Page 45 - BSAM 2018 Q2

By Danilo Scursatone, Italy
Photos by Danilo Scursatone, Valerio Cavina and Nicoleta Baciu Translation by Danilo Scursatone and Joe Grande
Creating a Root-Over-Rock Bonsai 1
MATERIALS NEEDED First phase:
• Interesting rock that contrasts with the future tree in shape and color
• A handful of one-year-old seedlings of a deciduous species such as Trident maple
• Two plastic pots, one for cultivation, the other for the sand that will press the roots against the rock
• A sheet of polyethylene plastic to separate the roots from the sand
• Raffia to tie down the roots
• Soil for the cultivation pot
• Sand to fill the top pot
Positioning the rock in the cultivation pot with soil, and mounting a group of maples (about one year old) on it. Assembly of the whole, the roots are covered with the plastic sheet, the second pot is slit and positioned around the rock, and then packed with sand to press the roots against the rock.
We lovers of bonsai, often approach the nature with even greater curiosity than the simple observer. We can penetrate the deeper aspects to try to reproduce them and then make them more accessible to everyone, even those who do not venture far from the comforts of everyday life. Here is an important function of bonsai, bringing people closer to nature—perhaps through unusual forms that go beyond the simple trees seen in city parks—and capturing a viewer’s interest with their particular shape and balance that recall the spirit of nature.
One of these particular forms that nature presents is the tree with exposed roots clinging to rock (Sekijoju). Walking through hills or low mountains, we can see trees with their roots exposed, clinging to rocks and then plunge into that little sediment or soil from which they draw the bare minimum necessary for their survival.
This particular growth habit, manages to arouse in the observer curiosity and amazement with how a tree can survive in those conditions of such great precariousness, as if to underline “the clinging” to life
April/May/June 2018 | BCI | 43