question: Why are Bonsai trees so hard to care for? What makes them any different from a regular tree?
comment: Bonsai trees are regular trees or shrubs that have been carefully sculpted to be teensy fun-size trees. They're unique and fragile works of art. They need to be carefully cared for; their root systems suck because you have to put them in a really cramped pot to stunt their growth, and you have to constantly prune them to keep them in shape. Like, imagine if paintings needed to be touched up every month. It's fine as long as the original artist is around, and if they're not available you can get a professional restorer, but you let am amateur get at it just once and bam, monkey Jesus.
passages: Small trees grown in containers, like bonsai, require specialized care. Unlike houseplants and other subjects of container gardening, tree species in the wild, in general, grow roots up to several meters long and root structures encompassing several thousand liters of soil. In contrast, a typical bonsai container is under 25 centimeters in its largest dimension and 2 to 10 liters in volume. Branch and leaf (or needle) growth in trees is also of a larger scale in nature. Wild trees typically grow 5 meters or taller when mature, whereas the largest bonsai rarely exceed 1 meter and most specimens are significantly smaller. These size differences affect maturation, transpiration, nutrition, pest resistance, and many other aspects of tree biology. Maintaining the long-term health of a tree in a container requires some specialized care techniques:
   Traditionally, bonsai are temperate climate trees grown outdoors in containers. Kept in the artificial environment of a home, these trees weaken and die. But a number of tropical and sub-tropical tree species will survive and grow indoors. Some of these tropical and sub-tropical species are suited to bonsai aesthetics and can be shaped much as traditional outdoor bonsai are.
  
  Section::::See also.
  
  BULLET::::- Bonsai aesthetics – aesthetics of Japanese tradition in bonsai
  
  BULLET::::- Bonsai cultivation and care – cultivation and care of small, container-grown trees
  
  BULLET::::- Bonsai styles – conventional styles in the Japanese tradition
   Common bonsai species (particularly those from the Japanese tradition) are temperate climate trees from hardiness zones 7 to 9, and require moderate temperatures, moderate humidity, and full sun in summer with a dormancy period in winter that may need be near freezing. They do not thrive indoors, where the light is generally too dim, and humidity often too low, for them to grow properly. Only during their dormant period can they safely be brought indoors, and even then the plants require cold temperatures, reduced watering, and lighting that approximates the number of hours the sun is visible. Raising the temperature or providing more hours of light than available from natural daylight can cause the bonsai to break dormancy, which often weakens or kills it.
   Small trees grown in containers, like bonsai, require specialized care. Unlike most houseplants, flowering shrubs, and other subjects of container gardening, tree species in the wild generally grow individual roots up to several meters long and root structures encompassing hundreds or thousands of liters of soil. In contrast, a typical bonsai container allows a fraction of a meter for root extension, and holds 2 to 10 liters of soil and root mass. Branch and leaf (or needle) growth in trees is also large-scale in nature. Wild trees typically grow 5 meters or taller when mature, while the largest bonsai rarely exceed 1 meter and most specimens are significantly smaller. These size differences affect maturation, transpiration, nutrition, pest resistance, and many other aspects of tree biology. Maintaining the long-term health of a tree in a container requires a number of specialized care techniques.
   BULLET::::- "Crassula ovata": The jade plant is a very robust and drought-resistant house plant. The miniature cultivars like the baby jade plant ("C. ovata arborescens") is considered the best plant for a first bonsai. This plant will sprout on old wood. Thus, an old specimen can be pruned back to a stockier shape with thick trunk. It is kept dry in winter, placed outdoors in summer for full growth. Its roots are thin and cannot be exposed.
   BULLET::::- "Ficus benjamina": The Weeping Fig is a popular indoor tree that lends itself to the classical, upright form. It is one of the few tropicals that are accepted as "true" bonsai. The miniature cultivars like 'Too Little' are also well suited for bonsai. It forms aerial roots and can be shaped as a banyan tree. Ficus are intolerant to branch down-pruning; one must start with a small tree and keep it small. They are sensitive to stress.
   BULLET::::- "Camellia japonica" (Common camellia), "Camellia sinensis": In the mountains of Japan and Korea, trees of the "Camellia" family grow up to 10 to 12 meters high. "Camellia sinensis" in particular suit bonsai treatment, with relatively small leaves and flowers.
  
  BULLET::::- "Carmona microphylla": The sturdy trunk and glossy green leaves of the Fukien Tea make an attractive indoor bonsai. Tiny white flowers appear regularly, and a characteristically rough or gnarled bark gives an appearance of age on even young bonsai.
   Section::::Styling techniques.:Pruning.
   Section::::Styling techniques.:Deadwood.
   Section::::Cultivation and care.
  
  Bonsai cultivation and care requires techniques and tools that are specialized to support the growth and long-term maintenance of trees in small containers.
  
