As the seasons change, the bonsai grower must take into consideration the circumstances and dilemmas that might affect their plants. Because the trees aren’t in the ground, you need to do what you have to in order to insure your bonsai survive the seasons.

Bonsai from forest trees must live outdoors except for short periods of time when they may be brought inside for viewing. These indoor periods should only be for two or three hours and should not occur at all in summer unless the interior is well ventilated.

In the summer, bonsai need cool nights, sunny days, and mist or rain almost daily. If your climate does not offer these conditions naturally, you must supply them. Avoid any extremes in temperature, light, rain, and wind. Water the entire plant daily, but do not let them become water logged.

Placing bonsai on a slatted stand in the garden is a good way to keep drainage conditions optimum. Bonsai should receive three to five hours of direct sunlight a day, but the site should be shaded in the afternoon if possible.

In the fall, bonsai must be prepared for the winter. Slow the growth of the plants by watering less frequently and discontinuing fertilizer application. Do not prune or cut any branches after mid-August.

Winter’s low temperatures and drying winds can easily kill bonsai. If the winter temperature drops below 28F, bonsai must be protected by a greenhouse, pit, or cold frame. A cold frame is basically a box that houses your bonsai through the winter months.

If you put them in a cold frame, don’t forget to water them while inside. Winter watering may be only necessary every other day. More bonsai are killed by over watering than by desiccation.

In the spring, start new bonsai, prune the old ones, and continue training measures. The remaining part of the growing season is used for the plants’ adjustments to these practices.

In general, bonsai are fine being outside in temperatures above 15F. Below this point, some kind of protection from freezing is needed. You can bring them inside, but this could jeopardize the plant’s health. In extreme circumstances, this may be your only option.

Just remember that woody plants must go through a period of cold dormancy to survive. If you do not give them this time, they will die.

Dormancy is a survival strategy that temperate climate species have evolved to stay alive over the winter. These species have a biological clock that tells them to slow activity and prepare soft tissues for an onslaught of freezing temperatures. Species that have well developed dormancy needs cannot be tricked out of them.

You can try placing a tarp or plastic film over your bonsai in cold temperatures. Do this at night and remove it during the day.

Some people advocate wintering bonsai in the ground since the ground temperature will not get as cold as the air above it.

Experts feel the best way to accomplish that is to bury the root balls, still in their pots, in the ground up to the rim of the pot, and to cover the pots with a mulch of dead leaves. If you live in an area of abundant snowfall and a reasonably consistent snow cover, you may do without the mulch and rely on the snow for insulation.

Wintering bonsai in the ground has the advantage that they will come out of dormancy in step with outside conditions. That is often not the case with some of the other wintering methods, such as unheated garages or sheds, cold frames dug into the ground, window wells or cold rooms in basements.

While these methods are very convenient – no digging in, no mulching and no digging out – the facilities tend to warm up quickly in spring, and since resumption of growth is determined solely by warmer temperatures, the trees will start to grow and require light when outside conditions are not yet ideal.

Regardless of which method is used, the root balls should be well moistened before the trees are put away, and they should be checked regularly – say weekly – to make sure that they are not about to dry out. If so, the trees need to be watered. Also, the wintering spot should ideally be in shade for most of the day, and preferred positions to face would be either north or east.

It is important to note, that the trees will not be able to withstand the warmer temperature once they have begun to grow. Just as trees became gradually ever more frost resistant in fall, they will get progressively less frost resistant in spring.

The closed buds, although swollen, will still be able to survive short periods of mild frosts, but once the buds have opened and the young leaves start to unfold, frost can cause serious damage, and trees should be returned to frost-free shelter when it threatens.

Also remember that full-size trees lose their leaves in the winter. Your bonsai is a miniature version of a full-size tree and it, too, will lose its leaves. This is fine and normal. They will grow back!

You’ve spent such time on grooming and growing your bonsai, you will, of course, want to show it off! What’s the best way to display your trees?

Bonsai are generally re-potted and re-pruned every few years. Re-potting prevents them from being pot-bound and encourages the growth of new feeder roots allowing the tree to absorb moisture more efficiently. You will also need to change the soil to prevent it from becoming stale and hindering growth.

You can tell that a bonsai needs repotting if water takes a long time to drain through the soil or if the roots are crowding around the sides.

To repot, carefully lift the tree out of its current pot by tilting it to one side and trying to move it by the base of the trunk. You can not pull too hard on the trunk - so if this does not work, try tapping the pot with the side of your hand to loosen the root ball or poke a stick through the drainage holes and ‘push’ the root ball out.

Next, using a chopstick, knitting needle, metal hook or similar, remove any moss or accent plants and carefully try to brush and untangle the roots. Start at the edge and gradually work around. Try to ‘comb’ and ‘tug’ rather than to ‘pull’ at the roots - for risk of damaging or tearing some very important main roots.

After this has been done - continue to shake and brush off the soil until about one third to half of the original soil has been removed from the edge and base of the root ball.

