The Bonsai Blog of David Fairbanks

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