The Time Capsule | Roy Marshall
Snow and cold and the long wait for spring brings to mind an apple tree – a tree that was 20 years old and about 10 inches tall. Nicely shaped, if the tree had been of normal size it would have fit nicely in an orchard. On it was a single, full-size, ripe red apple. The fruit was resting on a stand built by the owner, who feared the tiny branch would break from the weight.
A tree, I learned, can be trained to grow in miniature. The fruit sometimes doesn’t get the message.
Des Moines was not a place I wanted to permanently call home, but there were advantages. One was the Iowa Bonsai Club, which met monthly at the Botanical Gardens. Members entered that enormous dome with their tiny trees, there to show and tell and learn about pruning, wiring, shaping, potting, making young trees look old and keeping old ones in good health.
A couple of classes on the history of bonsai (the word means “planting in a tray”) were of interest, as was the array of styles. We saw examples of formal upright, slanting, root-over-rock, cascade and forests (multiple miniature trees in a single container). There were trees on permanent display that gave the appearance of being in a struggle for survival. They were miniature versions of those we see in their natural state, twisted trunks growing from a crevice on a barren hillside, roots clinging to a boulder, bark gnarled by the elements. Others were perfectly formed shade trees; stately old specimens that change with the seasons just as do those in the lawn.
It still amazes me that experts, given time, can create the same effect, complete with the cliff or boulder, lawn or mossy hillside, and do it with a tree that can be held in the hand and placed on a windowsill.
Bonsai trees are fussy and I’m not very good. During the years I belonged to the club I killed two boxwoods, a juniper, a Fukien tea tree, a fig, three pines and gave up on several red cedars. A couple of them expired while I was doing Desert Storm, but I oversaw the death of most. They get too much or too little water, not enough humidity, over or under exposure to the sun; perhaps they died because I looked their way in an insensitive manner. Being away for a few days means special measures, and these weren’t always successful.
The losses were costly, offset by the fact that I don’t play golf. I bought mostly young, inexpensive trees and sometimes dug my own. The red cedars came from a fencerow and would have been good, I think, but grow slowly in nature, more slowly in a container. When told it would be about 30 years before they’d begin to take shape I put them in a windbreak.
A survivor is my Bougainville, a tree that compensates for the losses. I’ve cared for it for 25 of its 40 years and we get along well. The trunk is 11 inches in circumference and the tree, about 20 inches in height, has nicely exposed roots and a good shape. The Hawaiian umbrella tree on my desk is 12 years old. Both are infants by Bonsai standards. At the Botanical Gardens were trees said to have been in training for 200 years or more. In Japan is a juniper tested and reported to have taken root ten centuries ago, and in Italy is a ficus of about the same age.
As a bonsai grows older, it becomes ever more striking in appearance and character – traits we might all wish for. Sharing the experience of bonsai is one of the few things I miss about Des Moines, and I’ve wished there was enough interest for a group in this area.
Roy Marshall is a local historian and columnist for the Red Oak Express. He can be contacted at news@redoakexpress.com.