How to Evaluate a Beautiful Yellow Apricot Blossom Tree

Before discussing how to evaluate a beautiful apricot blossom tree (Mai Vang), we should briefly touch upon the hobby of playing with and appreciating ornamental plants of Asian people in general and Vietnamese people in particular. Does this differ from the bonsai appreciation concepts of Western artisans?

Ornamental Plant Appreciation in Europe and America

Generally speaking, Westerners from a few centuries ago also loved playing with ornamental plants. The simple reason was that they also wanted to live close to nature. These professional and amateur artisans also tried to search for rare and strange plant varieties available locally, or hunted for them from distant continents, whether in dense primeval forests or desolate deserts few people visited…

Because land was vast and people were sparse at that time, even living in bustling cities, every house had surplus land and spacious gardens to plant some ornamental trees.

The hobby of people at this time was only to plant large ornamental trees in their home gardens to match their spacious houses and large mansions. Of course, these large ornamental trees could not be planted in pots but were planted directly into the garden soil. Varieties of Maple (Japonicum), Cedar (Cedrus), Pine (Pinus), Larch (Larix)… were widely planted in many places.

Even with Cacti, they only chose to plant varieties with tall stems from a few meters to five or seven meters like Euphorbia, Antiquorum, Ferocactus Wedzenii…

However, from the mid-19th century onwards, especially in the early years of the 20th century, the preference for planting large ornamental trees among European and American bonsai artisans, even if desired, was rarely feasible. The reason was that at this time, urban population density everywhere increased abruptly, as countless rural people flocked to cities to find a livelihood, so roads were expanded, and houses sprang up like mushrooms. Even single-story houses were built up into high-rises to meet the urgent housing needs of immigrants.

So, no one had excess land to establish vast gardens as before! From then on, people started to “get used to” small ornamental plants planted in pots, including Bonsai.

The art of playing with dwarf Bonsai trees had been popular in many Asian countries like China, Japan… for nearly ten centuries, but it wasn’t until the early 20th century that Western bonsai artisans began to learn, research, and unexpectedly were quickly drawn into it.

Because these small ornamental plants planted in shallow pots could be displayed on balconies, hung in front of porches, or brought right into living rooms, bedrooms… With a few small pots like that, they didn’t take up much space to display.

And it was precisely at this time of “an inch of land is an inch of gold” that prompted the artificial plant industry to be born with many styles and colors like real trees, helping people in cramped high-rises, and those who didn’t have free time because they were busy all day with livelihood, to enjoy buying them for display without having to care for, water, or fertilize them daily! Although they are artificial plants, the selling price is often higher than real plants…

Discussing the hobby and way of appreciating ornamental plants of Westerners, many people remark that they play with plants mainly for the purpose of decoration for garden landscapes or living rooms. They focus heavily on the color of lush foliage, spectacular tree shapes, and the stranger the plant variety, the more attractive it is.

In other words, for Westerners, a potted plant only plays the role of a precious painting, or a valuable object, displayed at a most reasonable angle to highlight the aesthetic value of the whole scene, which meets the grower’s requirements.

How about the hobby and appreciation of ornamental plants of Vietnamese people?

As you may know, around 100 BC, the Chinese created a unique art form, which for a long period of about 15 centuries was evaluated by the world as “unprecedented”, that is Penjing. Penjing is known by many names such as “Bồn tài”, “Bồn ngoạn”, then “Bồn thư”… is the art of shrinking majestic natural landscapes into a compact tray landscape while still retaining natural lines, making even the most fastidious people praise it endlessly when looking at it.

But by around the twelfth century, many talented Japanese flower and plant artisans contributed greatly to “transforming” Penjing into Bonsai, which is a type of plant grown in shallow pots, also known as dwarf trees, bearing a distinct Japanese style, and quickly became especially popular among the bonsai world globally.

Because Bonsai trees successfully brought the exact models of trees growing in nature into shallow pots and trays through specific techniques, they easily brought a sense of familiarity to admirers.

In our country, although the Bonsai movement has only been robust for about five or six decades, the interest among the planting and playing community is increasing day by day. That is a happy thing.

