Meet the 13-year-old bonsai enthusiast from Wakefield who is spreading helpful tips and tricks on how to cultivate the perfect miniature tree

Joby Nelson-Auty found his interest in bonsai cultivating after watching the Karate Kid film with his dad Gavin and brother, Issac when he was 11.

After spending the past two years researching on how to best keep the miniature trees, Joby is now using social media, with his dad’s oversight, to spread what he knows with others as well as the joy of creating bonsai trees.

Joby, who lives in Ossett and attends Ossett Academy, said: “I was watching Karate Kid with my dad and my brother on the telly and I saw these little trees that I thought looked cool.

“I started to do my research and I ended up getting my first bonsai tree for Christmas and it started from there.”

Joby says he “didn’t really know what he was doing at the beginning” and initially began growing the trees indoors before finding out how to properly care for them.

He added: “I didn’t realise that growing them indoors was not good for the trees. But, I started going through local Facebook groups and realised that they needed to be grown outdoors, so I purchased a bench and grew them out there through the whole of last year.”

Joby has around 20 bonsai trees in his collection, currently. Some of the trees need a bit more ‘TLC’ than others but each tree needs to be repotted and resoiled around every two years to keep them nice and healthy.

Bonsai is not a species of tree, instead, it is a Japanese artform that dates back centuries.

Many species of trees and shrubs can be grown and pruned into being a bonsai tree – a miniature tree which gives the impression of being a full-sized, mature tree, and is generally grown in shallow ceramic pots.

For Joby the best part of his hobby is seeing an average plant from a nursery being transformed into a bonsai tree through a lot of hard work and care.

"I enjoy looking after the trees and ending up with a beautiful tree that looks like no other,” he said.

"There are tonnes of beautiful trees on some of the UK bonsai tree groups on Facebook, which is also what inspired me.

"You can start off with a cheap tree from your local nursery and develop it into a bonsai tree over the years.

"Bonsai trees are not genetically miniature, if you plant one in the ground, it will grow like a normal tree. You need to train them to keep the shape by using pruners.

"You trim the branches back when they grow a shoot, eventually they will grow closer and closer and make the shape you want.”

On giving advice to other novice growers, he said: “You shouldn’t baby trees who are hardy to sub-zero temperatures indoors. Don’t start off with very small trees. Buy a decent tree from your local nursery for around £20 and you can turn it into an amazing bonsai tree.”

Through his Facebook page, Joby’s main aim is to inspire people to enjoy bonsai trees and potentially open his own bonsai nursery when he is a bit older.