Christmas 2024– Season of Quiet…

Our work is never done when we care for the miniature trees— for weather is a variant we cannot control. However, in these quiet winter months, if the trees are tucked into their safe place, we can contemplate them in dormancy and consider how we might grow them in the coming time. Many of my ideas about styling come in odd moments when I am walking among the trees at rest under their winter mulch in the garden. They sit on the roots of the resident Dawn Redwood— Metasequoia glyptosperoides if you feel inclined to research it— a species so ancient it was only known in the fossils record in North America, from before the last ice caps melted, when the continent was a tropical forest. These trees— having been rediscovered growing in a remote setting in China during the 1940’s— have had quite a revival in our environs. The precursor of our beloved Sequoias of the North American west costal regions, they thrive in our mild maritime climate.
When I planted this tree as a sapling after we first came to this urban residence I did not imagine having a bonsai nursery. But as is the way of things, the roots growing close to the soil’s surface create conditions ideal for the little trees,  bringing the soil temperature up about ten degrees F from the ambient surrounding air temp.  Thus the trees receive protection from the “mother tree” who carries them on her knees through the cold season. If you visit, you might not at first be aware of the hundred or so inhabitants of the nursery garden. So come and enjoy this quiet season with me, or come in the first weeks of spring when the leaves are emerging. The trees are waiting, offering their whispers on the wind, sharing space with the resident eagles who visit the tall tree on occasions— portents of the returning spring.