Branching out into growing bonsai – the South African way
THE ancient Japanese art of growing miniature has taken on a local flavour.
South Africans who cultivate bonsai – a blend of horticulture and art – often stray from the orthodox ways of the Far East, adapting their passion to local, indigenous trees.
“There are rules that the Japanese came up with in the beginning, but you break the rules,” said local bonsai “guru” Shaun Murphy, whose property in Waterfall is a bonsai forest.
“We use some of the rules in some of our designs for branch placement, but we try to keep to the African style of trees which have big canopies, obviously for sun protection. The Japanese grow theirs around pine trees. They have a very upright pine style, which is so that the snow can slide off them,” said Murphy.
The South African bonsai community call their adaptation “Pierneef style”, in recognition of the artist Henk Pierneef.
“All the trees he painted had that shape – branching up to a flat top. It was a trademark in his paintings,” said Murphy.
Local species that are well suited to bonsai growing include the wild olive, various figs, the paperbark tree, the baobab, various acacias, the coral tree, the stinkwood and the Hluhluwe creeper.
To try to perfect his artwork, Murphy uses living trees as role models and has travelled as far as Botswana to see how baobabs grow in their natural state.
Closer to home, he particularly admires a Natal fig growing in a park in Mtunzini.
“It has an amazing trunk, amazing canopy. If you can grow something like that, then you’re a master.”
Growing bonsai plants may involve guiding the direction of branch growth by wrapping branches in wire or growing a “sacrifice branch” in one direction and then chopping it off to enable another branch to grow better as a result.
It also means placing a rock in a fig pot to let the tree’s roots wrap itself around it and into its cracks in the same way figs grow.
Or it could involve using any of bonsai’s five styles to make a vine, like the Hluhluwe creeper, grow into a tree.
However, balance is also important, and sometimes features of the wild don’t fit the art style.
A coral tree with its bright red flower is a case in point.
“It has old growth and the old growth is very long so the tree looks untidy,” said Murphy.
Too much fruit also causes an imbalance. Fruit and flowers come out as large as the plant in its natural state. It’s only the leaves that become smaller with constant trimming, using specialised tools.
Murphy began his hobby 45 years ago while living in Glenwood, then moved to a larger property in Montclair before retiring to Waterfall.
“I have had to swop baobabs for junipers,” he said.
“Junipers grow very well here, but baobabs don’t. Figs grow better in Durban, too. If you trim one and throw the trimmings on the ground, they sprout quickly. In Waterfall it’s completely different. They grow very slowly, but eventually, they do very well.”
Down in fig-and-baobab friendly Greenwood Park, near Durban North, Farouk Patel, chairperson of the Durban Bonsai Society, also has a bonsai forest. Both Murphy and Patel have about 2 000 trees each.
Patel said baobabs would do better in a less humid climate, “but we manage to keep them happy and healthy”.
He has also “rescued” trees, including a camphor tree in peril in Empangeni at the site of a quarry.
“I had to first put it in a training pot for a couple of years and let the roots establish themselves,” said Patel.
Both bonsai growers stressed the importance of establishing the root systems in bonsai, which enables a thick stem, and then further growth in a potted plant.
The Durban Bonsai Society is holding its annual show next Thursday and Friday at the home of the Durban Lions Club, on the corner of Uitsig and Prospect Hall Road, Durban North, (opposite Hyper by the Sea).
As well as a bonsai show, there is a line-up of activities, including talks, demonstrations, a tree clinic, equipment and a tree sale.
The public are also invited to bring in their own trees for free styling and advice, or to buy trees and have them styled by the experts.
For more information, contact Farouk Patel at 082 678 6573 or go to the Durban Bonsai Society Facebook page.