We’ve Got Your Back.

Nov 12, 2021 | General

Just a quick update on what’s been happening recently here at Kaizen Bonsai world headquarters. It’s nice to know that when things are uncertain, to quote a modern idiom ‘ We’ve got your back‘, or at least someone has.

None of us really know what’s just around the corner as we go through our lives. Most of the time nothing happens, life goes on. Sometimes there is a nice surprise waiting to shower us in blessings, rare but it does happen. And then, there is what most often seems to happen. Life is going along nicely and just as you turn a corner life lays you out like you were caught in the side of the head by Joe Root swinging for the perimeter wall.

2021 has been a thoroughly shit year for Catherine and myself for any number of life changing reasons I don’t need to go into. However last week will prove entertaining for those who take joy in other peoples misery, in this case mine.

It was a long tale of abuse that started in me resurrecting a big 1980’s Suzuki dirt bike from several years of slumber. It’s big, very tall (i’m short) and hard to kick start (no electric foot). Couple that with a carburettor containing several years of nastiness and some tired electrics and even though I got it going just fine, eventually,  I was left with a very sore lower back and hip on my right side. I am a bit odd in that I am left footed and right handed.

Next day was a long dog walk and then I had a couple of days of hard graft with new imports of goods arriving from overseas. Tuesday saw me humping a couple of tons of wire into a confined space before wrestling tons of pots into storage. The following day, a bit beaten up, i thought a gentle dog walk through the local woods would settle down my aching joints but, as always I overdid it. By lunch time I was laid out and terrified at the pain with which I was wracked.

Now, as regular followers of my nonsense will know I have had some run in’s with injury and pain before. You name it I have done it. I have cut, burned, crushed and busted everything in my time. I have had a bout of sciatica that, had it not been for my good lady, would have seen me dropping headfirst out of an upstairs window onto the concrete below.

However this time was a new experience. In retrospect I know I hyper extended my hip wrecking tendons in the process and that caused the sciatic nerve within my hip to get nipped up. Anyone who has done something like this will now be wincing in sympathy. So after 3 days laid out on a hard floor, screaming down the house and crying like a baby with a full nappy, and without a wink of sleep, I found myself in the back of  a vehicle impressively operated by the East of England Ambulance Service. Thank GOD for Entonox.

Interestingly as the ambulance crew and I sat/laid in the back of their van sharing an hour in an NHS queue the lovely lady present was sharing her experiences of back related sciatica (which I have also suffered with). “i’ve had five kids and that was NOTHING compared to the bouts of sciatica I have suffered with.” So, ostensibly I have been in child birth for the last 10 days which just might explain why I have been hard to get a hold of. Please accept my apologies for abandoning my post but thankfully I’m getting short periods of vertical time now which is just as well because there is a lot to do.

I have been banging on for ages about how hard I felt things were going to get here in Blighty and sadly that’s now all coming to pass. Thanks to an unprecedented rise in the cost of everything from raw materials to shipping cost and the inexorable and entirely unreasonable increase in government bureaucracy and endless pointless paperwork and levies placed upon businesses, costs are rising fast. That’s fuelling inflation which means likely interest rate rises, one of the dumbest responses imaginable in this current climate and experts in the forwarding industry agree there is unlikely to be any easing of the situation until at least the end of next year or into the next.

Just look at the cost of Akadama, a benchmark price in bonsai trading. Even though the price has increased 65% since the beginning of this year nobody is making additional profit except the government who’s 20% tax just goes with the price. Their cut for a bag has gone from £2.83 to £4.66 at our selling price, that’s since March this year. KB are making the same margin as always and it’s less that the tax after incoming transport and warehousing cost. So, hang on to your hats folks the pain is coming and your government is rubbing their hands and wearing a big F*ck you! grin.

Still, I guess we should all be thankful because at least most products are still available. We will all have to budget a little more carefully, consume a little less and make what we have go further (or forego some other luxury like a holiday). That’s what I had to do at the outset of my bonsai career (30 years and still no holiday) when I was as poor as a church mouse. In a strange way it was kind of fun.

So, whilst Kaizen Bonsai is slowly winding down our tree sales for a considerable number of reasons (more news on that to come soon) we are FAR from chucking in the towel. Having freed myself from the yoke of three thousand trees I can now begin to apply myself to other exciting new projects. One of those is the import of tons and tons of Bonsai Pots, thousands of Bonsai Tools and tons of Bonsai Wire and the like. From fertilisers to carving tools we are stacking our warehouse.

