Mame Bonsai

The smallest of all Bonsai are the Mame, pronounced “mah-may,” or baby bonsai. These are a height of seven inches or less and can easily fit in the palm of one hand. The cultivation of Mame Bonsai has become popular over the centuries and opens many new and exciting paths to bonsai collection. Mame Bonsai presents a new set of challenges for collectors in that they require a few additional modifications to the care and maintenance of bonsai. The major change occurs in watering due to the tiny size of the tree with its smaller pot and smaller amount of soil. The tree should NEVER be allowed to dry out so we would highly recommend keeping your Mame in good light but not direct sunlight.

There are not very many Mame Bonsai found growing in nature so most of them are grown from seeds and cuttings. We recommend growing Mame Bonsai from cuttings because we can actually begin the selection of future branches when the cutting is made. Growing from cuttings is no easy process as many more of the cuttings die than develop into trees, but from those that live you will eventually have trees with most of the charm of the famed Bonsai many times their size.

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