Ethical Bonsai

The art of bonsai (bone-sigh, most commonly pronounced bon-zai) is known the world round. Many people either partake in the practice of bonsai or are mystified by those that grow these miniature trees. Ever since its origins in early Japan, bonsai has been a captivating subject for botanists and plant growing enthusiasts. There are however some people who liken bonsai to cruelty. After all trees are meant to be towering figures that reach for the sky, or are they?

To understand the debate surrounding whether bonsai is an ethical practice, or an unethical one, we need to examine what bonsai is and how it plays into plant physiology. 

What is the art of Bonsai?

Bonsai, translated literally as “grown in a small pot”, is the practice of growing trees or other woody plants in a small pot to restrict their growth. Bonsai is actually an adopted form of the older ancient Chinese art of creating miniature landscapes known as penjing (pen-jing). While the ancient Chinese created entire landscapes alongside miniature plants, the Japanese focused more on singular miniature plants.  

Originally, both penjing and bonsai were practices reserved for nobility and higher class society. They were often given and exchanged by royal families as gifts. Luckily, today, thanks to the worldwide recognition bonsai has received, anyone can practice this ancient art.

While the art has become much more widespread and accessible, it still requires a great deal of dedication and know-how to care for these tiny beings. Many people regard bonsai as works-of-art. This is certainly a valid viewpoint, however, they are still living creatures, they are living art and they need more attention than non-living art.

The restricted growth conditions, training (wiring, shaping, and pruning), and the idea that bonsai can be seen as art pieces rather than living creatures, is where the topic of bonsai ethics comes into play.

The Ethics of Growing Bonsai

For most people, they think of trees as monolithic shafts of bark and leaves that grow to enormous heights; anything else falls outside the quintessential concept of a typical tree. For the most part, this idea that all trees need to be extremely tall and have well-ramified canopies is brought about from the comparison of our own growth to that of a tree.

Most animals, generally, have a specific size range they reach at maturity. Cats generally tend to be around the same size at maturity, most humans end up somewhere between 5 and 6 feet tall once they are full-grown, etc. For animals, size is determined primarily by genetics. This is why people can’t reliably grow to 12 feet tall if they consume enough food while growing.

Plants, especially trees, do things a bit different when it comes to growing. You have likely noticed a large difference in the heights of various tree species. Douglas firs (Pseudotsuga [sue-dot-sue-ga] menziesii [men-zee-sigh]), for example, average between 60 - 100 feet tall once they are mature; however, one of the tallest trees on earth is a Douglas fir standing a little over 400 feet tall!

One of the main reasons for the variation in tree heights is that, most trees, grow continually until they die. Whereas a cat or dog reach full size within 2 years of life, a tree will continue to grow for hundreds to thousands of years!  

It turns out, some of the main limiting factors for plant growth are environmental rather than genetic. Genetics comes into play for plants as well, however, it has more to due with the average size a plant can become. For example, not all trees can reach 300 feet tall reliably like Coastal Redwoods (Sequoia [sec-oi-uh] sempervirens [semper-veer-ens]) can, that is due to genetics. You can and will find many coastal redwoods that are healthy and come in all sizes between 1 and 300 feet tall due to environmental factors.

For the topic of ethics, growing trees and keeping them small by influencing their environment is similar to the ethics of owning pets. In reality, pets shouldn’t be kept as pets, they should be allowed to live as they please. Keeping a cat indoors all its life is not ethical for most people; however, if you let your cat roam free, it is very likely to be killed by either a predator, pathogen, or wayward vehicle. The same can be said for bonsai.

It is more ethical to let trees grow as nature intended; however, as long as you are providing the best care you can and keep the tree healthy, the line between ethical and unethical is fuzzy. For plant lovers, we really do want the best for our leafy family members. Sometimes things happen, but as long as you do your best to give your plants what’s best for them, that’s all you can do.

Some of the least ‘ethical’ practices of Bonsai care come from the “training” people do to make them works of art. Wiring is one of the most common bonsai training efforts and can lead to extremely unnatural trunk and branch shapes. Root pruning is another training tactic that can be considered unethical. In general, we tend to try to be as ethical as possible with our bonsai, we refer to these as Ethical Bonsai.

What is Ethical Bonsai?

Keeping in mind that the concept of what is ethical is very subjective, we like to take a minimalistic approach to training bonsai. Our focus is more of a bonsai-botany hybrid and is more focused on maintaining healthy growing conditions for our bonsai rather than extreme artistic shaping. We employ minimal wiring and instead focus on letting nature craft its own art by providing ideal growing conditions.

Plants are far more resilient and adaptive than most everyone gives them credit for. Experimenting with natural means of creating art and style in plants showcases the innate adaptive capacity plants posses. Our wiring is minimal, root pruning is done at opportune times, and we grow the trees from seed rather than harvesting an established plant from the wild. In this way, we try to be as ethical as possible raising these miniature wonders.

We prefer to partake in ethical bonsai as it offers a more unique connection to your plants. Growing trees from seed allows you to be present throughout all the life stage of your plant rather than getting it as a juvenile or adult.

We’ve created a whole series of articles dedicated to honing your skills practicing the art of bonsai in the most ethical manner possible. We hope you enjoy the content and encourage you to embark on your own bonsai journey.

How to Cultivate Your Own Bonsai, Ethically

The most ethical way to cultivate your own bonsai specimen is to either, grow the tree yourself from seed, or, purchase a seedling or sapling from a reputable nursery. Purchasing a seedling or sapling will allow you to have a more mature tree from the start; however, depending on the maturity of the tree when purchased, it will be more difficult to style and train than if it was grown from seed. 

Growing your own tree from seed offers several benefits. You can be a part of the tree’s life from the beginning, you can style it how you want, and it’s more ethical than taking a tree from the wild. Additionally, it may be easier to get the seeds of certain trees that it is to find seedlings or saplings of those species. 

Ethical Bonsai, Wrap-Up

Growing your own bonsai tree from seed is one of the most rewarding experiences you can have in your plant journey. In addition, growing your own bonsai rather than collecting a specimen from offers the benefit of growing with your tree and being able to style it the way you’d like from its earliest life stages. An added benefit is that you aren’t taking the chance that your tree will die just from being collected from the wild.

However you begin your bonsai journey, always be mindful of the most ethical approach to caring for your tree. It is a living being and deserves to be treated with love and respect. When cared for in this way, your tree will give you happiness and peace for years to come.