Page 29 - BSAM 2018 Q4

This summer two of his Mountain Hemlocks were purchased for the prestigious Kennett Collection in Pennsylvania.
New is a relative term, especially in the Bonsai world. Peter tells the story when, as a newlywed, back in 1970, he picked up his mother-in-law’s Reader’s Digest coffee table compendium of plants. It contained one little chapter on bonsai, which described purchasing a nursery tree, cutting off a third of the roots, and using copper wire to shape the branches. Living in Port Alice, on the sparsely populated northern tip of Vancouver Island, Canada, Peter had no access to a nursery, so he went off into the bush and dug up a Western Hemlock. He cut off a third of the roots, and wired it up with shiny copper wire he obtained from the shop at the pulp mill where he worked. “It died on the balcony.” He now muses that he likely had taken more than half the original roots when he dug it up,
and knew nothing of preparing the roots in stages, soil composition or watering for bonsai. That experience left him bonsai-free for many years.
In 1978 Peter built a cabin on the rugged west coast of Vancouver Island, about one-and-a-half hours from Port Alice by boat. The family fished and beach combed, picking up driftwood and Japanese glass floats along the shore. Peter was drawn to the trees, “Over there is it mostly Sitka Spruce, Picea sitchensis,—they can tolerate the ocean environment. Some are exposed to surf, right down on the rocks at the water’s edge.” When a co-worker brought in a coffee table bonsai book, Peter was eager to borrow it. He was disappointed that it contained only examples of refined Japanese trees, but figured since he would never have trees like
Top and bottom; Peter’s shady and inviting backyard bonsai benches. Photo: Barb Round.
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