A Bonsai Side Quest – Details, episodes & analysis

After a little hiatus, Hugh shares his big news - Treemakers is moving to a permanent location! With a recent visit from Jarryd, the boys began breaking ground on the new garden, building out a future space for the expansion of Australian bonsai. Exhausted by repotting season and the simultaneous big move, the two share excitement, but also physical drain from this demanding season.

In this episode, our guest Annie Huang tells us about Budlife, a seasonal magazine which focuses on the culture and communities surrounding plants. An eloquent and fascinating person, Annie shares her story and the origins of her publication and how it relates to bonsai. A side-quest of an episode itself, Annie interviews both Hugh and Jarryd on the origins of the podcast, and the plans and purpose of its future. They discuss the definition of bonsai as art, engaging in social media as bonsai practitioners, and how we present bonsai in formal settings. More often than not, in a metaphor or painting, bonsai is trying to keep the canvas on the easel more than actually painting. 

You you can find out about Budlife magazine on instagram at @budlifemagazine and via their website at www.budlifemagazine.com

At Jarryd's house in Tasmania, Jarryd and Hugh are no longer in the podcast recording time machine - we are all caught up to the present day with reflections on the recent Bonsai Open in the Central Coast! 

After sharing a haunted American hotel experience, Jarryd and Hugh drift into conversations about tree tourism in the US, New Zealand, and Chile. Coming to the end of the hot summer, they reflect on a work-life balance... that is more asymmetrical than symmetric. They share a beckoning to nature through camping, campfires, and the idea of genetic memory from ancestry being tied to geography. 

As Jarryd and Hugh end the growth season in late January 2024, they talk about geographic flora boundaries and the vast physical differences between Southern and Northern hemisphere species affecting the approach to bonsai worldwide. Digging into native Australian species, broadleaf-evergreen physiology is explored, and the validity of shrubs in the bonsai form.  

It's December 31 of 2023 and Hugh and Jarryd reflect on their year and share future aspirations for their bonsai, hikes, garden design, and overall business approach as two professional bonsai practitioners. As with any art form that becomes employment, they struggle with the fine line between delivering their art, but also the commodifying and consumer end of the work. Coffee and beer usher in the new year! 

In this throwback episode recorded in late 2023, Hugh and Jarryd share the exhaustion of the growth ramping up in the early summer season. They talk growth management of pines and eucalyptus, and the simultaneous battle against grass and weed growth. They also share some of their favorite tree personalities, tanuki dreams, and the trials of dreaded bark borers.

Hugh and Jarryd stumble through the wonders of podcast technical difficulties recording from their respective homes in the Blue Mountains and Tasmania. They chat about collected pine aftercare, the signs of a tree's declining health post-collection, South African akadama's advantages and disadvantages, and growth patterns after repotting. 

Visiting one another in the Blue Mountains, Jarryd and Hugh reflag on the inspiring native lower canopy for kusamono design, breaking norms and misconceptions about the art form. They then delve into some history of yamadori collecting of native species in Australia, in particular Ficus . Visiting trees in nature naturally brings them to sharing stories of tree climbing and the thrill of the unknown while sticking your hands into nooks to continue the climb. Lastly, they share some stories of the most indstructible ficuses they have met, and how this effects the choice trees of practice for Asutralian bonsai practitioners. 

In this episode, Jarryd and Hugh chat about hikes in the bush and the Australian native species they encounter. They also highlight the importance of your local club and the critiques they share, even if it means facing some failures to be able to learn and grow. They also discuss tree exhibitions and the opportunities for the approach to display in these public spaces.