Bonsai: Yeah, You’ll Kill a Few

February 10th, 2002

   Sharon Hatter of Myerstown sizes up the little branch first from one angle, then another.

   Stepping back, she uses her hands to frame the branch’s position within the whole foot-tall umbrella plant, much like an artist sizing up a masterpiece in the works.

   Should the branch be cut off or should it stay? Maybe it should be rerouted in a new direction with wire?

   She chooses Option 4: Get a second opinion from her husband.

   Such is the painstaking process of creating bonsai, the horticultural version of downsizing that is suddenly seeing its biggest spike in American popularity since the “Karate Kid” movies came out in the late 1970s.

   “Bonsai is like having a little kid around,” says Hatter. “I like to monkey around with them. That’s the fun of it.”

   Hatter has been doing bonsai for five years. She took it up after her son passed away.

   “I needed something to nurture,” she explains. “This is great for anyone with empty-nest syndrome.”

Jim Doyle in his Nature's Way Nursery bonsai studio.

   On this sunny winter day, Hatter is one of seven students taking a one-day, make-your-own-bonsai class at Nature’s Way Nursery and Bonsai Studio in Linglestown.

   The class is being taught by owner Jim Doyle, a calming, bearded, professor-like fellow who’s become one of the nation’s best-known bonsai experts.

   Doyle says bonsai (pronounced “bone’-sigh”) had been growing steadily in popularity through the 1990s, but in his 29 years in the bonsai business, he’s never seen a spike like this past fall.

   “After Sept. 11, we’ve found this big surge – more than ever,” he says. “Our fall open house and sales were up 50 percent. I think it’s because people are staying at home more and doing more hobbies. Plus, bonsai is very therapeutic. It’s a way to get away from stress.”

   Witek Rybka of Hershey, another Doyle protégé, says there’s no better way to relax than snipping away at one of his 10 bonsai plants.

   “Saturday morning I’ll get out my tools and figure out what I need to do,” he says. “It’s definitely relaxing.”

   In this class, Rybka has picked out a leaning umbrella plant that probably would be the last to go at a garden center. It looks misshapen… almost deformed.

   But in it, Rybka sees the perfect start to a bonsai that will end up looking like the windblown trees Rybka remembers at a favorite spot at Georgian Bay off Lake Huron.

   Those who get hooked on bonsai (and it’s apparently easy to do) don’t even think of their plants as mere objects. They speak of them as “living art” or as animated objects with unique personalities — more akin to a pet or a child than the shrubs in the back yard.

   Doyle says bonsai is as much a lifestyle as a hobby. Unlike growing a vegetable garden or landscaping the front yard, it’s the process that matters here at least as much as the results.

   Patience is definitely a virtue in bonsai.

   “This is not a race,” Doyle tells his students. “Take your time and enjoy it.”

   He also warns the class that unlike other art forms, bonsai is never complete.

   “It’s not like creating a painting where you hang it on the wall and you’re done,” he says. “With bonsai, you have to have an idea of what it’s going to look like 10, 20 or even 50 years down the road. The only finished bonsai is a dead bonsai.”

   Although the Chinese and Japanese have been doing bonsai for hundreds of years, it was virtually unknown in this country until about 100 years ago. The U.S. ambassador to Japan introduced it here, but even then it didn’t catch on until after World War II.

   The basic idea is to take a plant and train it through constant root- and branch-pruning so that the end result is a miniature plant in a small, shallow pot.

   One of the most common approaches is to use a single plant and prune it into a mini version of the real thing. The art part comes in trying to give the plant the character that nature gives to really old specimen trees in the wild.

   That’s the approach Rybka was taking with his windblown-tree look.

   With experience, it’s possible to create a whole miniature setting with what looks like a mini forest of trees growing in a shallow dish no bigger than the size of a dinner plate. By adding stones, moss and other finishing touches, these bonsai displays can look amazingly real.

   They can also become amazingly valuable when done very well or when they become very old.

   Doyle tells of one bonsai that sold last year in Japan for $3 million.

   Most people don’t get into the hobby for shows or money, though.

