HOW long can bonsai trees live?
Nobody really knows, says Geilston Bay bonsai specialist Noel Kemp, but in Japan there were live trees that could be recognised in 600-year-old paintings. Mr Kemp said he was amazed that some people flinched when they saw bonsai trees because they felt it was cruel to wire up trees and confine them to small pots. He said the Japanese art of bonsai wasn’t any crueller than mowing a lawn or pruning roses. Mr Kemp, who will be displaying and selling his tiny trees at Agfest on May 7-9, said his hobby was more enjoyable than lucrative. The 68-year-old former museum geology senior curator said if you photographed a good bonsai tree against a blank background it would be difficult, if not impossible, to tell how high it was. With careful pot confinement, root and crown pruning, a tree can be retarded in terms of height, limb length and leaf size. He said although bonsai trees could eventually grow old, a key bonsai aim was to make young trees look old. Young vigorous trees have branches that
