The Need to Justify - Part 1
The glow of success from the 1996 Carolina Bonsai Exposition didn't last long. Once the show was over I was back to my usual work routine, which was three days committed to bonsai work and two days committed to nursery work. The limit on my bonsai time was feeling increasingly restrictive as my enthusiasm for working with the little trees expanded. This arrangement was not so good for the nursery manager, either, because there was nobody filling in for the labor I was no longer providing. Things weren't going great for the nursery operation anyway. The plants themselves were doing fine, thousands of them, mostly native trees and shrubs that were ready to move out of containers and into the ground. There was an unfortunate roadblock to doing any planting at the Arboretum because we weren't institutionally ready to do it. A design process had to be followed and the process moved slowly, more slowly than the time it took to grow landscape-ready trees and shrubs from seed. The situation was a terrible frustration to the nursery manager, who saw all his excellent work hit a dead end.
It happened that the institutionally stalled status of the nursery coincided with the rising fortunes of bonsai. I had been doing nursery work for six years, which served as my hands-on horticultural education. Even though I was only the assistant, I took pride in the nursery because of the incredible diversity of plants we grew and the overall quality of the operation. Yet the promise of what bonsai had to offer went beyond anything I could ever hope to derive from the nursery assignment. The difference between being an assistant and being in charge of my own area was one consideration, but the most powerful attractant was the possibility of being artistically creative for a living. Having bonsai fulfill that personal dream was a long shot and nothing I'd ever anticipated. I could see that shot coming into focus now, taking shape as circumstances seemingly moved me into an ever more advantageous position. I could see that shot opening up before me and it didn't look impossible.
The Arboretum's Executive Director at the time was George Briggs. I took to wearing a path in the carpet leading to his office door, my purpose always to keep bonsai in the Director's sights, making certain he never forgot about the Arboretum's involvement with it. I would talk about matters concerning the collection and keep him apprised of political developments in the community of supporters the bonsai program was attracting. Most of all, however, I talked to him about the need for more time. It had become obvious that the job of building a collection and a program to support it would take more than three days' time per week. The Executive Director was the only person with the power to give me more time to focus on bonsai, so convincing him to make that call became a hurdle that had to be cleared.
George was an approachable boss. He was always busy but he would make time to talk to me if I requested it. A conversation with George typically involved a lot of listening, but he was the Executive Director and he was giving me his time so I paid respectful attention and waited for my openings. On one occasion in the summer of of 1997 I was talking to George and I pushed pretty forcefully on the need for more bonsai time. George that day apparently had enough of my pesky petitioning and responded with sternness, and perhaps just a touch of annoyance.
Look, I know that you're making things happen with the bonsai program and I understand you want more time to pursue bonsai, but first I need something from you. I need you to help me come up with an answer for the people who ask me, "Why does The North Carolina Arboretum, with its mission to interpret and promote the Southern Appalachian experience, have a bonsai collection? Why bonsai?" As the bonsai program becomes more visible, more people are asking me that. Why should we have a bonsai collection — what's the connection for this arboretum? How does it fit in here? You help me find the answer to that question and maybe I can find a way to give you more time.
I knew a challenge when I heard one. I went home that night and stayed up late to write out a statement by hand, then went to work the next day and asked my friend Cindy to type it up for me. Then I made sure the Executive Director and everyone else in administration received a copy. I don't suppose any of those people held on to that document for very long, but I kept my copy. Here, verbatim, is what it said:
A SIMPLE JUSTIFICATION OF THE EXISTENCE OF BONSAI
AT THE NORTH CAROLINA ARBORETUM.
by A. Joura
August 1, 1997
To many people, including most people in North Carolina, bonsai is a foreign entity. The word itself comes from another tongue and is often mispronounced. This "otherness" about bonsai can be attractive to some, who view it as being exotic and mysterious, while being off-putting to others, who feel uncomfortable with that which is unfamiliar or bespeaks a different culture. Indeed, some question whether Westerners could ever fully grasp the subtleties of an art form so thoroughly grounded in Eastern philosophy. It is, I think, completely to our advantage to try.
One of the primary principles in bonsai is the belief that the wonder and majesty of all creation can be found in a single natural thing. Another is the belief that small is beautiful. Little wonder then that this art form took hold, was nurtured and came to full flower, in Japan, a small and crowded country where reverence of nature is at the core of religion and physical space is at a premium. Here in the United States, where the mythical wide open spaces are rapidly disappearing as the population multiples, the Japanese penchant for miniaturization has already greatly influenced the way we live. Witness the revolutionary changes of the past twenty years in such things as automobiles, computers and audio-video equipment. For the ever-increasing number of Americans who live in condominiums and rental units, or have seen the size of their yard space diminish to the dimensions of a dog lot, landscaping and gardening have become less possible or even impossible. With bonsai, people in these situations can grow a tree on a windowsill; they can design and maintain a landscape that can be held in two hands.