   “I’ve always admired them,” said student Pat Williams of South Hanover Twp. “I thought it’d be something neat to try.”

   Williams was a gardener first and a bonsai fancier second, which Doyle says puts her in the minority.

   “We get people from all walks of life,” he says. “I’ve had students aged 8 to 80. More of them are non-gardeners than gardeners.”

   That’s probably a good thing because bonsai requires some techniques that seem horrifying to a gardener, such as pulling off half of the roots when repotting or stripping all of the leaves off plants three or four times a year to keep the leaves small and in proportion to the constantly pruned branches.

   These are the things that really freak out gardeners who take up the hobby.

   “The hardest part for me is the artistry,” says Williams. “(Doyle) talks about sometimes having to cut 60-year-old branches… I have a hard time cutting even a 2-year-old branch.”

   But that comes with practice and experience, says Doyle.

   Even if the unthinkable happens and the plant goes to bonsai heaven, says Doyle, there’s something to be gained.

   “Through death there is knowledge,” he says. “If you kill a plant, you might learn how to keep it alive the next time.”

 SIDEBAR

    Local bonsai expert Jim Doyle says there are three things most likely to kill a bonsai plant – poor watering practices, wrong overwintering care and coffee tables.

   “Bonsai is living art, and it takes constant care,” he says. “When people put one on a coffee table, too often all they do is watch it die.”

   For bonsai beginners, Doyle suggests starting with an easy-to-grow plant that’s tolerant of abuse, such as umbrella plants (Schefflera), junipers or yews.

   But most any plant is a bonsai candidate so long as you know the conditions the plant likes. Among the more common bonsai species are black pine, pieris, azalea, camellia, fig, boxwood, Japanese maple, hornbeam, Japanese white pine, gardenia, Brazilian rain tree and rhododendron.

   Doyle says it’s best to start with your own young plant. He says mass-produced bonsai plants sold in mass retail outlets are often destined to die because of the wrong type of soil, poor care in shipping and while in the store, and lack of care instructions for the customer.

   He suggests using a chopstick to gently remove the soil from the root ball of the potted bonsai-to-be. Sometimes you’ll have to remove some of the roots, too, in order to fit the plant into the shallow bonsai pot.

   “You want it to look like a pancake,” he says.

   The type of potting medium is extremely important, Doyle says. At his Nature’s Way Nursery and Bonsai Studio in Linglestown, he uses a special mix that’s mostly gritty, granular rock with a bit of bark fines, perlite and vermiculite.

   The idea is good drainage so the roots don’t rot in too-wet soil.

   Because bonsai plants drain so well, regular watering is needed. Doyle suggests checking daily with one of his two favorite “moisture meters” – your index finger or a chopstick.

   “Poke your finger halfway down into the pot and see if it’s still damp or not,” he says. “Or use a wooden chopstick. It’ll change color if it’s wet.”

   If water is needed, add enough until water drains out the bottom. Depending on humidity and the season, you might need to water three to five times a week.

   Most plants benefit from twice-a-month feedings during the growing season, Doyle says, and monthly feedings during the winter.

   Most plants also like to go outside during the summer where the light is better, the humidity higher and air movement better.

   Light needs inside will vary depending on the type of plant, but no plant is going to like it near a door (where blasts of cold air could harm it) or next to a heat source (where hot, dry air could fry the leaves).

   Both the hardest and most interesting part is actually shaping the plant. That’s done with a host of tools ranging from ordinary scissors to concave pruners that allow for precise cuts close to a branch.

   “Probably the most common question I get is when is the best time to prune,” says Doyle. “I say, ‘Anytime your pruners are sharp.'”

   Shaping also can be done by using various thicknesses of pliable aluminum or copper to guide a branch in any desired direction. Wire can even be used to make branches wavy or twisted.

   If you want to give bonsai a try and need some help getting started, the local Susquehanna Bonsai Club meets monthly and has regular lectures, workshops and visits to shows. More information is available by calling Nature’s Way Nursery and Bonsai Studio at 545-4555.