The Bonsai Blog of David Fairbanks

On a typically British August Sunday I found myself in John Pitt’s oversized (but too bloody low) outbuilding, hiding from the typically British rain. We had spent the day working a tree and talking bonsai, and the subject got on to the soon to be implemented ban on importing Juniper due to the high percentage of rust infections on this years imports.

We were talking about the ramifications of this, such as increased prices of what is currently available here, and the eventual decrease of quality stock. I said to John that in the future I will be working better quality juniper material than the majority that is imported currently, as I have been taking Itoigawa cuttings in mass for a few years now and have several hundred young plants.

I told him of my plans to field grow around 30% in my land, and the rest of them I will peel and wire repeatedly to grow top draw container grown Shohin material. He looked at me like I was crazy. Peeled? I continued to explain that these tight contorted Junipers that get imported are grown by peeling the bark and wiring new shoots in the ground, and that this produces some of the best and most expensive nursery grown Juniper material available in Japan.

The conversation then moved on to why nobody in the UK was using the techniques used in Japan to grow material here. This is where the conversation ended, as my wife had arrived to pick me up, but I haven’t been able to stop thinking about this since.

Why is it that we copy Japanese practices and techniques for styling trees, but nobody is using the techniques that they use to grow material? I take that back, I said nobody, and that isn’t true. Recently some people are experimenting with growing pines in double layered colanders, and Brent Walston from Evergreen Garden Works in the US has been growing suitable Japanese pine cultivars from cuttings for some time. But that is about it.

For example, Satsuki are currently very popular in Europe and better quality ones have started to be imported from Japan. Yet to my knowledge (and I have searched extensively) there is no one in the E.U growing Satsuki whips. I am now doing, in small numbers due to the complexity of Satsuki propagation.

Thinking about it logically, Japan isn’t that cheap. Add to it export costs, shipping, import tax, nursery mark ups, and probably a dozen other overheads, in the UK you can pay over double the cost price of this material in Japan. Almost all of the major overheads would be removed if the source of the material was within the E.U. A lorry is bigger than a shipping container, as well as cheaper and faster.

One of the most important benefits would be that these being grown within the E.U there would be no quarantine times, meaning that nurseries could order stock, and have it on there benches in days or weeks, not months and years.

I am good friends with an owner of one of the UK’s biggest nurseries and am familiar with how his imports work. In May/June he goes to Japan to select his stock, it arrives in January/February the following year, and then can be in quarantine for a further 6 months afterwards. Looking at it from a supply and demand point of view, it seems completely ludicrous that a business is reliant upon such a long winded (and as the mass burning of Junipers by DEFRA this year has shown, a relatively risky) supply chain.

There are people in Europe who do grow and supply material to nurseries in the E.U and UK, but the methods used for growing evergreens are little more complicated than wrapping a whip (regardless of species) around a cane or stick, and leaving for 10 years. These sell for £200-£400. This produces semi-decent material (My entry into last years KoB contest was grown in the E.U by this method), but if better techniques were applied within the same timescales material can be produced that sells for £800-£1200, and rivals the material that comes from Japan.

Im not complaining here, this isn’t another one of my rants, I simply cannot understand what the reasons are that this does not happen. Tell you what though, if any Bonsai Nursery has a few acres spare, and wants to grow Japanese quality material using Japanese techniques, then I am available for work (hehehe).

As always, your thoughts and opinions on this would be appreciated.

