The newcomer from Japan bonsai in Russia today are no longer a rarity. In many homes there are vases with miniature trees. They lodge in the windows, put on the coffee table, decorate their winter gardens. However, not everyone knows how to properly care for these miniature trees. Here we describe how to grow bonsai and care for him at home.

Growing bonsai is subject not everyone. This activity for accurate, thoughtful and patient people. Strict canons produced for centuries, clearly prescribe what should be the crown and trunk, in which containers should be planted trees, depending on the size. And bonsai can not be formed once and for all. The tree is alive, it keeps growing and changing every day and, therefore, requires regular maintenance, regular direct and haircuts. Of course, deviations from the rules are allowed. It allows to create masterpieces. However, such experiments can afford only the master and the master techniques of cultivation thumbnails.

Contouring

Developed many styles of bonsai, but in all of them impose the general requirements for the crown. It should be a conical shape or be divided into horizontal tiers compact. The needles and leaves in each tier should be thickened as much as possible. Such rules are due to growth patterns of trees. If they abide by all the branches - and the lower and upper - receive the necessary amount of light itself krona ventilated, and each tier has its own microclimate. And it contributes to the viability of growing bonsai.

The formation of the crown - a painstaking and lengthy process .  After the transplant, taken from the natural environment of trees in the container immediately spend the first cut .  To do this, leave fit into the image of the future bonsai branches and cut all unnecessary .  Over the next few years once the new shoots are selected from a suitable Sami and cut everything else .  Clip the tree so you can create a tree of upright even bonsai-style "polukaskad" or "cascade" .  You can set the direction of growth of certain branches .  To do this, they pulled by a freight impose wire or tie the branches to the roots .  Formed in this way the tree is also requires regular haircuts .  They need not only to maintain the beauty of the silhouette, but also to "redistribute" the energy between weak and strong branches .  Strongest a tree branch, usually the upper .  A lower, generally weaker than their .  Branches located outside the crown is much stronger than the domestic .  The first time we cut a bonsai of the season in early spring after hibernation .  Subsequent haircuts only shorten the branches stray beyond the silhouette .  The frequency of these cuts depends on the rate of growth of pine needles or leaves .

Technology and haircuts mode for each individual breed .  If you are interested in how to grow bonsai from pine, you should know the following .  Pine trimmed in stages in spring .  For the first time cut the weakest branches, then the branches of medium strength, and after a week working with the top .  On each shoot is left one or two "candles" .  And those that are located in the horizontal plane, while the other - the lower and upper - cut .  Pick off all the old needles, partially cut and the new .  Part of the new needles still leave to branch does not die .  On strong branches can save five or six pairs of needles on the weak - for eight to ten, and on the top five pairs .  This procedure contributes to a redistribution of power between the branches and reducing the size of the needles, which become progressively more proportional to the branches and trunk of a miniature tree .  You should know that pine in care - one of the hardest rocks .  It is a loose drafty crown, the lower branches of which quickly die off, you should always encourage the formation inside the crown of new growth points .

The ability to grow bonsai from pine trees in the east indicates a very high level of the master. If you're new, but you are interested in how to grow bonsai at home, you should start with the Chinese juniper, which is easier to care for. Well learn undemanding deciduous plants - elm or ficus.

The root system

Bonsai softwood, which has already been formed, transplant every three to five years, deciduous - once in three years. Not formed bonsai transplanted: coniferous every two to three years and deciduous in one or two years. Transplant produce up to the beginning of active growth in the early spring. It is important to change to a new container, which should be a little deeper than the previous one and more than a couple of centimeters in diameter. Transplanting, need to cut excessively overgrown, old and damaged roots, then shake off the ground on the edges of earthen coma and renew the earth. Earthen who before planting should be given dry. After transplantation of bonsai should be watered abundantly.

In order to properly take care of the bonsai should learn more about the features of the grown tree: how fast it grows, how it needs light and water, which are required humidity and temperature. It should be remembered that the subtleties of the formation of bonsai and care for it so much that they can comprehend only in practice.

Summer, ah summer! Ever since childhood favorite time: vacation, sun, summer residence - a holiday, in a word! And we are waiting for nothing less than a child. Especially if you belong to the large army of lovers of his beloved dacha. And now, on the eve of a full summer season is puzzling how we decorate your Eden and the prosperity. And therefore choose one of the tools for decoration - annuals or annual flowers for the garden.

