often take shallow, rectangular containers. Hanging or weeping lines call for round containers with more depth. Square or oval containers are used for extremely delicate, graceful subjects.

Container size, of course, depends on the plants themselves. As a general rule, the smallest and most shallow container that is culturally practical, and in good proportion, is the best. In true bonsai containers, diameters range from two to twenty-five inches; depths, from one to ten inches. The accepted rule for good proportions allows the plant to occupy 80 per cent of the picture, the container 20 per cent. Should you have very small plants the ratio is slightly changed--60 per cent for plant, 40 per cent for the container. However, these figures should not be considered as hard and fast, but as a guide when purchasing containers. Your eye may tell you what is better suited for your particular plant or shrub.

PLANTING AND CARE

Rather specific cultural practices have evolved for dwarfing hardy garden plants, trees, and shrubs, and growing them in small containers. Tender house and greenhouse plants, dwarfed and grown as indoor bonsai, are also potted, pruned, trained, and watered as outlined in this chapter. Otherwise, they are grown like the window-garden plants in