Bonsai in the UK looks towards Japan a great deal for information and in the current climate, it is becoming increasingly more accessible. We especially look to Japan for knowledge, yet it seems to me that we have failed to learn some of the basic lessons that Japan has tried to teach us, and these are so important that until we do learn them we are restricting our own development as a national Bonsai scene. It’s hard to say exactly what I mean, and the best single phrase to sum it up that I can think of is “We fail to see the bigger picture”. We focus on the here and now, where as in Japan there is more time spent thinking about the future.
I, probably like you, am a subscriber of the publication Bonsai Focus. In the most recent issue there is an article featuring one of Kobiyash’s most talented students. He is styling an Itiogawa Juniper and planting it on a rock. So what is the important lesson of the article? The way he creates the Jin? The placement of the branches? The methods used to plant onto the rock? Although these are all important, the most important lesson is given before the plant is even touched.
In the future thinking world of Japan, they understand that tied into the development of Bonsai, is the development of the people who do it. We are always reading about the next great masters currently studying and even get to hear about a few from the UK who are following this path. Yet in the UK we don’t learn the lesson.
It can be said that as far as a Bonsai Nation is concerned we are young in comparison to Japan and therefore do not have any such system in place. It is a fair comment, however if you switch focus closer to home you can see that in comparison to some of our European neighbours we are miles behind. France, Germany and Italy all have structures like this in place and they have been of great success. Salvatore Liporace, created the Studio Botanico in 1986 and there are now many artists who have passed through Studio Botanico and are now at the top of there profession.
There is currently only 1 single educational structure that can be compared to this in the UK, this is run by John Hanby and is in its first year. Hopefully this will continue to do as well as it is doing so far. There are many famous Bonsai Artists in the UK, with far more information than they are able to accurately and concisely teach in books. The level of knowledge in the UK is very good, especially amongst the older generation of artists. There are many people in the UK capable of giving young and talented artists a structured formal Education in Bonsai.
In Japan, the majority of trees shown in the large exhibitions have been in a pot for over 30 years, which give or take, is a generation, and they know that for these to be maintained and developed in the future there needs to be people with the knowledge and skill to do so.
Here in the UK, again we don’t learn the lesson. We have some great trees here, many famous trees that are known throughout the world. We don’t have a plan in effect for the long term future of these trees. It will be a shame to see some of Peter Chan’s Maples to end up sold off to the highest bidder, regardless of there credentials to own and maintain these important works of art.
Peter is just being used as an example here, as his Maples are among the best examples of their species anywhere and nationally should be seen as important historical works of art. We didn’t leave the Constable paintings to fade and disappear into time, it makes no sense that we should allow our nations bonsai art to.
Yet again thought, this is the bigger picture, and we don’t seem to like it. It is also very possible that we do see the bigger picture, but choose to ignore it. Maybe we are blinded to the bigger picture by the evil that is money?
Do the current Artists not care if there trees are seen for generations to come? Would they rather sell them for what they can than see them maintained for the future generations, even if to do this the trees are not sold?
What’s really more important the Art or the money? Unfortunately it seems the answer is money, when you consider that passing on information costs nothing. Artists do charge people for lessons and classes and such, and this is understandable. But when it comes to the time when the knowledge in my head needs to shared or be lost forever, money doesn’t matter.

I am up to my eyeballs at the moment with my seedlings. Because i use a polytunnel i can add a month to either side of my growing season, and although its early may i have over 300 seedlings potted on (with a view to going into the allotment space next year).

So far i have had good results of:-

Trident maple, Small leaved trident maple (been growing these for 3 years, the leaves are less than half the size of the standard plant), Giant Dogwood, Chinese Juniper, Japanese Maple, Scots pine, Common Yew and Mugo Pine. I must have 300 more of these to prick out and pot up over the coming weeks.

I  have only managed to grow 3 out of 15 seeds of a particular plant, the leather leaved Trident Maple. This are rare in the UK, so if all i get from them is a stock plant for cuttings, im more than happy.

My Japanese Pines are just starting to pop through as well. I didn’t keep these in the polytunnel as i had them in larger flats, and as such they had better frost protection in comparison to standard plastic seed trays. I have 1000 in flats as i will be needing lots of rootstock over the next 4 years. I have also got a flat of Mikawa Japanese pine, a seed i have been growing for 2 years, and yielded great results last year. I hope to use these asrootstock for grafting cork/rough varieties of pine, as Mikawa develops rough bark naturally, and will ultimately lead to better grafts.

My Temple Needle Junipers, Arctic Scotts pines and Savin Junipers are also popping through. It will be a few weeks yet until these need to be pricked out.

Better go source some small plat pots i suppose.

Regards

I thought id show you all the biggest project i have for 2008.

This is an allotment i have just taken on. It hasnt been looked after for a few years, and as you can see from the picture it is in need of alot of work. There are weeds upto my knees, rubble and glass everywhere and rotting veg aplenty.

This is located a few hundred meteres away from my home. I am a backyard bonsai artist, yet i also do all of my growing at home as well. Seeds, cuttings, grafts, i do all of this at home, and it takes up a great deal of space for most of the year. The plan is to relocate this aspect of what i do to this allotment space. There is plenty of space here for me to begin doing what i plan to do.

