| There are many different plants which can be used | | | | numerous materials suitable for bonsai in the nurseries |
| for bonsai gardening. Bamboos, pines and birches are | | | | and on the mountains in America. |
| good trees to use. | | | | If one only gathers a handful of seeds in the woods or |
| Bamboos (Bambusa) are among the finest of the | | | | somewhere, he can raise many nice bonsai in the |
| grasses for bonsai. There are numerous kinds of | | | | course of a few years. Bald cypress (Taxodium |
| bamboo. Dwarf ones and those of medium size easily | | | | distichum), birches (Betula), beeches (Fagus), pines |
| make fine bonsai. One can dwarf a tall bamboo by | | | | (Pinus), tupelo, or sour gum (Nyssa syl-vatica), sweet |
| peeling off the sheaths while the very young shoots | | | | gum (Liquidambar), spruce (Picea), larch (Larix), |
| are just coming up; a sheath may be taken off every | | | | Douglas-fir (Pseu-dotsuga), and many American trees |
| day or less often according to the hardness and | | | | provide plenty of seeds to start with; or seedlings may |
| growth of the young cane. | | | | be taken from the natural habitats in a way that will |
| If the upper part of a bamboo cane is cut off in early | | | | not damage the forest constitution. |
| summer or midsummer, when it is approximately | | | | I recall "California Jottings" by the Viscountess Byng of |
| full-grown, it will become densely foliaged the next | | | | Vimy in the Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society. In |
| year and be better-looking. | | | | her most interesting article she tells us: "Walking is an |
| Finished Bonsai | | | | incomprehensible thing to the average American, and |
| "Where can we get them?" will be the cry to the | | | | to their way of thinking you walk either because you |
| commercial Japanese bonsai fancier and to the | | | | have not got a car or because you are a mildly mental |
| American fancier from those who are seeking the | | | | case." However, I have hope, because walking is now |
| much-valued finished bonsai. However, such bonsai | | | | becoming more acceptable among many sections of |
| can be maintained in perfect condition or at a high | | | | the population. |
| standard only by a professional bonsaiman of long | | | | Now if you walk in the mountains, you will occasionally |
| experience or a fancier who has developed real skill | | | | find naturally dwarfed trees near mountain paths, on |
| with bonsai for long years. | | | | the cliffs of rocky coasts, ravines, and mountains, and |
| One who has secured these bonsai by accident or by | | | | on the peaks of mountains where eternal winds rule. |
| luck will be bothered and will find himself incessantly | | | | These will be good materials to start with. |
| busy, trying to maintain them in perfect condition. Of | | | | There can be no better way to talk about bonsai |
| course, anyone with sufficient interest (and fair skill in | | | | gardening than through the following poem: |
| plant culture), can learn to grow, train and maintain | | | | "Give me to fashion a thing; Give me to shape and |
| bonsai of merit. | | | | mould; |
| Plants to Begin With | | | | I have found out the song I can sing, I am happy, |
| There is a vast field of plants with which one may | | | | delivered, and bold." |
| pioneer in bonsai gardening or with which one may | | | | -Laurence Binyon, The Secret. |
| play, in the spirit of an amateur. There are, I think, | | | | |