FredL

Had a barbecue Saturday night with three other families, two of them Filipino-American, like Emy amd me, that we've known a long time, and the other a Japanese-American couple we met more recently at church. Well, Japanese-Canadian. I was kind of excited to show the Japanese wife my potted trees, but was disappointed to find out she had no interest in them at all. Mostly, she wanted to talk about how much she missed Tokyo and how she wished she could go back there to live. And how much she disliked small-town Northwest Arkansas; how much she loved skyscrapers and shopping and how much she disliked the Ozarks countryside. Oh, it's pretty enough, but, for her, a little of it goes a long way.

I got the sense this was not her husband's favorite subject, so we moved on to other things.

Much to my surprise, my friend Aaron, who I've known for many years, came over to talk to me about Bonsai when a break occurred in the conversation. He wanted to look at my trees and I ended up loaning him a couple of copies of "Bonsai Today" and promised to come look at several seedlings in his yard and gutters to see whether they were Silver Maples, which I suspected, or something more worth while. I told him I'd be delighted to give him 10 or 12 of my trees as starters and it looks like he's going to take me up on my offer.

Aaron seems really interested. I should have talked to him a couple of years ago!

Except that two years ago, I didn't have that much to show him. Now, many, many of my trees are well on their way to becoming "credible Bonsai" and the total, massed effect of my 200+ potted trees and the many additional in my grow bed is, well, impressive.

Aaron and I talked for some time about what I was doing. I explained that the most visible part of the Bonsai Community is interested in Bonsai as an artistic expression and emphasizes enormous attention to detail and preparation of individual trees to show-quality objects of great artistry. My own particular interests inclined more to Bonsai as a horticultural rather than artistic pursuit and I found observation of the trees themselves rather than as objects of art the more fascinating aspect of the activity. My interest is often referred to as "Back Yard Bonsai", which I don't seem recalling used as a term of approval.

I've come to prefer "Rustic Bonsai".

Now, I don't mean by that a complete disinterest in the artistic aspects of Bonsai. I think everyone involved in Bonsai wants to create "credible Bonsai" and everyone respects and admires the significant artists involved with Bonsai. But I do think that discrediting "Rustic Bonsai" is hurtful to Bonsai as a whole and must have the effect of discouraging folks with different talents or interests from the artistically inclined who might otherwise get great enjoyment and might even make some surprising contributions to Bonsai.

I've been conscientiously moving forward on getting pictures of some of my trees into "BonsaiTalk", but I must admit to a lack of the fervor I feel on other Bonsai tasks that are also competing for my time. Mixing soil, potting or transplanting trees, pruning trees into better form, etc, etc. is so much fun compared to the task of preparing photos and getting them into BT, with the rather doubtful rewards associated with task completion.

Fred

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