This is the reason i have not been placing many posts lately. Every dry day i get im here, digging away. I hope to have 2 10 sqm raised grow beds in place in the next week or so. These will be raised by 40 cms for 2 reasons. First to give me a more comfy work height, and secondly, space to bury alot of the rubble located here.

I thought i would share this with you, as although it isnt directly bonsai related, it is very important to me and my development in bonsai.

This has to be my favourite time of year. The old “April Showers” are upon us, and being stereotypically English, i ruddy love it. Occasionally i get my favorite, grey clouds and drizzle. Id much rather have rain than sunshine. Dont worry, my wife thinks im mad as well.

New growth on Arakawa Maples

I love the annual games of the dormant/dead lottery that gets held in backgardens everywhere around this time of year. “Ill just scratch a bit of bark back and see if its still green” can be heard being muttered from lips all around the country.

Shoots growing on Satsuki

Its a time of excitement, planning the seasons repotting you remind yourself to repot the pine you forgot to do last year, and then promtley reforget. Maybe thats just me.

This years Scotts Pines

I just wanted to share a few springtime images with you all

This is a one year old Japanese Black Pine.

John hanby has traded in Bonsai in the UK for fifteen years, and his Newstead Bonsai Centre is widely regarded as one of the best nurseries in the UK. He is also at theforefront of Bonsai education i in the UK. Winner of national and international awards, John still finds the time to host and organise the Newstead Extravaganza, a bi-annual Bonsai exhibition and the finest of its kind in the UK.

The Newstead Bonsai Centre has come along way since April 2003 and continues to improve and develop. Even from a frequent visitor like myself there is always something new. What are your hopes for the future of the nursery and what can people expect to see over the next few years?

I suppose that even after almost 5 years the main aim is still one of consolidation and survival. Most people probably have no idea of the huge costs and difficulties involved in acquiring, running, and stocking a 4acre(1.5hectare) site like Newstead especially when you are almost totally dependent on a specialist product like bonsai. I want to continue to provide good raw material at all price levels from both Europe and Japan, together with a good range of more established trees and specimen bonsai from Japan.I hope to enhance our specialization with more Japanese garden materials. We already have a good selection of Maples, cloud trees, granite lanterns, and oriental fencing panels but I am looking to enlarge this and set up some show gardens to give people ideas and inspiration.

The Newstead 3 exhibition is to take place on September the 20th and 21st 2008. Do you have any plans to change its structure for future exhibitions to include trees from Europe in light of announcements made at the Ginko awards this year? Do you expect any knock on effects for the Newstead Exibitions as they will no longer be used for pre selection purposes for Ginko?

Trees from Europe have always been most welcome and at least two featured in our first exhibition. However, it still remains very difficult to attract both trees and visitors from across the water

The Newstead Award Extravaganza was always conceived as a “stand-alone” event but obviously it provided a wonderful opportunity for Danny to select trees from the UK. The format of our event is unlikely to change and we may find that those wishing to stage a major bonsai event in Europe take advantage and use it to select trees. Not everyone wants to show their trees in Europe and incur the costs involved. I hope that more and more people will take pride and satisfaction from seeing their tree exhibited in what appears to have become the Uk’s premier bonsai event. I want it to be something for people to aspire to, to aim for, because this will encourage them to select good material and to do the necessary work on their trees, which in turn has to be good for bonsai in this country.

The Ginko exhibition was known throughout the world as one of the very highest level exhibits of Bonsai Art in Europe. As someone who has exhibited at the Ginko awards, what existing shows will take over the reigns?

I don’t think any show will be able to take over the reigns from the Ginkgo. I hope the selection shows in each country will continue in their own right and as such achieve greater prominence within their own country.Some countries will hold larger international events attracting trees and visitors from other countries but none will be able to emulate the Ginkgo in attracting the best trees from every bonsai artist in every european country together under one roof.

There has been a noticeable decline in attendance and member numbers in many Bonsai clubs and associations in the UK. What impact do you think will have in the development of British Bonsai art?

I don’t think the declining numbers will have a noticeable effect on the future development of bonsai in this country. The clubs do help to encourage and develop newcomers into the hobby but many members find their own level and seem happy to stay there. The people who want to learn and progress will find their own way forward whatever the club scenario.

