Bonsai partnership
Lisa Kanis
when her first baby was born. That was a long time ago. She is now a
grandmother, five times over. In the intervening years she created a
magnificent bonsai collection. Two years ago, however, she told me that she
could no longer keep up with the intensive maintenance her trees demanded,
and had decided to sell all the big ones she could not carry by herself. A
dealer was found who declared that he was prepared to take the trees as a
job lot, and offered her a pittance for them. When she protested, saying
that just the pots were worth three times the amount, he told her that he
wasn't interested in the pots, she could keep them if she wanted. So almost
half of her collection left in a big truck -- all trees that she had worked
on for 10 and 35 years, outstanding specimens, with their roots wrapped in
plastic. I asked her if it hadn't made her feel awful, but she shrugged. "I
am relieved I no longer have the responsibility for them", she said. "I felt
awful when I saw them becoming neglected, they didn't deserve that. I know
that they'll be looked after well, because they are too valuable to be
wasted." Then she smiled and said that now she'd finally be able again to
get some new trees, which she could style over the coming years, something
she couldn't afford to do when her full collection took up so much time, and
so much space.
I wonder if she ever got used to the bare retaining wall along her extended
rockery, where the biggest bonsai stood for many years. For my part, I
haven't.... quite.
The reason I am posting this story is prompted by a question that Andy
Rutledge asked in his Editorial of April, in Bonsai Today Online. In a
nutshell, for those who are not subscribers, he wished to know how people
felt about getting rid of bonsai in which they had invested so much time and
so much of themselves.
He sees working on bonsai as the creation of a partnership between the tree
and the artist, and considers it quite different from other artistic
endeavours, like e.g. painting or sculpting. Therefore, selling a bonsai
cannot be compared to selling a painting or sculpture; it is emotionally
traumatic. (I hope that's ok as the briefest possible summary, Andy?)
I have to dispose of a number of trees myself, because I have too many.
Of course I should have limited long ago the amount I acquired, but how many
of us can do that, before it's too late?
Now, apart from one or two, I can't decide which I should let go. Like Andy
has for his bonsai, I have plans for each of mine, and with the disposal of
the trees comes the disposal of the plans... of the future. That is a
combination which is anchored very deeply, and hard to uproot.
However, the more a good potensai advances in the direction of a good
bonsai, the more work it demands, and I am getting desperate. So, when I
have finally reduced the numbers, I expect I'll feel the same as my
friend.... Relief.
Ultimately, we shall have to let go of all our trees, which implies that in
the background of our partnership with them there is another, still shadowy
partnership, just waiting.
Lisa
Ben Griffin
specific grass that i saw in a book at barnes and
noble. Its called Stipa Pulcherrima. I found it at a
few UK nurseries but couldn't find it at any in the
united states. Does it just not exist over here or
does it go by a specific name. I attached a link so
that you all can see what it looks like. Its a
beautiful brownish green grass with long flowing soft
hairs coming off the top of it. I was hoping to plant
one right next to my benches, but so far have had no
luck finding it.
http://www.callygardens.co.uk/callygardens-sub.html
Let me know if any of you have seen this grass in the
US before.
Thanks
Ben Griffin
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Marty Haber
I apprexciate your feelings, but would offer some consolation. To me,
bonsai is a process: not an end in itself. The pleasure of working with
trees, increasing their beauty as you work, is the real reward in bonsai.
It's the process, not the result that counts. If you think of it in these
terms, you will never look back with regret upon the hours, months and years
spent with bonsai.
Marty
****************************************************************************
Alan Walker
sell bonsai tend to have the best bonsai. They invest a lot of energy and time into
the tree but don't feel compelled to hang on to them like I do. Their collections
usually look better than mine, and they learn more. There's a lesson in there, if
I'd only use it. ;-)
Alan Walker, Lake Charles, LA, USA
http://LCBSBonsai.org http://bonsai-bci.com
=================================
Marty Haber wrote:
Lisa,
I appreciate your feelings, but would offer some consolation. To me,
course I should have limited long ago the amount I acquired, but how many of us can
do that, before it's too late?
Now, apart from one or two, I can't decide which I should let go. Like
Andy has for his bonsai, I have plans for each of mine, and with the disposal
of the trees comes the disposal of the plans... of the future. That is a combination
which is anchored very deeply, and hard to uproot.