Our warehouse carries upward of 40 tons of soil, containers filled with wire, tens of thousands of pots and everything you can imagine or are ever likely to need in the pursuit of bonsai perfection. We buy a lot, often months in advance, so we can ensure continuity of supply to make our dear customers life as easy as possible.

Part of our warehouse filled with bonsai goodies. If you need it chances it’s in here somewhere.

Tons of wire and tools fresh off the container ship ready for unpacking. This is what laid me out for two weeks because I am a knackered old git.

As we start to move in different directions we have the chance to bring in products from new and different manufacturers that may not have been seen before. As far as bonsai pots go, it has been a considerable cause of concern to me for years now that what we see is most often the cheapest nasty quality available. This is because they have passed through too many hands before reaching your bonsai workshop. In order for the retail price to be acceptable the factory gate price has to be very low indeed. This results in poor quality at a high price.

Another aspect of low quality goods is the number that are simply not up to standard for UK retail. With some pot ranges we have often had to dump up to 10% right out of the box due to significant faults and that adds a lot to the final cost. I hate waste and to make a pot, ship it to the opposite side of the world and then simply drop it into the bin looked like madness to me. That is NOT what you call good husbandry of our environment and resources and it’s certainly not good business.

Pots are a funny thing. In my experience unless you are paying upwards of £8 an inch the quality is never going to be the best but then not many bonsai need the best pots. Something that looks nice and sympathetically balanced often is plenty good enough and that’s the bulk of what we sell. Some people will always want to buy a signed antique pot from a Japanese master and whilst that might be the gold standard 99% of us are content to lower our sights besides the fact that few of us can afford those beautiful items.

In my experience a bonsai pot needs to be fit for both purpose and pocket. Not too good and not too poor, it needs to be ‘just right’. But then that means entirely different things to every single person with a bonsai tree to home. To that end Kaizen Bonsai do our best to offer as wide a range of options as possible from plastic to aforesaid antiques (on rare occasions).

Last week I was very excited because we received our first shipment of Japanese made bonsai pots. Back when I started tinkering with trees bonsai pots were a lot of money and a regular subject of discussion at our local bonsai club. Nobody wanted to produce large bonsai trees because few could afford the pots. Back then we had plastic Mica bonsai pots which saved the day….at least to some degree.

Part of this reason for high prices was that by and large nobody was bringing in Chinese made pots, most were Japanese (where wages are much higher). Since the mid ’90s we have been drowning in cheap Chinese product. The Chinese can make exceptional pots every bit as good as their neighbours but sadly our importers mostly went for the cheap end of the spectrum to maximise throughput and profit margins.

Now that’s all changing. Environmental concerns are bringing huge government pressure to bear on manufacturing that consumes large volumes of energy and materials like ceramics. Back in the day I heard tell of massive Chinese, drive in pot kilns fired by everything from the local woodland to coal and bizarrely even diesel. Of course that’s all largely being stopped now and the result is more costs to producers and higher costs to you, dear customer.

It would appear we are beginning to close the circle now because here are those Japanese pots of yore once again. Thank goodness the factories survived. The Japanese have always been responsible manufacturers of quality goods and we are very pleased to be able to support their endeavours once again. To the best of my limited knowledge these good quality pots have not been imported into GB for at least twenty years and I for one think it’s very nice and reassuring to see them back again.

We have in excess of 1600 sets in over 50 designs with multiple colour ways. Here are a few pictures my lovely daughter snapped yesterday of the first sets out of the container. I will be doing my best to get them listed before Christmas assuming I can avoid kicking over any more large motorcycles for a while.

These new pot ranges are predominantly in the smaller sizes up to 12-15″. Put alongside our standard ranges of Chinese made pots from 3″ to a spectacular 40″ I am hoping we have got what you need but take my advice, if you see what you need today, buy it now because pots move fast and there is no guarantee it will be there come spring time when we are selling dozens of pots a day.

So, thanks for you attention but I now have to excuse myself and go for a lie down as sitting this long is quite literally starting to get on my nerves.

God bless y’all.

Graham.

Typical Japanese attention to detail with understated colours and finish.

Nice thin walled mame bonsai pots. There are dozens of designs and colours still to be unpacked.

I’m getting into little bonsai!

Hundreds of high quality miniatures available in a huge spectrum of colours.

Lots of new informal glazed and unglazed designs not seen before.

