The Complete Book of Bonsai: A Practical Guide to Its Art & Cultivation

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Overview

Presenting a unique blend of information and ideas, The Complete Book of Bonsai is the most lavish and up-to-date guide to the subject yet published. Harry Tomlinson is an internationally recognized authority on bonsai, and here brings this absorbing discipline within everybody's reach.

CLASSIC STYLES EXPLAINED

The origins and development of bonsai are traced, and the underlying principles of this fascinating art clearly explained. The classic ...

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Overview

Presenting a unique blend of information and ideas, The Complete Book of Bonsai is the most lavish and up-to-date guide to the subject yet published. Harry Tomlinson is an internationally recognized authority on bonsai, and here brings this absorbing discipline within everybody's reach.

CLASSIC STYLES EXPLAINED

The origins and development of bonsai are traced, and the underlying principles of this fascinating art clearly explained. The classic styles are listed and illustrated, together with full descriptions of how they were derived from models in the world. Outstanding examples of plantings in all of the various styles are shown. The types of containers are detailed, and the importance of their use for different trees or styles explained. Advice is given on placing and exhibiting your completed bonsai.

CLEAR STEP-BY-STEP SEQUENCES

There is comprehensive information on how to create a bonsai from a seedling, cutting, or garden center plant. Clear step-by-step sequences take you from the initial raw material through to the finished bonsai, showing the superb results that can be achieved. All the tools and techniques of bonsai are illustrated and explained, and their use described in detail. Maintenance and propagation sections tell you everything you need to know to keep your bonsai beautiful and healthy, or to create your own trees.

DETAILS OF MORE THAN 100 SPECIES

A photographic catalogue of bonsai trees and shrubs lies at the heart of the book, providing the cultivation and styling details of over 100 different species. Each entry is accompanied by an original full-color photograph of at least one outstanding specimen. This section is supplemented by afurther compendium of trees and shrubs that can be grown as bonsai, giving a total of over 300 to choose from.

The Complete Book of Bonsai reveals every aspect of the art, with inspirational ideas and practical advice at every turn. Whether you are a beginner who would like to grow just one ore two trees, or an experienced enthusiast who wishes to build up a whole collection, it is the essential reference work.

Other Details: 700 full-color illustrations 224 pages 9 x 9" Published 1991

enthusiasm and commitment, but it can be approached at many different levels of interest, ambition and ability. I welcome the wide range of interest that exists, from the person with only one or two trees that provide appreciation of the changing of the seasons, to the skilled and dedicated grower whose collection of trees exemplifies bonsai's status as a fine art.

My love of books is incorporated in my fascination with bonsai. I have a comprehensive personal library of bonsai books from all over the world, but I also attempt at my studio to retail the widest possible range of suitable books on bonsai. Over the years, through customers' comments, I have come to realize that the existing books do not completely satisfy their needs. Although there are a few titles that represent an authoritative introduction to the art, some books are written by authors who sell bonsai but never create any, others by authors whose business it is to write books but who have no practical involvement with bonsai.

I have no aspirations to become a professional author, but I am a professional bonsai grower and teacher of the techniques. My aim with this book is to provide a practical reference work of equal value to the beginner and the more experienced enthusiast. I seek to encourage people to try bonsai for themselves and this is the attitude I have tried to foster throughout the book. By following the projects in the chapter entitled Creating a Bonsai, you can be assured of a reasonable result. But remember that this is just a beginning--even the most famous artists had to begin with small steps that simply taught them their craft. Your own progress in both the technical and artistic aspects of bonsai can be tailored to your specific interests, the time you wish to put in, and the enjoyment that you get from growing bonsai. As with a bonsai, which matures and improves with the passing years, your pleasure and satisfaction in growing bonsai can only increase over time.

"This is the most thorough, lavishly... illustrated book any bonsai enthusiast could wish for, written with clarity and inspiration by one of Europe's leading experienced authorities." --Choice

"The author's passion for his subject is communicated on every page." --Elle Decor

"The photographs alone are worth the purchase price." --The Sacramento (Calif.) Bee

Author Biography: Harry Tomlinson is one of Europe's leading bonsai artists and instructors. He has been both studying and practicing the principles of bonsai for almost thirty years, and is an internationally recognized authority on the subject. He has exhibited bonsai and gained awards in Britain and Japan, and has judged the bonsai section at Britain's world-famous Chelsea Flower Show. For the past thirteen years the author has been a professional bonsai artist with his own studio, and is a leading bonsai nurseryman. Greenwood Bonsai Studio, which he runs with his wife Christine, is the largest and most complete bonsai nursery in Britain.

Elvin McDonald, who wrote the Foreword, is Director of Special Projects at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.

Presenting a unique blend of information and ideas, The Complete Book of Bonsai is a comprehensive, practical guide to the traditions and artistic principles of growing and maintaining bonsai trees. Over 300 bonsai trees and shrubs are described, over 100 of them in an outstanding full-color photographic catalogue.

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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9781558591189
  • Publisher: Abbeville Press, Incorporated
  • Publication date: 3/28/1991
  • Pages: 224
  • Sales rank: 322,093
  • Product dimensions: 9.30 (w) x 11.20 (h) x 0.90 (d)

Read an Excerpt

Introduction

I am often asked when it was and why that I first became attached to bonsai. My earliest recollection dates back to a rainy holiday around 1950 spent visiting my aunt and uncle. I would like to be able to say that they employed a scholarly, kind, elderly Japanese gardener who entrusted me with the ancient oriental secrets of bonsai culture and set me on a path of spiritual enlightenment. However, the truth is more prosaic. Out of boredom, kept indoors by the wet weather, and being an avid and compulsive reader of everything from cereal packets to the complete works of Charles Dickens, I started on the only reading matter in the house--a set of rather decrepit encyclopedias. Luckily, the rain lasted for several days, long enough for me to complete all the As and most of the Bs (for many years I was a child prodigy on any subject from A to B).