  Section::::Cultivation and care.:Material sources.
   The term "bonsai" is generally used in English as an umbrella term for all miniature trees in containers or pots. In this article "bonsai" should be understood to include any container-grown tree that is regularly styled or shaped, not just one being maintained in the Japanese bonsai tradition.
   The small size of the tree and some dwarfing of foliage result from pruning the trunk, branches, and roots. Pruning is often the first step in transforming a collected plant specimen into a candidate for bonsai. The top part of the trunk may be removed to make the tree more compact. Major and minor branches that conflict with the designer's plan will be removed completely, and others may be shortened to fit within the planned design. Pruning later in the bonsai's life is generally less severe, and may be done for purposes like increasing branch ramification or encouraging growth of non-pruned branches. Although pruning is an important and common bonsai practice, it must be done with care, as improper pruning can weaken or kill trees. Careful pruning throughout the tree's life is necessary, however, to maintain a bonsai's basic design, which can otherwise disappear behind the uncontrolled natural growth of branches and leaves.
   Bonsai can be created from nearly any perennial woody-stemmed tree or shrub species which produces true branches and remains small through pot confinement with crown and root pruning. Some species are popular as bonsai material because they have characteristics, such as small leaves or needles, that make them appropriate for the compact visual scope of bonsai. Bonsai cultivation techniques are different from other tree cultivation techniques in allowing mature (though miniature) trees to grow in small containers, to survive with extremely restricted root and canopy structures, and to support comprehensive, repeated styling manipulations.
  
  Section::::Sources of bonsai material.
   Section::::Styling techniques.:Defoliation.
   The grower has some control over the following environmental variables, and by controlling them effectively for individual specimens can ensure the health of native species grown as bonsai, and can cultivate some non-native species successfully.
   BULLET::::- "Nursery stock" directly from a nursery, or from a garden centre or similar resale establishment.
  
  BULLET::::- "Commercial bonsai growers", which, in general, sell mature specimens that display bonsai aesthetic qualities already.
  
  BULLET::::- "Collecting" suitable bonsai material in its original wild situation, successfully moving it, and replanting it in a container for development as bonsai. These trees are called yamadori and are often the most expensive and prized of all Bonsai.
  
  Section::::Cultivation and care.:Techniques.
   Section::::Styling techniques.:Leaf trimming.
   Section::::Styling techniques.:Clamping.
  
  For larger specimens, or species with stiffer wood, bonsai artists also use mechanical devices for shaping trunks and branches. The most common are screw-based clamps, which can straighten or bend a part of the bonsai using much greater force than wiring can supply. To prevent damage to the tree, the clamps are tightened a little at a time and make their changes over a period of months or years.
  
  Section::::Styling techniques.:Grafting.
   The main aim of bonsai aesthetic practices is to create miniature trees with an air of age in their overall shapes, proportions, and details. The quintessential bonsai is a single, dwarfed tree in a small container. It has the appearance of a mature tree, but not of a completely natural one. Instead, a designer or artist has manipulated the shape and surfaces of the tree to enhance or exaggerate the tree's apparent age, and also to give it a defined "front" from which it is meant to be viewed. Anyone questioning the effect of the bonsai designer's work can test the quality of the design by viewing it from the rear, where exactly the same trunk and branches will generally look awkward, cluttered, or otherwise unattractive.
   BULLET::::- "Ficus neriifolia": According to Jerry Meislik, "the most useful fig for bonsai is the willow leafed fig. The small leaf is in excellent scale for bonsai and the tree has good branch ramification, good basal rootage and excellent aerial root formation."
  
  BULLET::::- "Portulacaria afra": The dwarf jade looks a lot like a baby jade plant and is used similarly.
   BULLET::::- "Feroniella lucida": Native to southeast Asia, this tree flowers and produces edible fruit. It is a slow grower in a container, but small leaves and a rough trunk make it very suitable for bonsai.
  
  BULLET::::- "Fraxinus uhdei" (Tropical ash): Though the leaf clusters do not match common bonsai aesthetics, this tree can be shaped into an effective bonsai, particularly as the trunk ages and develops character.
  
  BULLET::::- "Ligustrum sp.": Some privet species, including "Ligustrum japonica" and "Ligustrum rotundifolium", are suitable subjects for indoor bonsai.
   Bonsai are sometimes marketed or promoted as house plants, but few of the traditional bonsai species can thrive or even survive inside a typical house. Most bonsai are located out of doors. The best guideline to identifying a suitable growing environment for a bonsai is its native hardiness. If the bonsai grower can closely replicate the full year's temperatures, relative humidity, and sunlight, the bonsai should do well. In practice, this means that trees from a hardiness zone closely matching the grower's location will generally be the easiest to grow, and others will require more work or will not be viable at all.
   Section::::Styling techniques.:Wiring.
   Another general guideline touches on the proportion of the bonsai's various elements. The most prized proportions mimic those of a full-grown tree as closely as possible. Slender branches with heavy leaves or needles that are out of proportion are avoided, as is a thin trunk with thick branches. One of the few exceptions to this guideline is that flowers and fruit (on trees that produce them) are not considered to be flawed if they appear too large for the tree.
  
  Section::::General aesthetic principles.:Flexibility of the rules.
   BULLET::::- "Schefflera arboricola": The Hawaiian umbrella tree is a popular, hardy houseplant that is ideal for irregular, banyan or roots-on-rock forms. Since it can sprout on old wood, an old specimen can be pruned back to a stockier shape with thick trunk and roots. It tolerates root exposure very well, is drought-resistant and requires a moderate amount of light. Under high humidity conditions, it produces aerial roots and can therefore be shaped as a banyan tree.
  