Informal shell pots available in several popular sizes.

Lots of unusual and contemporary designs and colours for accent plants and unusual bonsai trees.

Japanese Bonsai Pots in our warehouse.

Dozens of full shelves. We got you covered!

Just a tiny part of our bonsai pot range available from stock.

Quality, responsibly produced Japanese quality bonsai pots.

Lots of interesting new designs and colours and some old favourites not seen for decades.

Dozens of interesting unglazed bonsai pot styles.

There is a lot of stock here!

Classic understated Japanese colour, finish and design. Class on a budget.

Little Tommy Opposite

Oct 25, 2021 | General

By and large I was a sullen little kid, never happier than in my own company, doing my own thing. I was hopeless at being told what to do and my mum used to call me ‘little Tommy opposite‘. It didn’t seem to matter what my parents had to say I would want to do the opposite. Chips for tea? No, I want pie. Lets go to the beach! No I want to stay home. Let’s stay home and watch TV. No I want to go to the beach. Don’t hit your sister!……..You get the idea.

Back in the late 70’s everyone was losing their minds over punk rock and later new wave synthpop which just made me retch. Me? I was a hold out for the heavy metal bands of the sixties and very early seventies: Status Quo, Deep Purple, AC/DC, Judas Priest and the like. The closest I got to being up to date was Iron Maiden who I came across when, aged 12 my mate Woody and I took off school, jumped on a bus, all alone, and went to see the band up the coast at a little hellhole in the countryside. It’s safe to say I have never been a slave to fashion.

I have written here before about Warren Buffet’s theory of, effectively, swimming against the tide. The fact that almost everyone believes a certain thing to be ‘true’ does not make it so. Life is governed by some immutable laws; jump out of an upstairs window and the result will be the same today as it was a thousand years ago. Sadly today we are governed by a great many fickle laws but, that serves us right for putting lunatic criminals in charge of our national destiny.

As humans we have the choice to live our lives by either conviction or preference. Loosely we might say we order our lives according to what is ‘right’ (those immutable laws) or what is ‘comfortable’ or convenient. This opens up a complex can of worms we are best to save for another day. Suffice to say that very often doing what is right may not be easy, convenient or popular. Bonsai is a bit like that…………..

Remember being at school? Learning was hard right? It certainly was for ‘little Tommy opposite’ here. It’s not that I was stupid, I have made a fair success of everything I have attempted in my life. However when it came to school learning nobody took the time to really lay out what was in it for me so I played the fool and at age 14 1/2 I took it upon myself to leave. I figured out how to turn up, get registered and then bunk off without being noticed. I did hang around for woodwork but that was about all.

Having said that I have had a wonderful time in my life learning. Applying myself and learning new skills has been a fantastic journey in so many different disciplines. For example I taught myself to operate a litho printing press which led me into the printing industry for more than twenty years. I didn’t need an apprenticeship, NVQ, SVQ, City & Guilds or any other silliness. I turned up with a folder of the work I had produced and got every single job I applied for. Put simply I could do the work and was motivated.

My bonsai journey has been much the same. Hard work and dedication made up for a lack of talent. My penchant for not listening to other folk and, as we say in Norfolk, ploughing me own furra’ helped a lot. I learned at an early age how to figure stuff out on my own and back when I started trying to grow little trees I was, once again on my own.

Those were blissful times, I had no internet, no TV and no telephone. The only source of bonsai information was books from the library and even in my embryonic state I could tell a lot of those were written by cabbage kickers. My go to source for all things horticultural was The Readers Digest Encyclopaedia of Garden Plants and Flowers. That wonderful book, which I still have right here, taught me all I needed to know about growing plants. The bonsai bit was separate and the easy element in the equation to understand and much like my printing escapades it only took me a couple of years to get the basics down pat.

Back in the day when I did actually go to school I always sat, sullen in the back of the class or failing that I was causing trouble being a smart-arse. So, here’s a thing that never happened, even after I attended the same class several times. They NEVER asked to stand up and teach the lesson. In fact I was never even asked for my opinion or thoughts. There were some subjects in which I excelled: English, woodwork, general science and darts but even there nobody asked me for my two penn’orth.

The problem we have today is that the whole of human history and ingenuity is right there at our finger tips. Never has it been so easy to learn wonderful new things but on the other hand never has it been so easy to choke to death on total bullshit. Much like my spotty young self sitting at the back of the maths class I might have thought I had it taped and could teach the class myself but come exam time it turned out I was a feckless clot and that’s all I have to say about that.

