Hoshiarpur manager grows 100 bonsai plants, shares skills on YouTube

Singh says the interest began in 1990 after he watched a bonsai programme on Doordarshan. At the time, books and formal training were hard to find or too expensive, so he built his own method the slow way, through observation, trial and error, and by reading books and magazines at exhibitions. That patient approach shows in the range of material he keeps: pilkhan, pine, sheesham, peepal, goolar, cheeku, raspberry, falai, garoona, shehtoot, champa, jade, tecoma, banyan, neem and amla all sit in his collection.

Some of Singh’s trees are now more than 30 years old, and around 15 more plants are being prepared as future bonsai. Six months before the Tribune story, he launched his Bonsai Boss channel with help from his children and a friend, using it to explain pruning, wiring and bending in a format that newer growers can follow at home.

Singh also takes the work beyond his own benches. He speaks to students about plantation and environmental conservation, stressing that planting a sapling is only the start and that trees need care and nurturing if they are to survive. That message fits the broader bonsai culture taking shape in North India, where the Indian Bonsai Association says it was founded in Delhi on March 9, 1981 by Dr Leila Dhanda and Dr Hussain Tayebbhoy to promote the art. The group also says the National Bonsai Park at Lodhi Garden in New Delhi opened on April 6, 1996.