Bonsai 101
The art of bonsai
Anyone who’s taken a trip down Market Street on the way downtown has passed the wall with the green tile. The boughs draped over the wall suggest a certain mystery, an unknown behind a curtain. Only a simple sign reveals what’s beyond the wall: “The Painted Lady – NC’s Largest, Bonsai $20 & up.”
Japanese bonsai are the subject of many haiku and often the lifetime work of artists. They represent a thousand years of the peaceful arrangement of plants and often serve as tranquil additions to any garden. We sometimes think of them as cultural artifacts of an era past, but the practice is very much alive today.
“Bonsai is a verb meaning ‘tray planting,’” says RONNIE SELLERS, (below) owner of THE PAINTED LADY BONSAI, which sits on the corner of Market and 23rd streets.
It is the practice of artfully pruning, cutting, and shaping to make a realistic miniaturized potted tree. But it can be both horticulture and art. Investment in the practice can be as casual as a tree or two in the backyard to as professional as entering global competitions.
As one of the largest bonsai nurseries in the United States and the largest in North Carolina, The Painted Lady Bonsai offers a vision into what might become a pastime of yours. Sellers prides himself on a collection of more than 300 “finished” bonsai trees – “if there ever is such a thing,” he says.
Often, the practice starts as a hobby and can become an all-encompassing obsession, jokes MARY RECUPERO, the president of the CAPE FEAR BONSAI SOCIETY.
“There are clubs on every continent,” she says. “I can’t guarantee there’s a bonsai club in Antarctica, I suppose.”
The Cape Fear Bonsai Society has meetings on the first Tuesdays of each month at 7 p.m. at the New Hanover County Arboretum Auditorium. All practitioners are welcome – beginners and advanced alike.
“Everyone helps everyone out,” Recupero says. “We answer questions, give suggestions, do demonstrations.”
Sellers also teaches classes at his location on Saturdays at 10 a.m. Each class is meant to teach the basics of bonsai art – particularly showing that bonsai is not a species of tree but a method of miniaturizing.
“I killed a lot of trees learning to do what I know how to do now,” Sellers admits. “(Teaching) is my way of putting back into the hobby.”
The class includes pruning workshops, and those in attendance are invited to purchase the plants they work on when they’ve finished the class. For those unable to attend, he also has detailed pruning instructions on his website (paintedladybonsai.com).
“I start people out using a Procumbens ‘Nana’ Juniper,” he says, “as they are the most popular plant in the world for bonsai. I show them what to cut to make what is left look like it has seen a hundred summers and winters.”
Often, those who practice bonsai are in search of balance. In the past, the practice encouraged the quest for enlightenment, but today, many practitioners see bonsai as something self-defined – bonsai is what it means to you.
The wall in front of The Painted Lady Bonsai may hide an overlooked gem, but looking beyond it might be the start of a new practice.
“If you have never seen what is behind the wall with the green tile,” Sellers says, “you have really missed something.”
To view more of photographer Terah Wilson’s work, go to timelessfotographie.com