The next generation is very important for the continued development of the art. In Japan the next bonsai masters are being trained by the current, and this practice has happened for centuries. This formal education is something that has been missing in British Bonsai, even in comparison to the rest of Europe. There are signs of this improving, with programs such as your Academy. How important is it for us to improve the level of education in Britain?

Education is very important. Many people can produce a tree but taking that tree from average/mediocre to a very high level is much more difficult. You need different knowledge and technique at each stage of development and for each species/variety. Most of this information is not available in books and relatively few people are in a position to pass on all the required knowledge. This was one of the things that prompted the formation of the academy. I can now teach cultivation, artistry and technique, in a structured course, without the constraints of the student’s own material, but with access to all varieties at all levels to clearly illustrate what’s required. The fact that 43 people enrolled for the first year’s course was really encouraging and illustrates that there are many enthusiasts in the UK who really want to progress further.

Do you believe that British Bonsai needs to find an individual identity to truly advance our art? Kimura himself believes that Europe and America focus to much on trying to recreate Japanese Bonsai without using there own cultures as influences to develop unique styles and practices. This is a sentiment echoed throughout the world. What are your thoughts on this?

It was pictures of the fine Japanese specimen bonsai that inspired many of us to take up the hobby so it is only natural that we should try to re-create these images. Our other source of inspiration is trees we have seen in nature. Sometimes the trees we create may be a combination of the two. I don’t think we have to worry too much about our own identity. We are starting with better material and creating good trees. Bonsai in the Uk has improved tremendously over the past 8 years. While this trend continues I don’t think we have anything to worry about.

You are further along your path of learning than most, what has been the single most important lesson that you have learned so far?

The more you learn the more you realise just how much there is you don’t know. This makes you more determined and more receptive in your quest for knowledge. You must learn as much as possible from your teachers, your students/fellow enthusiasts, and your mistakes.

After your time in Bonsai, do you find it more difficult to draw inspiration for you art? Are there any particular artists that you see as a source of inspiration?

I think it becomes easier to draw inspiration the more experienced and knowledgeable you become. You are able to see so much more both in the material you are working on, and in the trees which inspire you. I think I am inspired more by trees than any particular artist. If you are inspired by a tree it does not matter from which country it came or who created it, other than of course to be able to congratulate them.

What is you favourite species for working and why?

Juniper – especially Chinensis and similar varieties. It is readily available in all sizes and levels. It produces a pleasing image almost from day one which can then be refined to a very high level. Once you have the tree under control you can keep it at that level for a long time. The creation and introduction of deadwood can be quite spectacular which gives the artist even greater scope for self expression. It can be worked on throughout the year and is generally durable/reliable.

You have met many people thanks to Bonsai, who has had the most lasting impression upon you and why?

Many bonsai artists/teachers across Europe owe much of their early inspiration and subsequent progress to Dan Barton…..I am no exception. Dan was a true pioneer of bonsai in the Uk, very knowledgeable and enthusiastic, but also happy to pass on as much information as possible.

Meeting Danny Use was the next major turning point for me. Danny opened my eyes to so much and introduced me to the Japanese way of doing bonsai.

You have created many famous trees, which of these is your personal favorite and why?

The tree I am working on at any given time is the tree which gives me a buzz. After all these years I am happy that this feeling has not been lost.

A privet I rescued from a soon to be demolished hedge in 2000 does give me alot of pleasure having appeared in the Ginkgo in 2007 and then being selected for an International Bonsai event in Italy in 2008.

Within Britain there are many native species that lend themselves to Bonsai. For example, the Field Maple has every trait that the Trident maple has, but it is not common to see field maple Bonsai in comparison to trident. Why do you think there is such a desire to work on traditional species used in Asia? And do you think this is a good thing for British Bonsai?

The Field Maple is good but not as good as the Trident. In my opinion the Trident is the best maple for bonsai as it responds so well to our training methods and a refined image can be obtained very quickly. Good Asian material at all levels is generally readily available. Many enthusiasts seem to have great difficulty in finding really goodindigenous raw material. I don’t think this will have any effect on British Bonsai. If a tree is good it is good. If an artist has done a good job he has done well. It does not matter where the material originated from.