However, the more a good potensai advances in the direction of a good
bonsai, the more work it demands, and I am getting desperate. So, when I have
finally reduced the numbers, I expect I'll feel the same as my
friend.... Relief.
Ultimately, we shall have to let go of all our trees, which implies that
in the background of our partnership with them there is another, still
shadowy partnership, just waiting.
Lisa
********************************************************************************
Henrik Gistvall
Prunus species. I suggested Prunus tenella and have now posted a pic of
my little tree on the gallery. Itæ„€ in its second year of training
(actually third but a mouse ate all the buds last spring so I was set
back a year).
Henrik Gistvall, Uppsala, Sweden
Jim Lewis
feelings like a dog will (or a cat -- sometimes -- while you are
petting it. There's absolutely no point in getting emotionally
involved with a tree in a pot. There are always more where that
one came from.
Enjoy them, by all means, but as "things" not as "family."
Jim Lewis - jkl...@nettally.com - Tallahassee, FL - Our life is
frittered away by detail . . . . Simplify! Simplify. -- Henry
David Thoreau - Walden
trees . . .
SNIP
John Carnes
consider giving them to friends, or beginners or people at your local
bonsai club. Maybe it would help reduce the sting of letting a tree go.
You could "keep in touch" so to speak. Some might cringe at the
thought of giving a nice tree to a beginner. People seem to be
outraged by mallsai, but for a lot of us, including me, our first trees
were mallsai. Giving a decent tree, and help with care, to a beginner
would help someone get off to a good start, and might be a good way
to burn off some bad karma. Just a thought.
Andy Rutledge
This (bonsai as "pets" or "family") was not the thrust of either the
comments here or of my comments in the essay. The fact is that the artist
and the tree have a partnership that necessitates cooperation in ways not
found in most (any?) other art(s). Selling or giving away something that is
unfinished, with the balance of "our" plans being unrealized is a bit
different than selling/giving away a work of art/possession that does not
carry this kind of baggage. This is not to say that doing so involves an
overabundance of drama, but it is often a bit more difficult.
Anyway, let's not mischaracterize the gist here.
Kind regards,
Andy Rutledge
zone 8, Texas
http://www.bunjindesign.com/bonsai/
Jim Lewis
the article/essay. I wasn't, in fact, commenting on anything you
wrote, but only on the warm and fuzzy tinge some of the message
in this thread seemed to be taking on. Bonsai don't "care" who
owns them, or even if they're owned. And, while I'll give people
trees every so often, cheapskate that I am, I hate like heck to
give away the pots! ;-)
In any event, I prefer not to imbue bonsai with too much
"deepness" or "significance." It is enough, I think, to enjoy
working with the trees and letting them be a means of relaxation
and perhaps, occasionally, creation (but that may be getting too
significant).
Jim Lewis - jkl...@nettally.com - Tallahassee, FL - Our life is
frittered away by detail . . . . Simplify! Simplify. -- Henry
David Thoreau - Walden
Alan Walker
doesn't matter so much that our bonsai don't purr or wag their tails or get all
excited to see us. For many of us, the sentiment comes from our personal investment
into the bonsai. This is not so different from the uncomfortable feelings one has
wen selling a home and listening to the prospective buyers talk about how they want
to change something that you really worked on and made the house special to you.
Some of us are sentimental, and others are not. Vive la difference!
Alan Walker, Lake Charles, LA, USA
http://LCBSBonsai.org http://bonsai-bci.com
================================
Well, Andy . . . I don't subscribe to BT Online and haven't read
the article/essay. I wasn't, in fact, commenting on anything you
wrote, but only on the warm and fuzzy tinge some of the message
in this thread seemed to be taking on. Bonsai don't "care" who
owns them, or even if they're owned. And, while I'll give people
trees every so often, cheapskate that I am, I hate like heck to
give away the pots! ;-)
In any event, I prefer not to imbue bonsai with too much
"deepness" or "significance." It is enough, I think, to enjoy
working with the trees and letting them be a means of relaxation
and perhaps, occasionally, creation (but that may be getting too
significant).
