Go have some tea
And welcome new trees to the club.
I’m not satisfied with my work on this tree, but with the growing season at an end I’m accepting that I’ve done what I can. This is my first “styling” that I feel kinda decent about, and for now, dayenu.
The tree is a variegated boxwood bought at auction from the Flower Market in Michigan. It was sold as a “pre-bonsai,” which is semi-specialized nursery stock pruned with bonsai applications in mind. I trimmed and guy-wired the heady bush into a slanting broom shape.
I think the tree has promise. I need to fill in that gap on the right side of the canopy and thicken out the lower branches, but the surface roots are beautiful and the trunk already shows some gnarled character.
Between late summer and early fall I’ve been getting this feeling about my bonsai chores. It feels like work. Fall means watering less, so I’m spending less daily time with each tree. Major flushes of growth have run their course but it’s too early for fall colors. Winter insulation work is still some months away. My propagation projects need more time to root. So I’m doing my thing, all is well. It’s just a lull.
One happy distraction has been this calamansi lime I bought in Flushing from one of the plant dealers on Roosevelt Avenue that turn a patch of sidewalk into a pocket botanical garden. I’ve been flirting with citrus for a while, and seeing my friend Matt’s tree produce its first crop of fruit encouraged me to take the plunge. I don’t particularly plan to train this tree as a bonsai, though I’m enjoying putting bonsai’s botanical wisdom to work.
The reward has been vigorous growth and blooms whose smell makes me weak in the knees.
There’s a story about Zhouzhou Congshen, a 9th century trickster-fox sort of zen master who I’m hoping won’t mind a slight borscht-beltification of this telling. Some monks came to visit his monastery in search of enlightenment. Zhouzhou asked one, “have you been here before?” The monk said no. Zhouzhou replied, “welcome, go have some tea.” He asked the next monk the same question: “Have you been here before?” “Yes I have,” the monk answered. Zhouzhou replied, “good, go have some tea.”
The leader of the monastery watched this exchange in bafflement. After the monks went inside he asked Zhouzhou, “what’s the deal? The first monk said they’d never been here before and you told them to have some tea. Then you said the same to the second monk even though they said they had been here before. What gives?”
“Go have some tea,” Zhouzhou told him.
I’ve been chewing on this koan since a friend shared it earlier this year. I can’t get rid of it, like a shard of popcorn kernel stuck in my teeth.
So I’ve been following Zhaozhou’s advice and drinking tea. I have lots of thoughts about tea’s spiritual side, but this is a tree blog, not a tea blog. Besides, what’s really advanced my appreciation for the story is the last few weeks of banal bonsai chores. Sometimes the work is just work. Do it, then go have some tea.
Tree reading
A darling photo essay about a darling tree nerd who documents his foraging adventures across New York City. Apple picking on the BQE! [New York]
Mulch your trees, people! [Tiktok]