East Coast Kahuna

Bonsai and Orchids

In my previous post, I was quite critical about yard work. Although I don't enjoy it, I see it as a price to pay if you want to have your own house and property. Some people hire gardeners to do this work for them (heard the one about the wealthy Japanese-American who had a caucasian gardener?).

Plain yard work doesn't interest me. However, maybe because of my Japanese heritage, I do have an interest in learning bonsai. My interest goes way back, even before bonsai was made more popular by Pat Morita in The Karate Kid. Growing up in Hawaii, many people had "Japanese gardens" - these usually were separate sections from the yard, often with a fish pond, pagoda-shaped yard ornaments and lots of gravel or small rocks making the surrounding trails. They sometimes would have bonsai in a separate building or display. When I started my first job out of college, my office mate, who was hapa-haole (his mother was a Japanese native and he had spent some time in Japan), also had a sizable collection of bonsai plants. He would often drive long distances to visit special nurseries to get more plants. There are bonsai clubs on the east coast - I actually took a Bonsai class (extended 1 day session) taught by an expert from Rochester. I came home with a plant which I made in class, plus some books and special tools which I had purchased, hoping to be able to continue. Eventually, the plant became infested with bugs and my wife and I could no longer care for it properly. I still have the interest to do bonsai again...someday.

When I was growing up in Hawaii, one of our neighbors were into orchids - they had a beautiful yard full of orchids. They always had an abundance and we could get flowers from them if we wanted to make some leis (we also had plumeria in our own yard). The real special leis, if needed for special visitiors or special events (e.g., graduations) were usually bought from florists or the lei stands near the airport. My uncle also kept a collection of orchid plants, many distinguished types. I hadn't thought about trying to grow orchids until recently. On a visit back to Hawaii, I went to a local orchid shop to buy a gift for my uncle. This shop now has an orchid of the month club, where you can have plants FedEx-ed to mainland destinations. I seriously considered signing up for this service. However, currently I would not have time to maintain them properly - perhaps after my kids are through with college and move away...

posted by tjh14850 @ 9:43 AM