Jim Lewis - jkl...@nettally.com - Tallahassee, FL
======
Jim Lewis
people to do. It
> doesn't matter so much that our bonsai don't purr or wag their
tails or get all
> excited to see us. For many of us, the sentiment comes from
our personal investment
> into the bonsai. This is not so different from the
uncomfortable feelings one has
> wen selling a home and listening to the prospective buyers talk
about how they want
> to change something that you really worked on and made the
house special to you.
> Some of us are sentimental, and others are not. Vive
la difference!
Yeah. On occasion, Jackie would put me in the "not" camp, I'm
sure.
As for homes . . . it's all in what you call them, I guess --
homes or houses. I have lived in 37 towns in 8 countries, went
to 14 schools before I graduated from high school -- in Tokyo. I
can part with a home/house as easily as I can part from a bonsai
(but not the bonsai's "home" -- its pot ;-).
Dogs and wives are a totally different thing. I've had scores of
dogs and deeply mourned each of them as they left us; I've had
one wife for 43 years now, and hope I don't have to mourn her for
a good number of years!
And Khaimraj, I'm sorry if I surprised or disappointed you, but
what are you grieving about when a tree dies? The Tree? Or all
the "wasted" effort you put into it for . . . in other words,
are you grieving for yourself?
Now, I'd be a very unhappy (and even grumpier) person without
bonsai in my life, but while I may regret when a tree I thought
was pretty dies, I don't go into mourning; I'll look at the
roots and break a limb or two in an attempt to discover what
might have been the cause, then toss the carcass into the woods.
(And yes, I'll cuss at it if it was one I'd spent a lot of time
over.) I've just gone through an exercise where I've tossed out
a couple of dozen putative bonsai that I finally saw weren't
gonna ever make it as bonsai. They had their chance. No
regrets -- on either part.
Jim Lewis - jkl...@nettally.com - Tallahassee, FL - Our life is
frittered away by detail . . . . Simplify! Simplify. -- Henry
David Thoreau - Walden
********************************************************************************
Lisa Kanis
From: "Marty Haber" <hab...@OPTONLINE.NET>
> Lisa,
> (...) The pleasure of working with trees, increasing their beauty as you
work, is the
> real reward in bonsai.
Thanks, Marty. I am in full agreement.
> It's the process, not the result that counts.
..... unless one sees the increased beauty as a result. Don't you agree?
> If you think of it in these terms, you will never look back with regret
upon the hours,
> months and years spent with bonsai.
No, but dread the future somewhat, nonetheless.
===========================
From: "Jim Lewis" <jkl...@NETTALLY.COM>
> (...) There's absolutely no point in getting emotionally involved with a
tree in a pot.
> There are always more where that one came from.
Just keep telling yourself that, Jim, and you'll be OK. ;-)))
===========================
From: "Alan Walker" <awbo...@IAMERICA.NET>
> It doesn't matter so much that our bonsai don't purr or wag their tails or
get all
> excited to see us. For many of us, the sentiment comes from our personal
investment
> into the bonsai. This is not so different from the uncomfortable feelings
one has
> wen selling a home and listening to the prospective buyers talk about how
they want
> to change something that you really worked on and made the house special
to you.
That's it to a 't'. The investment that comes through involvement when we
work on our trees, the visualising while we prune and wire, the watching
when we go out to do the watering, the enjoyment when our efforts bear the
desired fruit.
================================
From: "Andy Rutledge" <ibo...@EARTHLINK.NET>
> (...) The fact is that the artist and the tree have a partnership that
necessitates
> cooperation in ways not found in most (any?) other art(s).
Where else but in bonsai do you use a medium that creates itself, as much as
you create it? Where else do you have to adapt, as much as you ask your
medium to adapt? Where else do you feel that special respect, generated by a
_living _ medium?
> Selling or giving away something that is unfinished, with the balance of
"our" plans
> being unrealized is a bit different than selling/giving away a work of
art/possession that > does not carry this kind of baggage.
Yes, it breaks a thread, one that ties you to you, and you to the tree.
==========================
From: "John Carnes" <carn...@UIDAHO.EDU>
> I would suggest that if you have to get rid of some trees you might
> consider giving them to friends, or beginners or people at your local
> bonsai club.
We do that all the time, John, like a lot of people here. Or we sell for low
prices at our annual shows. But giving away or selling some of the best
trees in our collection, i.e. those in which we have invested a lot, is a
different matter.