Generally, our ancestors have known the hobby of ornamental plants for thousands of years, possibly right from the time our people were dominated by China for a thousand years (from 207 BC to 938 AD)? Many people hypothesize that during the Northern domination period, Vietnamese officials surely had opportunities to visit China and brought the art of Penjing planting back and silently propagated it for domestic artisans to imitate…

And reality also proves that: our art of planting and bending ornamental plants from the past to the present has also been somewhat influenced by the magical art of Chinese Penjing and Japanese Bonsai.

What helps us easily recognize this is when researching ancient ornamental plant bending art and “The” (posture) plants, we see that the ancients also focused heavily on curbing the growth age of the tree so that the tree grown in the pot has a small body to fit its cramped living context. The next method is aging the plant, creating for the ornamental tree the old lines of ancient trees living for a long time in the wild. Then comes the way of bending trees according to basic postures…

All strictly that much is enough for us to see that our art of planting and bending ornamental plants is influenced more or less by the art of Penjing and Bonsai tray landscapes.

Of course, we cannot deny, on the contrary, we are proud that our ancestors created their own style in the art of planting and appreciating ornamental plants: that is creating for each ornamental tree a philosophical nuance about religion or life.

As mentioned above, most Europeans and Americans plant and play with ornamental plants focusing only on the form, i.e., the practical part is the main thing. As for our flower and plant artisans, when planting ornamental plants, besides creating a beautiful shape for the tree, they also implicitly entrust into it a feeling, a will, sometimes a philosophical nuance about their Religion or Life in a discreet way.

The growers are like that, and the viewers today have also reached a high level of understanding, if not superior, then not inferior to any other nation in the world.

When admiring plants, if the viewer has a little understanding of planting art, accompanied by life experience and many emotions, they can easily discover more or less (depending on each person’s level of understanding) the miraculous things that the grower has implicitly entrusted into their “work of art”. This is also considered the way of “conveying the Way through literature” that writers and poets have always done. This is truly the soul of the ornamental tree, and the level of value as well as the attractive magic, more or less, of the ornamental tree also originates from here…

Therefore, looking at ornamental trees to evaluate whether they are good or bad depends on the level of understanding of each admirer. And, this definitely requires careful consideration to reach a valid critique. One cannot allow oneself to be easy-going like an idler “looking at flowers while riding a horse” and then praise or criticize randomly. Artisans with many years of experience in the profession never maximize allow themselves to do so.

Let’s expand a little: for those who like to plant and play with ornamental plants, viewing plants is considered a special pleasure for them.

Viewing plants with many “kindred spirits” is even more fun! Although at first there may be a scene of “five people, ten opinions”, in the end, the high or low value is also determined. Therefore, historically, during “tea and wine” moments, bringing up the story of plants to discuss is often as exciting as talking about “cockfighting” or any other art form!

Viewing plants always accompanies commenting on whether the tree is ugly or beautiful; meeting beauty is for learning, conversely, if discovering mistakes or ugliness… it also brings oneself a valuable lesson. That is not to mention that knowing the art of evaluating an ornamental tree to determine its true value is essential for plant buyers, avoiding falling into the situation of “losing money and carrying a burden”, laughing and crying…

Now, let’s return to the topic: how to evaluate a beautiful apricot blossom (Mai) tree.

Method for Evaluating a Beautiful Apricot Blossom Tree:

Historically, any artisan growing ornamental apricot trees has tried every way to hope to create beautiful apricot trees to beautify life. As for those buying apricot trees to display, certainly following general psychology, everyone wants to avoid mistakes in selection to have a beautiful apricot tree to enjoy.

Since the apricot tree has the ability to live for over a hundred years, the “longevity” of the tree is even longer than a human life, so if planted by the previous generation and well cared for, that apricot tree can be left for future generations. This has not been a rare occurrence in the past. Precisely for that reason, when planting ornamental apricot trees, anyone wishes to choose truly beautiful trees to be satisfied.