What are they good for? First of all, the fact that provide riot of color during the summer season. In addition, they are unpretentious, responsive to care and can grow in almost any climate. Therefore, there is simply no such truckers who are not tempted to availability and stunning multicolored annuals. That's just the problem of choice may be truly intractable because the species and varieties of these flowers just countless.

So choose annual flowers for the garden should be guided by certain principles and rules. What? But such:

• time and duration of flowering;
• colors group of annual flowers;
• dimensions (height, the size of the flowers, spreading shrub) annuals;
• the place where they are to be planted.

You can, of course, something else to add to this list. But first is to consider the proposed criteria for selecting annuals for questioning.

top 10

For a start we present you the top most-most. This annual flowers that are tested by many generations of gardeners, perfectly suited for any flower beds, and will bloom all summer. Who is included in the top ten?

• Petunia (terry, hybrid, ampelnye etc.).
• Tagetis (marigolds or velvet ribbon).
• Zinnia.
• Kosmeya and kosmidium.
• Asters of all sizes and colorings.
• Nasturtium.
• Purslane.
• Morning Glory (eel).
• Bellflower.
• Calendula.

Even if you choose something from this list only, remain completely satisfied. Petunia flowers continuously all summer. Marigolds also flourish without ceasing, and in addition to this are simply gorgeous greens. Zinnias successfully imitate the rosary. Kosmeya turns green filigree cloud with delicate flowers, butterflies. Asters delight you friendly flowering in the second half of the summer season. Nasturtium and bell perfectly complement any flowerbed of perennials. Loach will live wall blooming green and purslane - a multi-colored carpet cheerful.

Flowering time

By planting flowers at the cottage annuals, guided by the terms of their flowering. Then you get constantly blooming garden throughout the summer season. Almost all annuals bloom continuously, starting from the second half of June and the end of summer, and even up to the frost. But among them are their champions. For example, the most long-term and continuous flowering: petunia, marigolds, balsam.

From June until frost zinnia flowers, colorful flower bed early and you provide poppy, alyssum, lavatera, cornflower, baby's breath, begonia. But, unfortunately, they will be short-lived bloom (but early!). Since mid-summer to late autumn blooming aster, nasturtium, marigold and other hardy annuals.

Color range

Having defined the timing of flowering annuals, you can choose the color scheme. Here is just a small list of different color and monochrome annuals:

• yellow and orange: Thunberg, eschscholzia, calendula, velvet ribbon, sunflower;
• blue and blue: ageratum, brahikoma, cornflower, bindweed, delphinium, a bell;
• red and pink: Impatiens, Salvia, the stem-rose, tagetis (some varieties), Calandrino, castor, kaltsiolyariya, celosia, godetsiya, lavatera pink;
• White: alyssum, Iberis, dope, baby's breath, erigeron, Impatiens white;
• colorful: petunia, phlox, portulaca, asters, snapdragons, night beauty.

Sizes

Highest: castor oil (up to two meters in height) tall marigold, kosmeya, mallow (the stem-rose), annual delphinium, morning glory (annual vine), sunflower. The smallest: low-growing marigolds, portulaca, esholtsiya, lobelia, alyssum, dwarf phlox. Almost all other annuals can be called flowers of medium height. Although different varieties of the same plant can be of different height.

If we talk about spreading annuals, they are all quite compact. However, there is among them, and especially owners of greenery: kosmeya, zinnia, marigold, castor, nasturtium. Very much the bushes and branches of petunia (it is generally out of the competition!), And is capable of castor summer vymahal to the size of a small tree.

Place for annuals

• For containers: geranium, petunia, lobelia, begonia, balsam.
• For the alpine garden: Konig seaside, creeping everlasting, sanvitaliya, verbena, portulaca doroteantus, snapdragons, campion, brahikoma, schizanthus.
• For small gardens: sunflower, castor oil, tall marigold and kosmeya kosmidium, mirabilis, mallow, lavatera.
• To curb: low-growing marigolds, lobelia, esholtsiya, nasturtium, Iberis, alyssum.
• For a fragrant flower garden: Mattioli, scented tobacco, Iberis, alyssum.
• For vertical gardening: morning glory, nasturtium curly, decorative beans, Kobe, Thunberg, sweet pea.

So choose boldly and not suffer over what flowers to plant in the country: annual or perennial. Mix and match, complement Letnikov alpine gardens and front gardens, plant them next to the roses and lilies, along the tracks and the fence. As a result, your cottage all summer will bloom continuously. Required!