> Some might cringe at the thought of giving a nice tree to a beginner.
One should never give anything _but_ a nice tree to a beginner, specifically
because he is a beginner and could not handle anything without a good
potential. Personally I don't give away trees that I should not enjoy
working on myself.
===========================
With thanks to all,
Lisa
Nina Shishkoff
nothing ruins my day faster than getting a bonsai-Doctor diagnostic
form that ends "I gave this bonsai to my wife on our anniversary as a
testament of our love, and now it's dying! Please Help!"
However, I hate losing a tree. You not only lose all the care and
training you put into it, but you lose all the plans you had for it
in the future. I just lost an evergreen pear I've been working on
for 8 years, that was just starting to look the way I envisioned it
should look. I miss the cracked bark. I miss the shiny leaves. One
of these years, it would have bloomed pear blossoms. But not now.
--
Nina Shishkoff
ns...@Cornell.edu
Frederick, MD
Jim Lewis
> for 8 years, that was just starting to look the way I
envisioned it
> should look. I miss the cracked bark. I miss the shiny
leaves. One
> of these years, it would have bloomed pear blossoms. But not
now.
Well, there's that. I lost an I. vomitoria this spring that was
just getting where it was supposed to be.
Sorry about the pear . . . but EVERGREEN pear???????????
Whatzit?
Jim Lewis - jkl...@nettally.com - Tallahassee, FL - Our life is
frittered away by detail . . . . Simplify! Simplify. -- Henry
David Thoreau - Walden
********************************************************************************
Carl L Rosner
The reason I take photos is that I can always look at what my tree(s)
looked like (good or bad). So it is a sort of permanent record of my
feeble attempts.
People have asked me how Ican part with my paintings. After all I have
produced close to 800 paintings and have less than 100 scattered home
and at galleries. My answer is the same. I take pictures or slides and
that reminds me of my efforts to produce that particular painting (or
tree).
So I guess I fall in the Jim Lewis camp in that respect. I'm sure we
both have a lot of company!!! ;-)
Carl L. Rosner - near Atlantic City zone 6/7
http://bmee.net/rosner
http://www.jamesbaird.com/cgi-bin/JamesBairdArt?optype=artist_page&artistid=0000006848
Bart Thomas
look at what my tree(s)
> looked like (good or bad). So it is a sort of permanent record of my
> feeble attempts.
>
As I look at this discussion, I am reminded of the expressed need to "talk
to your plants" (Musta been from the feel-good seventies). This was aimed
at houseplants, so I talked to them, and said, "My way, or the dumpster."
Looking backward, I may have been a little short on tact, and hard on those
plants, whose only duty was to survive, but it has helped me with bonsai,
and I cull my collection with the ruthlessness of a sales manager.
Do I have trees that would be embarrasing to show? Of course. Most of these
are in the experiment stage; (I call them "victims").
Would my best trees be an embarrasment in the collection of one of the
masters on the list? Of course, But they are all an ongoing process that I
enjoy Some I keep simply because I remember what they have come from. The
enjoyment is greater when the process leads to something beautiful.
Carl does beautiful paintings. But, I'm sure that he has experiments that
have either been sanded off, if he works on board, or have disappeared under
a new painting. I feel that bonsai is the same way.
Carl L Rosner
I had to laugh at the last paragraph....you are absolutely right.
Paintings that have never seen the light of day are trashed!!! (all
three of them!) :-D don't I wish!
Best regards and thanks for the good laugh!
Carl
Bart Thomas
artistically successful painter to make me sure that I could bring this
closer to home for the group.
A work in process, whether a painting, bonsai, or Great American Novel, is
NOT a relic of the true cross. Probably many more have been trashed than
have survived.
Would you or I want to have something given to us from Michaelangelo's,
Picasso's, or Kimura's trash pile? I think so.
Regards.
Bart
----- Original Message -----
From: "Carl L Rosner" >
> I had to laugh at the last paragraph....you are absolutely right.
> Paintings that have never seen the light of day are trashed!!! (all
> three of them!) :-D don't I wish!
>
********************************************************************************
Nina Shishkoff
>
>Whatzit?
