Deadwood Bonsai Techniques - Rationale and Application

Rationale and Application

Deadwood techniques are used for reasons both practical and aesthetic. Practically, collected specimens of aged trees often have dead wood present. Dead wood can also appear on a bonsai under cultivation for many reasons, including branch die-back, pest infestation, or disease. It can be partially or completely removed by the bonsai artist, but doing so may damage the tree's overall shape or the illusion of age. If dead wood is retained, however, it must be chemically treated to preserve it and to produce the coloration of weathered wood. In addition, the dead wood usually needs to be shaped to fit the aesthetic plan for the bonsai.

Deadwood can also be an aesthetic choice for the grower. In bonsai being developed from trees free of dead wood, it may be aesthetically useful to create some deadwood elements to enhance the illusion of age, to hide defects (such as an overlarge or misplaced branch), or to disguise the original trunk after reducing the height of a tree that is too tall. Whether freely chosen, or forced on the bonsai designer, integrating dead wood into a tree's design is a necessity for a significant number of bonsai.

Usually, deadwood techniques for branches are applied to conifers. Deciduous trees tend to shed dead branches and heal over the wound, while conifers often retain the dead limb, which naturally becomes weathered and eroded over time. Most deadwood techniques for the tree's trunk apply equally well to deciduous and to conifer bonsai, although the driftwood style (in which much of the trunk is dead) is generally restricted to conifers.