To choose a beautiful apricot tree, you should memorize the phrase:

“Nhất Thân - Nhì Đế - Tam Tàn - Tứ Thế” (First Trunk - Second Base - Third Canopy - Fourth Posture)

The advice of this phrase is: to evaluate the good and bad of an ornamental apricot tree, we should sequentially evaluate the following parts of the tree in order of priority, as follows:

• First: The most important thing to consider is the trunk.
• Second: Then we pay attention to the base (De), which is the root base of the apricot tree and the root system growing above the potting soil surface.
• Third: The third detail, less important to consider, is the canopy (foliage).
• Fourth: Finally, consider the postures (The) of the ornamental tree. Usually, for many people, the tree posture is considered the most eye-catching part, but it is advised to be focused on last.

Perhaps many people wonder:

Why does the trunk need to be prioritized first?

This is easy to understand, because the trunk of the ornamental apricot tree – permit me to compare – is no different from the figure of a young girl in her prime? The trunk must be smooth and slender, creating graceful lines to be evaluated as beautiful. Conversely, if an ornamental apricot tree has a twisted trunk, big in one section and small in another… what’s beautiful about that! Moreover, when the trunk has reached maturity, the flexibility is gone, so no one can bend it again. So if the grower didn’t bend it skillfully before, then later if the trunk is ugly, it has to stay that way.

Therefore, when choosing the trunk of a young apricot tree, it requires the trunk to be round, sturdy, with smooth bark. The trunk must be straight, not twisted, and the trunk must be smaller than the base and larger than the branches. With an old apricot tree, the trunk needs to have a curve, to easily create for the viewer the image of an old person with a hunched back. The bark needs to be cracked and rough, with many hollows like the wrinkled skin of the elderly and wounds (scars) on their bodies due to the harsh elimination of time. It needs to be added: Because the trunk lies right in the viewer’s line of sight, if the trunk is defective, the value of that ornamental apricot tree is reduced…

Why is the base, i.e., the root part and the roots exposed on the pot soil, considered important?

This is also easy to understand, because normally when speaking of a tree, everyone thinks of the root (origin), and considers the root part the most important. “Trees have roots, water has a source.” Reality shows that if the root is solid and healthy, it helps the tree stand firm against all storms of life. The root part is evaluated as beautiful when the root section bulges larger than the trunk above. Conversely, if the root section is as straight as the trunk, or worse, constricted, it will lose aesthetic appeal, because it is contrary to natural laws. And this bad thing can still happen when gardeners overuse chemical fertilizers and especially apply fertilizers incorrectly, so the amount of fertilizer applied only concentrates on nourishing the trunk, making the trunk expand, while the root part develops slowly.

Thus, whether young or old apricot, the root part must have agedness, creating cracks like its wounds. At the apricot root, the outer bark layer adds more value, creating a strong impression on the viewer.

Where the root meets the pot soil surface (root collar/nebari): don’t just speak of old apricots, but even ornamental apricots at maturity that have the appearance of a few aerial roots crawling wildly on the ground both increase the aging of the tree and cause delight for the viewer. Surely everyone thinks that thanks to this exposed root part, the ornamental tree can stand firm.

But these aerial roots do not need to be exposed much, because the more tangled they are, the more they confuse the viewer’s eyes. That is something to avoid in the art of bending ornamental plants.

It only requires the presence of three or four exposed roots spreading out in many directions with natural winding shapes to be beautiful.

Nurturing the root part to be expansive is not very difficult, but wanting to create a system of aerial roots crawling on the pot surface requires the “root lifting” technique of the grower every year. Usually, a few weeks after Tet, taking advantage of repotting with new soil, artisans lift the roots a little higher… having to wait three or four years later to create a beautiful exposed root system as desired.

Why is the canopy considered a secondary part to consider?

It stands to reason that although the canopy plays a role in beautifying the tree, like silky clouds of hair cascading over a girl’s shoulders, this “decorative” part is easy to bend and correct, so even if it is defective, it is not a worrisome matter. Branch bending and canopy creation for apricot trees and other ornamental plants are not difficult or hard for flower and plant artisans. And this task also does not require much time and effort. Young branches (from six months) are soft and flexible, so they are very easy to bend.