>
Pyrus 'Kawakami', available from Brent, who describes it:
"Evergreen (partially deciduous in coldest areas) shrub or
small tree. Drooping branchlets, shiny medium green leaves, clouds
of creamy white flowers in late winter or early
spring, just after mume. Sometimes forms small hard inedible green
fruit. Without training it becomes large sprawling
shrub. It is better used as a small tree by staking it up and
selecting a single trunk. Quickly forms rough bark
consisting of irregular oblong shaped plates which is quite
attractive (see second photo). A quite tough little plant
surviving adverse conditions of sun, little water, poor soil, but
can only tolerate temperatures to 15F. It is also one of the
few pears resistant to Fireblight. This plant has been overlooked
for bonsai but would seem to have great potential. It is
easily top and root pruned. The leaves do reduce somewhat and it
develops characteristic bark fairly quickly."
--
Nina Shishkoff
ns...@Cornell.edu
Frederick, MD
********************************************************************************
Jim Lewis
Thanks.
If I had looked it up first . . . Anyway, Dirr (Woody Landscape
Plants) says "Pyrus kawakamii, Evergreen Pear, is a small,
rounded evergreen tree that offers abundant white flowers in
late
winter or early spring. tends toward a large shrub and the
branches droop and sprawl. Used on the West Coast, particularly
California. I have seen a few trees on the Georgia coast but
they were decimated by fireblight. The branches may develop
thorns. Fruit is globose, glabrous, about 1/2" across and
inedible."
So Dirr considers "kawakamii" to be a species and says it IS
susceptible to fireblight. ???
I have Pyrus pyrifolia, Chinese Sand Pear, but Dirr says nothing
about its susceptibility. I've has a couple in pots for 8 years
or so now and have only had black spot disease on the leaves.
Easily controllable.
jim
Evergreen Gardenworks
> Thanks.
>
> If I had looked it up first . . . Anyway, Dirr (Woody Landscape
> Plants) says "Pyrus kawakamii, Evergreen Pear, is a small,
> rounded evergreen tree that offers abundant white flowers in
>late
> winter or early spring. tends toward a large shrub and the
> branches droop and sprawl. Used on the West Coast, particularly
> California. I have seen a few trees on the Georgia coast but
> they were decimated by fireblight. The branches may develop
> thorns. Fruit is globose, glabrous, about 1/2" across and
> inedible."
>
> So Dirr considers "kawakamii" to be a species and says it IS
> susceptible to fireblight. ???
>
> I have Pyrus pyrifolia, Chinese Sand Pear, but Dirr says nothing
> about its susceptibility. I've has a couple in pots for 8 years
> or so now and have only had black spot disease on the leaves.
> Easily controllable.
>
> jim
Jim
That's not my experience. I live in pear country. Most of the US supply of
pears comes from Mendocino and Lake Counties. Fireblight is a well known
problem here. I have grown two ornamental pears, Harbin Pear, Pyrus
ussuriensis which is grown as an understock and Pyrus kawakami. Harbin pear
gets fireblight at the drop of a hat. I have lost some really nice ones and
have given up on it. On the other hand, I ignore P. kawakami and it never
dies. It gets some spots on the leaves but they never amount to much. Nina
had hers for years until it succumbed this year, she can tell you more
about growing it on the East Coast.
Brent in Northern California
Evergreen Gardenworks USDA Zone 8 Sunset Zone 14
mailto:bon...@pacific.net
http://www.EvergreenGardenworks.com
Nina Shishkoff
>>So Dirr considers "kawakamii" to be a species and says it IS
>> susceptible to fireblight. ???
Then Brent wrote:
>
> On the other hand, I ignore P. kawakami and it never
>dies. It gets some spots on the leaves but they never amount to much. Nina
>had hers for years until it succumbed this year, she can tell you more
>about growing it on the East Coast.
Mine would get blackspot every year (a fungal disease, not a
bacterial disease), but I'd pull off the diseased leaves and it would
be fine. Long Island doesn't have fireblight, so luckily I had no
problem. The only special care the tree needed was protection in
winter, because zone 7 is borderline for evergreen pear. This winter
was very harsh, and the tree wasn't well protected, and that's
probably what killed it. I also lost my "hardy orange" this winter,
which had done fine for a decade.
--
Nina Shishkoff
ns...@Cornell.edu
Frederick, MD
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