17 January 1977.
‘If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?’ – and there is no if about
it, Winter has come. As I write, in mid-January, there is chaos by road and
rail, power-supplies are damaged, disorganisation is widespread. The agent
of this disruption is a tiny fragile snowflake, six-sided and crystalline in
structure, an exquisite symmetrical jewel, so small and so frail that you
could wipe it away, destroy it, with one tip of one finger. This is the
small but mighty thing that has the power to dislocate the life of our major
cities and most of the countryside.
Another example of the small and mighty is a seed. In itself is
easily destroyed, but a seed has powers of survival, growth and reproduction,
that remain a marvel and a mystery to man. The power of the snowflake
comes from numbers and cohesion, the power of the seed arises from its nature
as an individual. It can stand and survive on its own.
Very few of us have resisted the urge to make a snowman. And surely
none have resisted the urge to sow a seed. It is part of our nature to make,
to assist, to sculpt, to shape, to grow. And with a seed we can do all of
these things. However unlikely it seems at the moment, it will soon be time
to deal with emergent seedlings.
This is the age of Do-It-Yourself, and this is the opportunity to do
your own thing. A tree wants to grow, and you want it to grow, so between
you there is no reason why you should not succeed[.] The next step depends
on what you want. It’s like making a snowman. Do you want a round fat
little man like Uncle Rupert, for instance? Do you want your tree to grow
as it pleases, or do you want to persuade it to be dainty and elegant, like
Aunt Lucy?
The word Kamuti has been used by one author to describe a method of
growing Bonsai according to what you want. The emphasis is on the word
growing. You persuade the tree to grow into the shape you want, by studying
the /
– 2 –
the nature of the tree and taking action very easily so that it follows your
pre-determined pattern. This is in contrast to a former method by which the
tree was allowed to follow its inclination and then drastically re-shaped
to its owner’s desires. If doing your own thing is in harmony with the growth
habit and potential of the tree, you should get on well together. Like an
artist with his material. For every artist, however mich an individual,
however free, and however great his genius, is always the servant of his
material. In this sense the seed is the material you are going to use like
an artist. If you want to use your material creatively you must understand
it, you must be in sympathy with it, study its nature, work with it not
against it. And you must begin early.
When it is still a very small seedling cut the roots at the growing tips,
because that is where the tree has the ability to re-create itself quickly
with new growth. Do not allow the long anchoring roots to grow. These are
unnecessary for a Bonsai because it will not be exposed to v[oi]lent winds, and
they play no part in the essential feeding process. Select the branches you
want, and remove any competing growth before it becomes established. Allow
two leaves to each shoot, and nip out the growing tip. In this way the tree
will grow a head of very small branches.
Co-operate with the tree’s own nature, which favours the leading shoot
and confines other branches to a subordinate role. If you remove the leader
there will be a temporary power struggle. In terms of human history, the great
barons will flourish when there is no King, but eventually a new leader will
arise and assert his dominance over competing rivals, and the tree will return
to an orderly shape, dominated from a central height or kingsship.
You know that civilisation is only skin-deep, but so also is the life of
a tree. Its most active life goes on just beneath the bark. You don’t have
to /
– 3 –
to teach it how to live. It carries within itself whole libraries-worth
of experience. It has its own biological clock by which it sets its own
life rhythms. It feeds itself, clothes itself, reproduces itself, puts
itself to sleep. And given half a chance it will last a lifetime.
[Unauthored]
[Believed to be Authored by Matthew/Matt/M. Weir]
Carefully and lovingly reproduced and repurposed, republished and uploaded by Alex Watt, Thursday, 15th January, 2026
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