A bonsai is created beginning with a specimen of source material. This may be a cutting, seedling, or small tree of a species suitable for bonsai development. Bonsai can be created from nearly any perennial woody-stemmed tree or shrub species[3] that produces true branches and can be cultivated to remain small through pot confinement with crown and root pruning. The practice of bonsai development incorporates a number of techniques either unique to bonsai or, if used in other forms of cultivation, applied in unusual ways that are particularly suitable to the bonsai domain. Grafting new growing material (typically a bud, branch, or root) into a prepared area on the trunk or under the bark of the tree. Maintaining the long-term health of a tree in a container requires some specialized care techniques: • Watering must be regular and must relate to the bonsai species' requirement for dry, moist, or wet soil. • Repotting must occur at intervals dictated by the vigor and age of each tree. • Tools have been developed for the specialized requirements of maintaining bonsai. • Soil composition and fertilization must be specialized to the needs of each bonsai tree, although bonsai soil is almost always a loose, fast-draining mix of components. • Location and overwintering are species-dependent when the bonsai is kept outdoors as different species require different light conditions. Few of the traditional bonsai species can survive inside a typical house, due to the usually dry indoor climate.
