Quick Tips for Indoor Bonsai

Bonsai make great additions to your home. If you have bonsai that you keep indoors, here are some quick tips for keeping them at their best.

• Make sure the species that you have is well suited to being kept indoors. One good species for indoor bonsai are Ficus.
• Keep your bonsai in the right spot in you home. Bonsai, like all plants, love light. A well lit window that doesn't receive large amounts of direct sunlight is best. Direct sunlight can cause the plant to get to warm and dry out. It should also be noted that you should never keep bonsai on top of or near electrical equipment, such as televisions or computers. Bonsai require water, and water and electricity don't mix well. It is also important to turn the tree every few days so that all sides of it receive equal light.
• Make sure that your bonsai's soil stays moist. Water only when needed though. Too much water can kill the tree just as fast a too little. (On a side note, when you water your bonsai, you might want to put a tray underneath it because the water will drain out of the pot, potentially ruining anything in the vicinity.)
• Mist your bonsai regularly. Bonsai like humidity, and their desire for that can be satisfied through misting it about twice a day. It also helps to keep the leaves clean and free of dust. When covered in dust, it is hard for a tree to transpire properly, which can also harm the tree.
• Don't close the curtains with the bonsai still in the window, especially if it is starting to get colder outside, or you live in a climate where it becomes very cold at night. The curtains may help to keep the cold out of your house, but traps it around your bonsai. The best solution is to simply take your bonsai out of the window at night.
• Just like outdoor trees, indoor bonsai need fertilizer. During the growing season, be sure to fertilize the tree.
• Indoor bonsai need to be repotted. Younger trees need to be repotted every year, typically in the spring because they grow more vigorously than their more mature counterparts, which should be repotted every two to three years.

Growing bonsai indoors requires a little more care in some aspects, but has many benefits. All plants, including bonsai, improve the air quality in a home because they emit oxygen into the environment. Growing bonsai indoors also ensures that you can care for them no matter what the weather conditions are outside.

Any other techniques for keeping an indoor bonsai in tip-top shape? Share your ideas in the  comments!

Budget Bonsai: A List of Ways to Get New Bonsai on a Budget

Buying a new bonsai can often times be expensive. A lot of time goes into creating a bonsai tree, and that is reflected in the price. If you want a new bonsai, but don't want to break your budget, then this is the article for you. Here are eight ways to get budget bonsai.

1. Seedlings in your front yard - If you have trees in your yard, the chances are very good that there are seedlings popping up all over the place. Pull them up and put them into a pot, and you have a baby bonsai that you can start training to be a mame (mini) bonsai, or let it grow and mature, and begin shaping it when it is a little thicker.

2. Seeds - Starting a bonsai from seeds is certainly the one that takes the longest, but it can be fun to watch your tree grow from a tiny seed.

3. Discarded garden plants - Discarded garden plants can make great bonsai. They are already a decent age and have the characteristics of a mature plant. Even if they look more like a shrub at first than a tree, trim it back a little, wire the branches, and soon it will start to look like the start of a good bonsai. Is your neighbor planning on taking out some bushes? Offer to take a few so that perfectly good plants don't die.

4. Cuttings and air layering - Using cuttings and air layering, you can get a jump start on having a nice thick trunk that could otherwise take years to develop from a seed. Rooting hormone is a good thing to buy if you are using this method. It isn't that expensive either (I got a container of it for about $4).

5. The local garden center - To buy bonsai from a local garden center, you don't have to buy bonsai from the local garden center. By that I mean that if you want to be able to go to a store and buy a bonsai, you don't have to buy a pre-made bonsai. You can buy a small juniper bush, which costs about $5 at a local Walmart, Lowes, or Home Depot, and train it to look like a bonsai. It might require more work, but it is rewarding to know that you created the bonsai yourself - at a fraction of the cost. Another benefit of this is finding a wide selection of species for bonsai. You can also buy pre-made bonsai at a garden center, but their selection is typically limited to figs (Ficus). 

6. The Internet - Sites like eBay, Craigslist, and Amazon are great for buying hard to find species of bonsai. With sites like these, you can find great deals on not only bonsai, but really everything a bonsai enthusiast needs, from soil, fertilizer, and containers, to shears, shovels, and wire cutters.

7. A specialist bonsai nursery - You can buy pre-made bonsai at bonsai nurseries if you are willing to spend a bit of money, but the cheaper alternative when shopping here is to buy young, unshaped trees.

8. Garden festivals - At garden festivals, there are often vendors who sell bonsai. These vendors sometimes offer special deals as a way to attract new costumers to their business.

Hey, budget-conscious bonsai cultivators! Please share any ideas for obtaining and growing bonsai on a budget in the comments section below!