Bonsai, Time, and the Future

Mel Lewis

I am fortunate in that I live close enough to the National Arboretum in Washington, D.C. and able to visit the bonsai tree collections housed there fairly regularly. To see these trees up close and in person is truly a privilege. To see first hand what can be created in Bonsai is a marvelous experience. There are several trees in the Japanese section that are very old; one tree is about four hundred years old, and many of the trees are from the nineteenth century.

I pay particular attention to these older trees, and when I do I can not help but think of all that happens in one lifetime, let alone in a period of time of over four hundred years.These trees have survived all of the calamities that several life times present. And yet these trees not only survived, a feat impressive in itself, but the trees were maintained, and they are there for us to look at today. I can not imagine how many owners these trees have had, but obviously all the owners were dedicated to the trees health and its continued survival.

These thoughts came back to me some two years ago when an auction was held of an affiliated club member's trees. This member had recently died, and the auction was to disperse his collection. I did not know this man personally, but I knew he was active in his club's activities, and his devotion to bonsai could be seen as I examined his collection of trees. I was fortunate enough to be able to buy three of these trees. As I continue to care for these trees I think of the former owner, and of the time that he spent with the trees that I now own.

The purpose of all of this is to indicate that I believe that bonsai is a continum, that the life of a tree need not end because we die. I hope that when I die my trees may be auctioned, and that someone will care enough about some of my trees that they will be willing to purchase them and let them continue on to the future.

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