It would now be a good idea to spray the roots with water to ensure that they do not dry out and so that they will not have too much soil on them when it comes time to pruning the roots.

To prune the roots, use very sharp cutters. There are bonsai root pruning scissors commercially available, however you could just use a normal pair of bonsai clippers.

If you have washed away most loose soil the scissors will stay sharp, but if they have to cut through soil as well as the roots - they will become blunt very quickly and require sharpening.

Start by cutting the thick, old brown roots that have come close to the edge of the pot and are restricting the growth of the young ‘feeder roots’. Remove a third to a half of these - being careful that you do not remove too many feeder roots in the process.

Next, prune the thinner roots which hang below the depth of the pot by trimming them all into a suitable shape that the pot will accommodate. This should be a shape that fits comfortably into the pot with a 1-2 cm (1/2 to 3/4 in) space between the edges.

The demanding part of the repotting is now over - if you think that you’ve cut too many feeder roots off, the tree will be disadvantaged but you probably will get away with it - as new roots will grow from the cuts.

Clean the original pot thoroughly or select a new pot that is more suited to the tree and cover the drainage holes with simple wire mesh. As the plant will now be unstable in the new pot as it has nothing to anchor it – you need to make some anchors to prevent the tree from falling over from winds or from being moved.

Thread some wire through the drainage holes or specially designed holes for anchoring and leave for later use. This wire doesn’t have to be very thick.

Add a thin layer of gravel to aid drainage and then a layer of soil. Moving the tree around, decide a basic position for it (usually off-center and slightly to the back of the pot) and make a small mound that it will sit on. Now you can place your bonsai on the mound by gently nestling it in and spreading its roots out evenly throughout on top of the soil.

Once you are happy with the height and position of your tree (it is going to stay like that for 1-2 years), take the wires that you threaded and twist them together (usually with the aid of pliers) over the main root ball of the tree until it is held firmly (but not too tight) and will not rock. Because these wires are quite unsightly, you can remove them in a few months time once the tree has settled in.

Add more soil up to the base of the trunk - which should be just below the base of the pot. Tap the side of the pot with your hand to ensure that the soil becomes settled and that there are no gaps around the roots. Use your chopstick to incorporate the roots into the soil and to make sure that they are placed correctly.

Once the soil has been applied, you now have the option to add supplementary features such as rocks, moss, accent plants or gravel to enhance the design. When applying moss - be careful that most of the original soil is cut off from the bottom before you plant it and that the moss is not too big or vigorous for the pot or tree.

Now you should thoroughly water the tree - being aware that the soil level may settle further and that more soil may have to be added. Place the tree in a position where it will not receive extremes in temperature (i.e. not direct sun) and where it will be able to recuperate. Do not fertilize at this time as this can burn or cause stress to the plant. You can feed in around a month though, when the roots have recovered.

Note that in order to balance out the extensive pruning you have just done on the roots you should prune the branches of the bonsai as well so that it can recover quicker and not be disadvantaged further. Root growth usually does equal branch growth.

Since bonsai is essentially meant to be grown outdoors, you must pay attention to the care of your tree with the changing seasons.

Watering might seem like an easy technique, but it is the second most common cause of Bonsai-related problems. Under watering or allowing the compost to dry out completely will instantly kill or badly damage most trees; however over watering can just as equally cause ill-health and eventual death from root rot and disease.

The most important rule to remember is that trees should be checked for their water requirement daily but should only be watered as required. You should never water to a routine. This can lead to continually sodden compost which literally suffocates the roots.

The surface of the compost must be starting to dry out between watering. Then the tree can be thoroughly watered again. The time between watering can vary from 12 hours to 7 days depending on factors such as prevailing temperatures, wind and humidity levels.

Because of limited space in the confines of a bonsai pot, bonsai care can be quite difficult. The shallow containers limit the expanse of the root system and make proper watering practically an art in itself.

While some species can handle periods of relative dryness, others require near-constant moisture. Watering too frequently or allowing the soil to remain soggy can promote fungal infections and “root rot”.

Sun, heat and wind exposure can quickly dry a bonsai tree to the point of drought, so the soil moisture should be monitored daily and water given copiously when needed. The soil should not be allowed to become “bone dry” even for brief periods.

The foliage of some plants cultivated for bonsai, including the common Juniper do not display signs of drying and damage until long after the damage is done, and may even appear green and healthy despite having an entirely dead root system.

When fertilizing bonsai you should do so with a water-soluble fertilizer once or twice per month during the growing season. Your choice of fertilizer may vary depending on the species you’ve chosen to miniaturize.

Apply fertilizer when the soil is wet and only before and during active growth. A houseplant fertilizer diluted from one quarter to one half strength will suffice.

Another area of bonsai that needs to be addressed by the beginner is repotting; a very straightforward technique if carried out correctly and at the right time. Most trees need to be repotted annually or at very least bi-annually in spring as the years new growth starts to appear. Trees that are not repotted will eventually lose their health and vigor.