Sometimes a new direction emerges because you are asked a simple question. This happened a few months ago when a caller enquired if I could do a presentation on “Natives for Bonsai”. This idea intrigued her, and it came from reading my website. A novice to bonsai, she does not make assumptions that would preclude this exploration, like many would, bonsai being largely perceived as a Japanese inspired craft or practice.
Well, bonsai is evolving, like many art forms, to embrace a multiplicity of cultural expressions. So I am rising to this challenge by crafting a variety of young bonsai from Northwest grown native material. This is of course a rising wave in horticulture, to restore landscapes both public and privately held using our native species to increase habitat diversity and help bird and insect species recovery.
There are bonsai practitioners whose fame has been predicated on using “Native” species— usually wild collected ancient specimens which have grown into miniature form due to severe conditions in mountain terrain. I am ethically opposed to this practice of robbing nature of her most resilient and aged occupants. But sourcing native species grown locally by niche growers is another approach which I favor. So next visit ask me about the Western Red Cedar— Thuja— or the Bigleaf Maple, or the Vine Maple— our indigenous type of understory maple equivalent to the “mountain maple” or Acer palmatum of Japanese origin. Next up— finding a native species rhododendron which will tolerate being cultivated in “pot culture”, like the one pictured.
Recent Comments