Life can be stressful and the more we can do to relieve that stress the happier and healthier we can be. Nothing causes me more stress than trying to adjust to daylight saving time, and while I would love to use this space to rant about how much I loathe it, the fact is that this is a gardening column.
Instead, I’ll write about a gardening art form that can relieve stress for our sleep-deprived souls: Bonsai.
As a young child, Bonsai was a word we shouted at the top of our lungs as we jumped off the edge of a cliff. It wasn’t until my early teens that I realized it actually had something to do with plants.
In 1999, I had the opportunity to travel to China with a group of horticulturists and one of our stops was in Suzhou, where I observed Bonsai specimens that were over 500 years old.
Translated, the word Bonsai means “planted in a container.” The art form is derived from an ancient Chinese horticultural practice called Penjing. It was redeveloped under the influence of Japanese Zen Buddhism — this is the stress-reducing part — and has been around for over a 1,000 years.
The ultimate goal of growing a Bonsai is to create a miniaturized but realistic representation of nature in the form of a tree or group of trees. It is this process of creativity that I find to be stress reducing. Bonsai are not genetically dwarfed plants — any tree species can be used.
Techniques such as pinching buds, pruning and wiring branches are all used to limit and redirect healthy growth. Carefully restricting but not abandoning fertilizers is also an option.
Fortunately, folks in the Northwest don’t have to travel to China to see some incredible Bonsai. The Pacific Bonsai Museum in Federal Way is a just a short trip away and a place you can find some nice Bonsai specimens.
There is also the Puget Sound Bonsai Association that meets at the Center for Urban Horticulture in Seattle and the Evergreen Bonsai Club that meets in Bremerton. A quick Internet search will turn up more local places to see Bonsai or take classes on how to make your own.
I am inclined to think that Bonsai is 75 percent art and 25 percent horticulture. It takes a keen eye to mold and form a living material like a plant into something that looks natural — only miniaturized. All of this doesn’t happen in one setting, which is probably why I have never truly embraced this form of gardening. I am just too impatient.
However, I do happen to know a talented woman who has been practicing Bonsai for 20 to 30 years in the Puget Sound region. Debbie Wetmore-Pringle, a farrier by trade, spends much of her spare time working on her fabulous Bonsai collection.
Wetmore-Pringle will be demonstrating her techniques and secrets at 10 a.m. Saturday at Sunnyside Nursery. She will show how to choose containers, prune roots and shape branches, select soil mixes, and water and feed Bonsai. In my book, she is a master of this art form.
Learn Bonsai
Debbie Wetmore-Pringle will demonstrate her Bonsai techniques and secrets 10 a.m. March 14 at Sunnyside Nursery, 3915 Sunnyside Blvd, Marysville. Learn how to choose containers, select soil, prune roots, shape branches and more. The class is free.
Visit Pacific Bonsai Museum
Check out an amazing Bonsai collection at this preeminent Northwest Bonsai musuem, located at 2515 S. 336th St., Federal Way. Hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays year-round, and 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. every third Thursday from March through September. Admission is free.
Steve Smith is owner of Sunnyside Nursery in Marysville and can be reached online at info@sunnysidenursery.net.
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