A compelling journey through the world of bonsai Thanks to Fabio Petroni's vivid images, the readers will feel as if they are visiting a spectacular garden full of miniature plants, moving among them and observing their surprising details close-up, with the astonished gaze of Alice newly arrived in Wonderland. The photographer Fabio Petroni and the author Anna Maria Botticelli, in partnership with Gruppo Crespi Bonsai from Parabiago (Milan), selected thirty particularly significant examples to reveal the fantastic and unpredictable changes in appearance they pass through with the changing of the seasons. Thanks to the purity and clarity of the photographs, details emerge that could otherwise easily escape the human eye: the grace of their outlines, the strength of the buds as they prepare to open, the mysterious design of the bark, the power of the roots, the delicacy of the flowers and the perfection of the leaves. Bonsai trees make decidedly extraordinary subject matter: they are potted plants (from which their name derives), usually trees, which, thanks to very special "training" techniques, retain the exact shape of their original species, in a size that makes them easy to view in the round, like miniature plant beings. For the compilation of this volume, Gruppo Crespi Bonsai exclusively offered the photographer and author the opportunity to work where hundreds of extremely rare examples are grown. Some of them are kept in the open air, others in climate-controlled environments in a special museum, the Crespi Bonsai Museum. This institution is famous throughout the world, not just in Italy or in Europe, because it is home to the largest and most complete collection of bonsai trees outside Japan. These exceptional subjects, priceless works of art created by famous masters (some of whom are no longer alive) and therefore unique and unrepeatable. Some of these bonsai trees can live to be 100 years old or more: one majestic ficus has reached the ripe old age of 1,000. The variety of species includes maple, prunus, gingko, wisteria, azalea, pinus, juniperus and many more which are "trained" into the most appealing styles by Japanese masters who regularly return to Italy to follow their growth. AUTHOR: Gruppo Crespi Bonsai also founded and plays host to Italy's first Bonsai University, which attracts growers from across Europe. Like the Crespi Bonsai Museum, this institution is also unrivalled in Europe. For his extraordinary contribution in this field, the owner of Gruppo Crespi Bonsai. 135 colour photographs
