When I first heard of Felton's proposed donation I immediately assumed he must have reached out to some of those former students of his that he claimed were financially well-off and ready to help out if he asked them to. This proved to be an incorrect assumption. The money was Felton's, from a bank account apparently no one knew he had.
Read MoreSomething in the old, traditional Japanese ways resonated with Felton and soon he was seeing nature through that lens. Bonsai captured his imagination in a visceral way. But he was also attracted to Japanese gardens and ikebana, and Japanese sumi paintings of nature, and Japanese haikus about nature. In fact, everything that might be construed as traditional Japanese appealed to Felton, whether it related directly to nature or not.
Read MoreI saw Felton as something of a wanderer, someone who sometimes got an itch to head on down the road somewhere and if he liked where he found himself he might stay put for a while. Sooner or later, though, he was bound to move on. That's how it was until the end, when Felton was old and broken down, more or less stuck in Durham, and that was the period in which I knew him.
Read MoreI made contact with Felton on my first visit with the Triangle Bonsai Society in Raleigh, North Carolina, in 1995. He was that group's resident sensei and he would have been about seventy four years old at the time. I had heard his name before that, though, because it seemed all the bonsai people of the day knew Felton.
Read MoreBut beyond being an artist Zhao was also proof of something, a living example of a fact you thought must be true but couldn't prove. There had to be multiple ways of going about it — had to be. If the whole little tree business was truly an art form then there couldn't be just one right way. Art doesn't work like that.
Read MoreI sensed I had been maneuvered into a situation that had been carefully pre-arranged by Kent. I didn't mind it so much because he had made clear what was possible and what wasn’t, and he had done it so smoothly, with such good cheer and affability. I turned attention to the trees he was offering.
Read MoreThe bonsai professional had been taking the Englishwoman and her husband on a tour of the professional's bonsai garden. The professional introduced the curator to his English guests, explaining to the guests that the curator was in charge of a public bonsai collection in the United States and had come to Japan to study.
Read MoreThose pots were made in Japan or China and their character was part of the whole “Ancient Art of Bonsai” package. In the beginning this was not a problem. The desirability of producing bonsai that adhered to a certain conventionally approved form was only another of the rules in a game I was learning to play. After some time, however, an unanticipated dilemma arose.
Read MoreWe parked and got out of the truck, spending some time out in the chill and wind-driven rain, under the leaden sky, getting soaked while walking a beach all strewn with massive old trunks of driftwood dead trees. These giants were scattered here and there like matchsticks, the moving of them child’s play to the powerful currents of the strait.
Read MoreAfter being greeted by the bear there in the dark early hours of the morning, I crawled off to bed. A few minutes later, or so it seemed, there was daylight streaming through the window. Then there was a bang on the door and it flew open and there was Dan, dressed and ready for the new day. In a booming voice he called out "You going to sleep all day?"
Read MoreI was dead-tired as we stumbled through the night to the door of the house. I could not see so well but somehow sensed the house was of unusual construction, as Dan got out his key and opened the door. He stepped in and I followed. My head was lowered, making sure of my step in the dark through the unfamiliar threshold, and Dan said, "Say hello to Charlie!"
Read MoreThe call has come on many occasions. Someone has a bonsai collection that's become too much to handle, and now the trees need a new home. Our entire bonsai enterprise at the Arboretum began with just such a call, when the Staples family reached out to us about their mother's collection. The situation that prompts the call is almost always sad because it signals the end of someone's bonsai journey.
Read MoreThe time leading up to the big weekend is a strange mix. There's stress because there's demand and a deadline, and the closer the deadline gets the more stress there is. The deadline is a worry, but that which must be done by the deadline is very enjoyable and really shouldn't be rushed, and therein lies the problem. All the high-value, creative pruning work an avid pruner could wish for comes due all at once, with a deadline.
Read MoreThe tree looked more convincingly decrepit but still grew strongly in its branching and foliage. The container made of chestnut wood also became more picturesquely weathered as it aged. For a few years everything was right about this planting and it attained that golden stage of development when the illusion of timelessness seemed permanent. Then the bubble burst.
Read MoreIt might be supposed by people who don't know the backstory that this specimen was given the poetic name The Ogre in reference to the gnarly features of the deadwood, which can be read as a monstrous creature with one small, beady eye glaring out. But really it was named for the person who collected, styled and donated the little tree to our collection: Nick Lenz, the original wild man of American bonsai.
Read MoreDana was a true lover of all sorts of plants, but especially bonsai. Even as she reduced her bonsai collection by sending much of it to the Arboretum, she was constantly acquiring new ones because she always had to have bonsai around to look at and tinker with. The trees she brought to my workshops for the club were always interesting subjects, whether for the type of plant or the age and development they exhibited.
Read MoreIt's the detail work, the non-glamorous, time-consuming, tediously repetitive labor done with tools like tweezers and a dental pick, that really elevates the quality of a bonsai and makes it shine. Virginia went about her business with a seriousness of purpose and unremitting focus that belied any suggestion the work was menial.
Read MoreBev cared deeply about bonsai and he recognized a situation was developing at this new public garden in Asheville that could have a far-reaching positive effect on the course of bonsai development in his home state — and maybe beyond. With our bonsai program only beginning to take shape, there was no guarantee it would ever amount to anything. Bev did what he could to ensure its success.
Read MoreThis humble but durable little tree has a poetic name: Golden Heart. It can be said, and not inaccurately, that this poetic name refers to the beautiful golden yellow color the tamarack turns every autumn. A quietly glorious sight to see. This bonsai is called Golden Heart for another reason, though, and it is something few people know about.
Read MoreAunt Martha's Magic Garden was put together in a public demonstration. Twice. The first time was in spring of 2008. We had received the donation of the hinoki bonsai in early 2006, so there had been two years to get to know it, to look at it and think about it. I had decided the best way to utilize the tree was as the centerpiece of a tray landscape.
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