In a culture such as ours, where frequent changes in residence are the norm, the mobility of bonsai is also a distinct advantage. For example, a tree planted in the yard to commemorate the birth of a child would in most cases be left behind when the family moves to another house. But a bonsai planted for the same reason can be taken along wherever its owner goes, can still remain long after the child has grown and gone on, and might eventually be handed down to that grown child when the parent who planted it passes away. Bonsai also offers obvious benefits for the elderly (who represent a substantial segment of the population in western North Carolina), as well as the disabled, and can be used as horticultural therapy for those recovering from accidents or physical or emotional trauma. The Florida State Penitentiary even offers bonsai as a program for some of its inmates.
The history of bonsai dates back over a thousand years, and its growth, particularly over the past fifty years, has been phenomenal. It is safe to say that bonsai is now practiced in every part of the world where woody plants can be grown in container culture. In the United States, where forty years ago the only bonsai societies to be found were in New York and California and public bonsai collections were non-existent, there are now bonsai organizations in every state, including eight in North Carolina alone. There are also now more than fifteen public bonsai displays, including world renowned collections at the US National Arboretum in Washington, DC, and the Weyerhaeuser Pacific Rim Collection in Washington state. The North Carolina Arboretum's collection is one of only two public bonsai displays in the entire Southeast (the other is located in Birmingham, Alabama), and is already attracting visitors from throughout the region via positive word-of-mouth reviews.
The Arboretum's bonsai collection and its attendant program is something that the state of North Carolina can be proud of, and fits squarely within our institution's mission statement. No other state in the country can boast of a bonsai collection that belongs to all its people. In addition, the vast majority of the trees in the collection have been provided by donations from citizens of North Carolina, or produced by visiting artists of international stature using plant material propagated and cultivated at the Arboretum. It is truly a "home grown" collection. As the public's imagination has been sparked by the display of bonsai at the Arboretum. many have come to deepen their understanding and appreciation of the art form through participation in our educational offerings. Bonsai programs are always well attended. The Bonsai for Beginners and the Intermediate Bonsai courses have become perennial favorites, and the 1996 Carolina Bonsai Exposition ranks as one of, if not the, best attended public programs ever offered by the Arboretum. Many people in our local area, as well as others across the state, have also benefited from traveling educational bonsai programs provided by the Arboretum. The Arboretum has brought bonsai, and in turn, bonsai has brought the Arboretum, to schools, garden clubs, civic organizations, and bonsai societies from Hendersonville and Tryon to Charlotte and Raleigh. Additionally, the bonsai program has elevated the Arboretum's visibility through the use of television, radio and newspaper media.
An important mandate of the Arboretum's mission statement concerns the interpretation and promotion of Southern Appalachian culture through the use of plants. The bonsai program meets this challenge in two substantial ways:
First, through the use and development of native plant material in the collection. Carolina hemlock, eastern hemlock, American hornbeam, and black birch are all represented in the collection, while developmental work is being done with shortleaf pine, American euonymus, American beech, slippery elm, sweetgum, native azalea and Georgia hackberry.
Our Southern Appalachian heritage is also represented in another more subtle and perhaps more significant way — the forms which many of our bonsai take reflect the forms of nature in this region of the country. There are many important pieces in our collection which utilize non-native plant species but clearly represent the western North Carolina environment. One example which comes immediately to mind is a planting entitled "Mount Mitchell", a tray landscape meant to portray a scene atop North Carolina's highest mountain peak. Here 'Pixie' dwarf spruce is used to represent the Fraser firs, dwarf satsuki azalea is used as native rhododendron and creeping thyme represents the wild blackberries. Native rock collected in the Mount Mitchell area is used to complete the scene. In this respect, a comparison can be made to the Quilt Garden, where non-native plant material is used to evoke a distinctly Appalachian motif.
It is not difficult to understand why someone who has not been fully exposed to the bonsai experience would question the propriety of including "those little Japanese trees" in the horticultural offerings of The North Carolina Arboretum. It should be, I think, part of the Arboretum's mission to expand the public's horticultural horizons in this and other matters. Certainly those who come with an open mind and view our bonsai collection unanimously approve of our involvement in this venerable horticultural activity. To me, bonsai epitomizes the very best we can hope to accomplish in our work as an arboretum — renewing in common people the respect and reverence for the remarkable human relationship with plants.
To be continued…
There are no bonsai on display in the garden in early April, but the garden itself is bursting with spring appeal. Here are some images made just this past week:
