FredL

Joanie, let me respond to your comments and question: There is nothing special about the styling of my trees and nothing odd or eccentric about my containers. I'd say that that what does charactarize them is a rather unfinished quality and less attention to detail than more artistic creations. I have little concern for the sorts of distinctions that, say, Walter Pall, has schooled us on in the past between various styles of bonsai and enjoy what have been called "cookie cutter" bonsai just about as well as more artistically informed trees.

Now, please understand, I am enormously impressed by the artistic qualities of Walter's trees and the trees of the many true masters that I see in "Bonsai Today". If I had the artistic talent that these folks have, it's likely I'd be turning out the sort of trees they are. But, alas, I don't. Or, if I do, I do not care to stretch myself enough to find out because of my own, peculiar interests.

I have also found Walter's essays on the history of bonsai and bonsai styling of great interest in the past. Just not something immediately relevant to what I am doing.

The thing is, I find the individual trees so interesting just as trees that I'd much rather have brief experiences working with with ten or twelve of them a day than do the extended work that real artistic effort would require on one. Which means mostly clip and grow, lots of repotting and potting, lots of watering, fertilizing and insect control; little wiring or detailed pruning required for real refinement of trees. I'd much rather have 100 trees recognizable as Bonsai, which are, in truth, pretty mediocre specimens than 10 really fine trees. My aim is to create a wonderfully enjoyable "Bonsai Garden" rather than a few show quality trees.

I think of "Rustic Bonsai" as being a style of Bonsai Culture rather than as an artistic style. It implies creating a large collection of rather poorly refined trees in preference to a smaller collection of more refined trees. It implies that the purpose of creating Bonsai is to have them contribute to the beauty and tranquility of an outdoor living area rather than to stand as individual art pieces. It implies that the primary wonder of Bonsai is not so much their artistic refinement but the marvel of being able to observe their life processes "up close and personal". Artfully shaping them adds enormously to this experience but is not the primary focus.

I'd feel enormous gratification if one or more of my trees turned out to be really good. Or, if a first rate bonsai master visited my garden and wanted to take one or more of my trees to devlop into something really good. But none of this is necessary for me to derive great satisfaction and enjoyment from my Rustic Bonsai Garden.

I, personally, believe that legitimatizing this approach to Bonsai would go a long way towards popularizing it in the US.

I have much more to say about this approach if my comments can be addressed with the respect I feel they deserve.

Fred