Category: Journal

Besides the two bonsai trees, I have also got two small Crape Myrtle (aka Lagerstroemia indica , or 紫薇 in Chinese) cuttings from the mini bonsai class of Hong Kong Institute of Lingnan Penjing. In less than 1.5 months, both cuttings have grown some new branches ,and now are blooming beautifully with some bright pink flowers and red berries.

For the past few weeks, I have been hanging out in the workshop of Hong Kong Institute of Lingnan Penjing quite often. Since it’s in the outskirt of Yuen Long, it takes me over an hour to get there. But because I learn so much and really enjoy my time there, I always like to go there whenever possible 😀

In this post – My First Contact with Bonsai, you can find more photos of the workshop.

There is a greenhouse in the workshop too. Interestingly, my teacher is trying to grow small watermelons like grapes, training the plants to grow up along the rope. He said that by this way, more watermelons can be grown in a small place. This is the first time he is trying to grow watermelon like this. I am very much looking forward to see how things will go here 😉

Bonsai (or Penjing in Chinese) is the art of aesthetic miniaturization of trees and plants, recreating the beautiful scenery we find in nature in pots and trays.

So even though this tabletop garden doesn’t look like anything close to those potted trees and landscapes that we usually call as bonsai, I really think that this is a bonsai, for it is reliving a scene in the nature. Ok, we probably can’t find Doraemon in our world, but let’s use a little of our imagination. And didn’t we all want a Doraemon when we were kids? In fact, I still want one now… haha

I have joined the Hong Kong Institute of Lingnan Penjing recently (“Lingnan” means Southern style, and “Penjing” is bonsai in Chinese, and sorry guys, the Lingnan Penjing website is only in Chinese), and attended its mini bonsai class. The class was good. I have learned a lot and met many bonsai enthusiasts in the class. And by the end of the class, each of us was given two bonsai trees. Now, we can experiment and practice all the theories we have learned.

As ignorant as I may sound, before the classes, I had this impression that bonsai is like a gardening style that only grandfathers love. However, after learning more about bonsai art and meeting some bonsai enthusiasts, I was quite surprised to find that there are actually quite a big group of bonsai enthusiasts, both women and men, who are in their 30’s and 40’s.

And instead of a gardening style, I should say that bonsai is a type of art. Bonsai takes pruning and controlling growth of plants to the extreme.

Out of curiosity, I took a few bonsai classes a few weeks ago. Before I took these classes, I had had zero knowledge in bonsai, and I wasn’t at all interested in growing a bonsai. I was just curious in finding out what separates good bonsai tree from bad bonsai tree. Why do some bonsai tree in the Flower Market cost less than HKD 100, while some others are being sold in auctions for a six-digit price? After taking the bonsai classes, I have finally learned the answers of these questions. Moreover, I have developed a deeper appreciation and respect for this special form of art.