An ornamental apricot tree with a beautiful canopy is thanks to the branches on the trunk being distributed reasonably, flexibly, and harmoniously. “Tán” or “Tàn” originally means a canopy, a parasol covering the top of the tree, increasing the beauty of the ornamental apricot tree.

Branches must grow long, straight, not broken, and not crooked.

The branch growing at the bottom near the base (ground cover branch) naturally is always the largest and longest branch compared to the branches growing above. The branches growing upwards towards the top become shorter and smaller. Thanks to that, the canopy has a conical shape, like a pine tree, making the foliage look light and elegant.

For a beautiful ornamental apricot tree, the ground cover branch also purely shouldn’t be too close to the pot rim, because that would obscure the base (must leave at least 10cm for a 1m high apricot pot, and 15cm for an apricot tree from 1.60m upwards).

But, this ground cover branch also shouldn’t be “placed” too high (20cm) as that would create… “empty legs”, akin to someone wearing long pants but the legs are too short, looking unsightly.

Depending on whether the apricot tree is large or small, tall or short, create a suitable canopy. The canopy must have a balanced proportion with the height and width of the tree: a short tree with a wide canopy or a tall tree with a narrow canopy both reduce aesthetic value.

To design a beautiful canopy for an ornamental apricot tree, sometimes one must apply shaping techniques to bend and correct the tree’s structure to the right position to create a balanced proportion…

Why is the tree posture, considered the most eye-catching part, ranked as secondary in valuing ornamental apricot trees?

It is true that the posture (shape/style) of the ornamental apricot tree is often considered the attractive part, with much magic attracting everyone’s admiring gaze. In other words, if an apricot tree has not been bent by an artisan’s hand into a “posture tree” (cây thế), it cannot yet be called an ornamental tree. Whether it is ugly or beautiful is not yet discussed.

And, when the tree has become a posture bonsai, its value will be raised many times higher, if it is indeed a tree with a beautiful posture.

However, the reason this part is only ranked last for selection is because creating postures and bending postures for ornamental plants in general is inherently not too difficult a task. Even if it is necessary to change to a different posture for the tree replacing an existing style, with artisans of high skill, thanks to bending and grafting techniques, they can still easily accomplish it.

Although it is known that the apricot tree has tough branches, compared to many other ornamental varieties like Wrightia religiosa (Mai chieu thuy), Murraya (Kim quit), Limonia acidissima (Can thang)… the apricot tree is harder to bend into some postures. Like the Cascade style (Thác đổ) for example. However, for highly skilled artisans, they can still patiently achieve this.

The thing to mention here is relying on the way of creating postures for ornamental plants, our artisans have implicitly entrusted their feelings, will, and all private aspirations skillfully. Therefore, when looking at a posture bonsai, the admirer can easily see somewhat deeply what hidden things the grower has discreetly entrusted, just like each ornamental tree itself has a specific theme. From there, the buyer can easily choose for themselves an ornamental tree with a theme suitable for their wishes:

• For people with a will for independence, self-reliance, not wanting to bother or rely on anyone to live, they choose the apricot bonsai with the “Trực quân tử” posture (Upright Gentleman - tree grows straight up, branches in horizontal positions, like a hero with head in the sky, feet on the ground, not submitting to any force…) or “Tùng lập” posture (Straight Pine - straight trunk, horizontal branches, implying upholding the spirit of independence, the bravery of a young man with vigorous strength…) or choose the “Hạc lập” posture (Standing Crane - although the trunk is slender, branches appear weak, the top reaches high, implying a person who knows how to live independently, creating even if poor, will not lower themselves to grovel to anyone…).
• For people who value benevolence and righteousness, live morally, respect rituals… they choose the apricot bonsai with the “Tam cương” posture (Three Bonds - is the three bonds of King-Subject, Father-Son, Husband-Wife; on the tree, choose three sturdy branches including enough short and martial branches, the end of the branch bent into a hand is skillful), or “Ngũ thường” posture (Five Virtues - exalting the five good virtues of humans: Benevolence, Ritual, Righteousness, Wisdom, Trust. On the apricot tree, only select five branches with regular spacing, creating a balanced canopy, each branch like that symbolizing a virtue of a human)…