Outdoor bonsai techniques

May Bacchus will create Muskoka in a corner or Alaska in an alleyway. She makes miniature landscapes that use Bonsai techniques, but borrow elements of Canadian landscapes. And most of the bonsai she creates lives in the garden year round, not in a sacred place inside.

"If it's not growing in a pot, it's not Bonsai," says May in her St. Catharines backyard, surrounded by her pot-bound plants.

You could say that no plant is safe from her extreme pruning techniques. In a slow stroll through her garden I saw Birch, Mountain Ash, Crabapples, Pines, Spruce and Cedars, all downscaled in size and all growing in astoundingly small containers.

I had to keep asking in a stunned way, "This survives the winter in a pot this small?"

Yes they do, says May, unprotected and unpampered.

"There are important reasons why these plants can survive the winter in small containers. I choose plants that are hardy to at least one zone colder than where they will live. If you are in Zone 6, choose plants from Zone 5 or colder. And the soil must drain well, the most common reason for failure with Bonsai is overwatering."

While there are many beautiful stoneware pots that are winter-proof, May is starting to prefer plastic pots for her Bonsai because she feels they trap less moisture.

The simplest explanation for why Bonsai works is that trees and shrubs grown in small containers start to achieve a balance between root growth and top growth. Small root ball equals small leaves and a small canopy.

"Some of my plants only need root pruning once in seven years," says May. Pruning the roots seems like basic maintenance, but pruning the branches and trunk becomes art.

I notice that there are scissors and clippers tucked everywhere is May's garden and that she spontaneously grooms plants as we talk.

The pruning and shaping of Bonsai plants is creative, addictive and therapeutic.

"You can prune out your anger," observes May, "it is great therapy for all of us, and especially for people in wheelchairs. You can create a whole garden on a tabletop."

May has been entranced and entrenched in the Bosai world for over twenty years. She teaches Bonsai, creates Bonsai gardens and specimens for clients, and is always on the hunt for the perfect plant and the perfect pot.

"When I find a tree or a shrub that I think might be a good Bonsai specimen, I put it in a box and leave it for two years. I observe how it grows, when it leafs out, when it flowers, and only after that do I decide how to prune it."

"Bonsai teaches patience," says May. "I love evergreens, but in our environment they can take 15 years before they reveal something of great beauty."

Many of the Bonsai specimens in May's garden are on the move to client's gardens, so she tries not to get attached.

"When I was younger, and we needed money, I sold everything. But now as I get older, I get more ornery about parting with them," she says.

And there is one Bonsai in May's garden that will never be for sale; a Pine tree that she guesses might be 80 years old.

"That is my husband Shafee's favorite. It can never leave the garden. I had it in a show once and he got a chair and sat next to it the whole time it was on display," says May.

May grew up in South America and has lived and traveled all over the world. Her Bonsai technique has been influenced more by Southern Asia, she says, than by Japan.

"I have clients who have just moved here, and they say, please do something to remind me of home," says May. " I just finished a balcony with an Alaskan look, a garden in Niagara-on-the-Lake that borrowed from Muskoka. I like using native understory plants for those type of gardens, Saskatoonberry, Witch Hazel, Birches. If it doesn't evoke a place, then I haven't done my job."

With a Birch tree or a Japanese Maple shrunk down to a miniature size, May can add a handsome rock, some ferns, and create a minimalist landscape in the smallest space.

"With the trend toward smaller yards, I am seeing more people using a Bonsai tree as a focal point and then landscaping around the base of the container. It fits the scale of the smaller areas," says May. " You can have a 15-year-old Birch tree for instance, in a container that weighs less than ten pounds, so you can easily move it and refine the landscape."

Buy a plant from May and you buy the lifestyle. "I might spend up to two days with a client, showing them how to root-prune, repot, and shape a Bonsai plant. You have to learn about the soil mix that matches the plant, how to fertilize and how often to water."

I notice in May's garden that while her containers display beautiful Bonsai, they might also display a few weeds. But this is for a reason. When the weeds start to wilt, it's time to water. As May says, "Pines don't wilt, they just pine away."

So, who does this contemplative style of gardening appeal to, I ask May.

"The sensitive, the creative, the artistic," says May. "When men come to my courses, they often want to shape something rigid and tall like a Samurai warrior. Women work with gentler, softer lines. If they come in as a couple, before long they are sitting at opposite ends of the table. They have different visions."

May remembers two men, forestry workers who wanted to learn how to Bonsai some junipers they had found.

"They were eager to start cutting, to start pruning. I told them to be patient, to let the plant express itself, and then they would have a Bonsai worthy of putting in a pot."