The big appeal of tiny trees
come in the early morning and late evening for serenity. And some people come here in sorrow, too, and that makes us feel humble,” Kondo said. “Whether we’re raking leaves or weeding, it makes our day if somebody comes here and feels a little better.”
Each season in Sho-Fu-En offers delights. This past spring, snow froze the redbud tree blossoms. Hail damaged the peonies. But the irises are coming into bloom.
“These amphibious irises around the stream were originally brought from Japan in 1979, iris ensata,” Kondo said. “They’re popular in Japanese paintings and as a motif in fabric.”
In autumn, the ginko tree, serviceberry and aspen change to golden yellow, while the Russian hawthorns bear fruits.
“Japanese grass — miscanthus sinensis ‘Yaku Jima’ — tells the story of the season. When this maidenhair grass starts setting the tassels of flowers at summer’s end, we know fall is coming,” Kondo said.
“Winter in Sho-Fu-En is quite beautiful depending on the day and the light — as it changes, the ice on the pond changes color and dimension. We see footprints on the snow field of whatever animal has ventured in the evening on a mysterious trip across the icy stream,” he said. “It’s very storybook-like when the pine trees and stone lanterns are snowcapped. And this garden is very green even in the winter.”
Sho-Fu-En is home to wildlife: hawks and night herons, rabbits and raccoons, geese, squirrels, a fox, turtles, toads and fish and dragonflies. “This garden is always alive,” Kondo said. “We see the activity and dead bodies, too. Life and death.”
Sho-Fu-En also features a traditional Japanese teahouse donated by the Eleanore Mullen Weckbaugh Foundation. Constructed in Japan in 1979, each piece of the teahouse was carefully disassembled, numbered and shipped to Denver, where a crew of Japanese master craftsmen reassembled the structure in two weeks. The tea ceremony guild, Sho-Fu-Kai, provides traditional cultural enrichment and recently celebrated its 10th anniversary.
Anniversary festivities honoring Sho-Fu-En will include pop-up tea ceremonies, a haiku tree and Japanese vegetables in the potager, the kitchen garden also tended by Kondo. The gardens keep him busy, yet also serene, embraced by the peaceful ambiance of Sho-Fu-En.
“Life became so busy with technology in the name of convenience, and I don’t deny there are good things, but we made ourselves move so fast, and some very nice things we left behind,” Kondo said. “ShoFu-En is a place to come and relax. There is a happiness right here. We want to make sure to pass that on to future generations.” Another offshoot of Sho-Fu-En is the Bill Hosokawa Bonsai Pavilion with about 65 specimens, some 350 years old, according to Larry Jackel, bonsai specialist at Denver Botanic Gardens since 2012. The DBG bonsai collection includes four categories: traditional Japanese plants, Rocky Mountain trees, succulents and tropicals.
“Asian garden arts value three things: naturalness, simplicity and asymmetry. When you come into the bonsai pavilion, you’re not seeing a traditional stem with a perfect triangle,” Jackel said.
“Bonsai is not balanced and static, but dynamic and asymmetrical with a flow to them, as a tree moves,” he said. “The negative space between branches is important. Bonsai give you a feel of aged, old trees, round at the tops.”
As a member of the Rocky Mountain Bonsai Society, Jackel helped collect the original ponderosa pines that have served as character trees in Sho-Fu-En since 1979. He teaches bonsai classes, but the advanced container culture courses fill quickly.
“Bonsai classes usually sell out the first day,” he said. “The best way to learn is to go to a club like the Rocky Mountain Bonsai Society or another bonsai organization in the area. The danger is online: There’s lots of information, but you may be listening to somebody in California or Florida, and our environment is unique and different.” For Jackel, bonsai can induce bliss. “Japanese people go into a trancelike state because bonsai is so beautiful,” Jackel said. “When I’m working on the plants or just looking at them, I’m transported to somewhere else. The tranquility and beauty in this little space is wonderful.”