Bonsai school up soon

By Reynaldo E. Andres

Contributor

BATAC CITY—The Mariano Marcos State University (MMSU) will put up a Bonsai School where students will be taught and provided hands-on training on how to propagate and raise aesthetic tiny trees for commercial purposes.

MMSU President Miriam E. Pascua said the school is the first of its kind in the country and will provide livelihood for home gardeners. She has ordered the renovation of the former Agromet Building located south of the university nursery to be used as classroom for 25 to 30 enrollees who will start their lessons next year.

“We will just use our existing facilities so that we can start right away,” she said during an optical inspection of the site on October 17 with Ilocos Norte Gov. Ma. Imelda “Imee” R. Marcos.

Ms. Marcos also expressed support to the project because of the bright prospects of bonsai plants in local and global markets. She said the province of Ilocos Norte through the office of the provincial agriculturist (OPAG) will help MMSU in sourcing out materials for bonsai with the help of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

“There are so many forest areas in the province where we can get as many materials as we can,” Marcos said during a luncheon meeting with Pascua and some MMSU staff at the conference room.

The governor is allowing the exploration of the Dungon-Dungon areas of Burgos, Ilocos Norte because the place is reportedly rich of high value forest tree species for bonsai. These include agoho, camuning, tamarind, guava, duhat, bougainvillea, carmona, bugnay, and kamatsile, among others.

Bonsai, or tray gardening, is the art of growing trees and plants, kept small, in a shallow clay pot. Through skilled pruning, a bonsai raiser can create an aesthetic shape and the illusion of age.

Records showed that the art of bonsai originated in China some 2,000 years ago, where it has been called Penzai and, later on, Hanzi. The art was brought to Japan some 700 years ago and was called bonsai. This unique style of tray gardening is intended for outdoor display.

For a start, Marcos and Pascua have designated Profs. Maura Luisa S. Gabriel and Joselito Rosario of the CAFSD, and Luz Ortal of the OPAG as project managers of the Bonsai School with funds and support coming from both the MMSU and the provincial government of Ilocos Norte (PGIN).

A bonsai is not a genetically dwarfed plant. It is kept small by shaping its canopy and root pruning. It is claimed that a properly maintained bonsai can outlive a full size tree of the same species. However, a bonsai plant needs much care, because an improperly maintained bonsai will probably die.

In the art of bonsai, a sense of aesthetics, care, and patience come together to produce an aesthetic tiny plant. The plant, the shaping and surface of the soil, and the selected container come together to express "heaven and earth” in one shallow container.

Bonsai experts at MMSU said that one way to make the plant remains small is to correctly prune it so that it will stunt its growth. To make the plant looks exactly like a miniature and to have the right proportions, it is further shaped using a variety of methods that will be taught at the Bonsai School.