What is a Bonsai Tree and How is it Formed?

Video Transcript

What is a bonsai and what differentiates a bonsai from a bush. I think what we’re looking at here today is a prime example of the same species of tree. This is the bush, it has grown as nature has let it grow. This is a bonsai tree that was made from a bush very very similar to this, about the same size even. This bonsai tree, not long ago, was shaped from a bush similar to this one. The essence of the bonsai art is to capture, in miniature, in living form a tree that is miniature of its larger counterpart in nature. We do that by taking a larger, starting with a larger tree, and pruning and shaping the tree over time, putting it in a decorative pot, an appropriate pot, and this then becomes the bonsai art. Anything other than this is not bonsai, it’s a shrub in a pot.