The Chinese Elm bonsai is often interchanged with the species called Zelkova (also known as the Japanese Elm). The only difference between the two is the appearance of their fruits. The Chinese Elm has fruits with wings while its Japanese counterpart do not.

More often than not, Chinese Elm is sold as an indoor plant because it stays green despite being kept inside your home.

If you are redesigning the landscape of your yard and considering adding a garden to your home, make sure that your list of options includes building a bonsai garden. A bonsai garden is a unique design in many ways, and having it will make you the envy of your neighborhood.

Tips on Building Your Own Bonsai Garden

Size - Unlike other types of gardens, size isn't a consideration if you're intent on building a bonsai garden. If you don't have much space to work with, you can just as easily choose to grow all your bonsai from pots alone. Of course, you can let bonsai grow from the ground if you so wish. As long as all growing conditions are best, bonsai plants can grow just as huge and strong as any other tree.

Indoor or Outdoor - It depends on you whether you wish to have an indoor or outdoor bonsai garden. Indoor gardens are easier to design and maintain, but they will have to occupy a part or one whole room in your house. Outdoor gardens can be small or big, but you'll definitely have to work harder in taking care of your bonsai plants because you've to contend with the usual natural factors that hinder plant growth.

Giving Shape - The art of slicing bonsai plants and molding them into the shape you desire requires patient effort. Although it's possible to learn by self-study, it's still ideal to enroll in a bonsai slicing workshop to ensure that you don't cause accidental harm to your plants. When giving bonsai plants as gifts to your guests, you can ask them ahead of time what shape they desire for their plants.

Choices, Choices - If you have given much thought to the idea and you have decided that an indoor bonsai garden will suit your home beautifully, here are a few bonsai plants that'll adapt to indoor living: sacred bamboo, Chinese elm, fig tree, and Buddhist pine.

Warning - Many shops deliberately deceive people by mislabeling plants and passing them off as genuine bonsai plants. Make sure that you purchase bonsai plants only from people you know or trust and from legitimate shops in malls.

Bonsai plants age beautifully, and as such your bonsai garden can be an inheritance for your children and grandchildren. You can give them pot by pot or acre by acre, but make sure that your descendants understand the special kind of love that bonsais need. Take good care of your plants!

Let's face it. Not all of us have a green thumb and not everyone has the luxury of time either. Other than that, we are not all born with the patience of a saint or a bonsai grower either.

If you have always wanted to grow bonsai but haven't got one for one reason or another, you have a choice: buy an artificial bonsai. They don't require any watering, pruning or pesticides and they'll last as long as the real thing. Here are some tips on how to get ones that are as good, or even better:

Choose the style or species.
There are dozens of bonsai species to choose from, such as pine trees and flowering trees and all of them look decidedly real. They also come in different styles - single-trunk, double-trunk, cascade, rock - and you can select one or two that'll blend with your home's overall design scheme.

Good ones to try: artificial Japanese pine bonsai, Chinese elm, maple or juniper. For artificial flowering bonsai, get the crabapple, jasmine, camellia, flowering plum or gardenia bonsai.

Seeing is believing
If the artificial can fool your eyes, it can fool others' as well. Look at the artificial bonsai from afar and then up close. Look at the trunk, the branches, the leaves and the flowers. The trunk shouldn't look painted on and the branches should blend well with the main trunk.

There should be a continuing, seamless line from the base of the artificial bonsai to the tip of the branches. If you see the joints, you might want to move to the next one. If it still looks like the real thing from six inches away, then it's top quality artificial bonsai.

Touch to test
The true test of a good quality artificial bonsai is its touch. The trunk should feel rough like the bark of a real tree and shouldn't feel plastic to the touch - slippery and smooth. Another test for quality artificial bonsai is its leaves. The leaves shouldn't be too thin or too fabric-like and avoid ones that unravel when pulled. They should be smooth with a partial sheen to mimic real leaves.

Flex to form
Another thing to look for is flexibility. Even though many artificial bonsai are shaped in various ways, there are some that let you manipulate their 'growth' by bending them anyway you like. If you're the kind who likes to work with your bonsai a tiny bit, pick ones that are made with flexible materials such as luna clay. These artificial bonsai let you bend and twist to create a plant that is all your own.