Hello all

I did say that coming soon would be my first rant, and here it is. I’m the kind of person who says exactly what i think. This is something that has bugged me for a long time, and something that i want to share with you.

So, whats the problem?

Firstly id like to show you this picture.

This is the business end of a Pinus Thunbergii “Suchiro Yatsabusa”, a dwarf cultivar of Japanese black pine and one that is well suited to bonsai cultivation. Like most cultivars of Japanese pine, they are rarer than rocking horse droppings in the UK. This one for example isn’t listed by the RHS (Royal Horticultural Society) plant finder as available anywhere in Britain.

No, i don’t want to gripe about the lack of availability of cultivars. I know that they can only be reproduced by grafting, meaning there is a limit to the amount of them and this is something that i understand. You need root stock, good quality scions, and time, and even then you are not guaranteed success. All of these factors, tied together with the fact that there is less than a handful of people in the UK who graft pine cultivars makes for a limited availability of plants, and that is fine. However what really makes me mad is the next picture.

This is the other end of the same plant. The graft is 7cm from the soil line. Bear in mind that this is a Yatsabusa variety, this is practically useless for a future bonsai. I have also dug down in the soil, and there is another 3 cms of trunk below the soil line, meaning that there as 10cms between the roots and the graft. Shoddy. This is one of 10 different cultivars i obtained from the same source, and the grafts were all equally as poor.

Ok ok, not all plants are grafted for use in bonsai. You go to garden centers and you will find a whole host of plants with similar poor grafts. Yet this plant was purchased from a bonsai man, who runs a bonsai place. I wont mention names as that isn’t cricket, however find it astonishing that someone who knows what is required in order to grow good quality Pine Bonsai turns out plants such as this.

As i have already said there are very few of these in the UK, and for reasons we have already discussed. Surely the focus should be placed on the quality of the few plants that are successfully cultivated, especially if there intention is to be used for Bonsai.

Brent Walston is a man i have great respect for. He runs a place near Kelseyville, CA, called Evergreen Gardenworks. They propagate and grow rare and unusual plants for bonsai and landscape use. His articles have taught many in the online bonsai community much, and i owe a lot to him for the lessons i have learned from his words.

http://www.evergreengardenworks.com/pinus.htm

The above link is to Evergreens Gardenworks, and in particular a list of there pine cultivars that they have available. Most of the cultivars has a picture next to it. Look at the quality of the grafts. Outstanding. Brents grafting talents are well known, and there are waiting lists for many of the cultivars he deals in, as is the demand and respect for the final product. I would strongly recommend anyone to read through the articles on his site.

So, what is it that enables Brent to create such good quality grafts? Simple answer is that he can be arsed to. He knows what is required to grow larger cultivar Pines. He knows that if the grafts are no good, the bonsai that result from them will be no good either. But so do growers from the UK. Yet we are still happy enough to turn out these poor qualiy grafts.

This will have a knock on effect for the quality of bonsai we produce in the future. Our future bonsai are only as good as the material we use, and at the moment we have to source from overseas and pay import charges in order to have good quality Pine cultivars.

I have already realised that in order for me to grow the pines i want to i will have to start from scratch. I have sourced 20 cultivars of Japanese black and white pines, including many cork barked varieties, which are being grown on as stock plants for scion wood. I have a thousand J black pine seeds to grow rootstock for future grafts. I have a field to allow me to grow them on. More importantly i have the time, and the attitude to do the job properly.

If anyone reads this and thinks, hang on a minute, i think hes talking about me! Ask yourself this, is the quality of your plants as good as they could be? If the answer is no then i am indeed talking about you, and you should be ashamed. More to the point, you should be asking yourself why.

Regards

David Fairbanks

Hello all and welcome to My Bonsai Blog.

This is me. Im a 26 year old Bonsai enthusiast from Staffordshire, England.

This picture was taken on a recent visit to Peter and Dawn Chan’s nursery.

This is me standing in his growing fields. Some of these trunks are thicker than my legs! And im a big bugger!

I hope to use this blog to record my learnings and travels in all things bonsai, as well as encourage discussions.

This will be updated on a regular basis so do be sure to check back often. Coming soon is my first public rant, and an interview with John Hanby.

See you soon

David Fairbanks