The only distinct impression I retain from this industrious study is that of bonsai. My imagination was stirred, and for weeks my parents had to contend with plant pots full of seeds and saplings on windowsills all around the house. I scoured the local library for any more information about bonsai, without success. The initial interest, without further fuel, subsided.

About ten years later, I came across "The Japanese Art of Trees and Landscapes" by Yuji Yoshimura and Giovanna M. Halford (first published by Charles E. Tuttle in 1957 and still a valued work, with its thirty-first printing in 1987, this was the first major book on bonsai published in English), and the flame of my earlier interest was rekindled and I was soon addicted. As the interest in bonsai in the West grew, more and more books in English became available andI bought and studied every one. Gradually, but inevitably, bonsai took over my life--to such an extent that in 1979 I resigned, after almost twenty years, my executive post in the Civil Service to devote my life to bonsai.

Nature and Art

It is unlikely that anyone browsing through this book would be completely unaware of what constitutes a bonsai, if only by virtue of the wealth of illustrations in these pages. But I have delivered talks on the subject to groups that included people expecting to see a demonstration of martial arts or hear about the problems of breeding long-haired dogs. Even those who identify the term correctly often have misconceptions about what bonsai is.

Bonsai, although a Japanese word, is used and understood throughout the world. There is no convenient English translation: "a tree or shrub trained and pruned in such a way as to resemble a full-size tree, grown in a shallow container for artistic effect and as an impression of nature" is an accurate but not very concise definition. "Bonsai" is actually composed of two words: "bon", meaning a shallow tray or container; and "sai", a plant or planting. This is literal, but "bonsai" implies much more than the literal translation. It implies the element of art that distinguishes a bonsai from a potted tree.

Learning about Bonsai

I often feel, when addressing an audience of newcomers to bonsai, that I should issue something in the nature of a health warning. Not that bonsai are likely to damage your health (unless you drop a particularly large specimen on your foot), but the love of bonsai can and does become an addiction.

During my thirty years of addiction to bonsai, I have become heavily involved with the bonsai world, both nationally and internationally. As well as growing countless bonsai and selling them (as many as I can bear to part with), I run classes and workshops in my studio and tour the world demonstrating bonsai techniques.

My approach to teaching has always been the same, based on an almost simplistic view that anyone can appreciate bonsai and that creating bonsai is easy--anyone can do it. I totally disagree with the attitude that bonsai is a "mystical" art that requires years of skill and dedication to achieve results (implying that some people can never aspire to this level). Bonsai does require enthusiasm and commitment, but it can be approached at many different levels of interest, ambition and ability. I welcome the wide range of interest that exists, from the person with only one or two trees that provide appreciation of the changing of the seasons, to the skilled and dedicated grower whose collection of trees exemplifies bonsai's status as a fine art.

My love of books is incorporated in my fascination with bonsai. I have a comprehensive personal library of bonsai books from all over the world, but I also attempt at my studio to retail the widest possible range of suitable books on bonsai. Over the years, through customers' comments, I have come to realize that the existing books do not completely satisfy their needs. Although there are a few titles that represent an authoritative introduction to the art, some books are written by authors who sell bonsai but never create any, others by authors whose business it is to write books but who have no practical involvement with bonsai.

I have no aspirations to become a professional author, but I am a professional bonsai grower and teacher of the techniques. My aim with this book is to provide a practical reference work of equal value to the beginner and the more experienced enthusiast. I seek to encourage people to try bonsai for themselves and this is the attitude I have tried to foster throughout the book. By following the projects in the chapter entitled Creating a Bonsai, you can be assured of a reasonable result. But remember that this is just a beginning--even the most famous artists had to begin with small steps that simply taught them their craft. Your own progress in both the technical and artistic aspects of bonsai can be tailored to your specific interests, the time you wish to put in, and the enjoyment that you get from growing bonsai. As with a bonsai, which matures and improves with the passing years, your pleasure and satisfaction in growing bonsai can only increase over time.

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Table of Contents

Foreword

Introduction

The Art of Bonsai

Creating A Bonsai

Bonsai Species Guide

Routine Maintenance

Propagation Techniques

Compendium of Trees and Shrubs for Bonsai

Glossary of Terms

Index

Acknowledgments

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Customer Reviews

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Sort by: Showing all of 5 Customer Reviews
  • Posted May 14, 2013

    As I'm brand new to the art of bonsai I really wanted a source t

    As I'm brand new to the art of bonsai I really wanted a source that was going to give me a solid and comprehensive overview. This book did just that. Broken down into easily digestible  segments, the author covers everything from the origins, best display practices and art concepts right through to the "good stuff" of care for wide range of species and general maintenance. There were a few sections that I wish could have been further expanded or offered a bit more detail but I anticipate that with the wealth of knowledge concerning a thousands year old art form you need to pick and choose your battles carefully. Overall this was an exemplary source of information and I'm certain that I'll be referencing it constantly as I delve further into this fascinating and beautiful art form.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted October 11, 2000

    The Definitive Book on what Bonsai is and Can Be!

    This is a gorgeous book, with full page pictures on Bonsai trees from around the world. Some very rare species, designs of these beautiful art forms. A must have!

    0 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

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    Posted November 27, 2009

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    Posted February 28, 2011

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    Posted February 9, 2009

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