Saika Bonsai – A Mix of Bonsai and Ikebana

Besides Gardening on Cloud 9, I have another blog called Happy Bonsai. I post all my experience and thoughts about bonsai in my bonsai blog, while everything else of gardening in this blog. Recently, I have come across a modern Japanese bonsai style called Saika Bonsai, and have introduced this bonsai style on my other blog. But due to the characteristics of this modern bonsai style, I think my gardening friends and container gardening lovers would be interested in this bonsai style as well.

So what is Saika Bonsai?

Saika Bonsai literally means “colorful flower bonsai” is a new bonsai style that involves not only trees, but also flower plants and grasses. Indeed, some bonsai in the Saika Bonsai style look very much like a Japanese style container garden which we may not even consider them as bonsai. With a combination of colorful plants and trees potted with free-spirited pot design, Saika Bonsai doesn’t follow the many rules of the traditional bonsai art. The priority of this new bonsai style is to keep the plants alive and have fun growing them (isn’t that what gardening is all about at the first place?).

With the cool, modern look of Saika Bonsai and less rigid rules to follow, this new bonsai style has attracted many city people in Japan nowadays, especially women and the younger generations.

Here are more about Saika Bonsai:
Happy Bonsai – Saika Bonsai – Do You Count This as Bonsai
Happy Bonsai – Kaori Yamada (山田香織) – A Key Contributor to Saika Bonsai

And here is the link to the Saika Bonsai video – Bonsai: The Universe As A Tree Lesson 1 – demonstrated by Kaori Yamada. There are 3 lessons, and this is the first and the only one with English subtitle. You can find the other two Saika Bonsai videos on the left of the page in the Bonsai session. Check this out. I think you will like it 😉

Photo by Seikouten