I got onto that because I realised recently, unlike many folk in bonsai I actually prefer the end of the season to the beginning. There is nothing better than the first warm sun of spring on your face but in a bonsai context all that new coloured growth and larch shaving brushes stuff leaves me cold. I also have little interest in autumn colour nice as it is. The really exciting element of developing deciduous trees as bonsai is when we can finally get rid of the pesky leaves and reveal the structure beneath, it’s the first chance to see the results of our summers labours.

Deciduous bonsai are ONLY really improved over summer. The old ideas about growing out 5-7 leaves and then pruning back to two is cobblers. There is so much both clever and intuitive technique in building something like a Japanese maple, especially in a northern climate,  that it’s not surprising they are so rare and valuable. Most folk are content to look at an upturned mop (of leaves) on a stick because doing much more is really hard and that explains why there are so few very good deciduous trees in British bonsai.

I do not need all my digits to count the number of UK bonsai growers that can do this work. Even despite the prevalence of broadleaf deciduous trees grown in this country, top quality examples with properly constructed branch structure and dense ramification are as scarce as the proverbial rocking horse teeth. A bonsai needs to be an authentic, if slightly stylised and tidied up example of a venerable old tree. Leaves can hide a multitude of sins and usually do.

I am sure that part of the problem is the lack of mature quality examples of good work. Most of those we have come from Japan simply because they have been using quality technique for decades where we have been fumbling around in the dark for little more than twenty years. Let me put this considered opinion out there. Assuming you begin creating a deciduous bonsai from the very best quality collected material it will still take at least ten years to get on the first rung. To build a top quality tree will take the fastidious application of complicated technique for twenty of more years. And that assumes one has the vision and creativity to know what will look good after that time and effort has passed.

In Britain Japanese trees are widely dissed as ‘cookie cutter bonsai’. To be fair cheap low end commercial trees are just that but once the price tag gets over a few hundred that’s not the case. However even at that level I have lost count of how often I have been told a fella has no interest in ‘finished bonsai’. That phrase cracks me up, there is no greater display of  ignorance that uttering those two words. The only time a bonsai tree is finished is when it’s owner runs out of skill. Unless of course that guy had no skill in the first place which pretty much guarantees a dead tree early on in the game.

Go outside when it’s quiet and spend some quality time with your trees. There should be a plan for every single one, ideally stretching into years of work. If you find a tree that you think is finished or you are satisfied with it’s time to go back to school and lean something new. Push hard, never be satisfied and keep on learning. If you can’t find the ‘man who can‘ help you out then develop your own techniques and disciplines.

A mature bonsai tree takes infinitely more work to develop and maintain that raw material. Don’t be afraid you will run out of work because both structural and refinement work is very time consuming and creative in nature.

Some folk out there will remember Danny Use’s Ginkgo Awards. Danny pretty much built the foundation upon which all European bonsai has been built ever since. I missed the inaugural 1997 show but under orders from Kevin Willson I got a passport and attended the 1999 show. I was crestfallen at how poor my efforts measured up to the trees on show and came away determined to do better and one day have one of my trees at a future show. To my utter amazement I had a yew tree that I dragged out of the woods accepted for display at the 2001 show. I was like a dog with two dicks, getting accepted was probably the highlight of my bonsai journey. I was thrilled, proud and terrified all at once.

I remember after the show as I wheeled my tree out the door Danny stood right there and as I passed he leaned in and said ” Nice tree, now go home and make it better.” That’s it, a simple phrase that encapsulates everything i have been doing for the last thirty years, the reason I chose Kaizen as the name of our business and the basis upon which I have set everything I have done.

Fittingly the last word here goes to Danny Use.  “You do not make a tree, you build up a tree”.

G.

Trident imported from Japan 2019. October 2021 and finally I get to unwrap my summers work.

I can’t stop pulling leaves off. It’s been a good summer.

When this arrived it took a whole day to clean up the structure, get rid of knuckles, threes, pruning scars and unnecessary branches.

Now at least the structure is clean, pruning scars have mostly closed and the taper is mostly good. Secondary branching is mostly acceptable tertiary branching has improved this year but there is a very LONG way to go yet but for a jumping off point i’m happy.

Per Aspera Ad Astra.

Oct 5, 2021 | General

Living in modern Britain is not easy. We have always been a country that lurches from one crisis to the next but at this moment it does appear we are in a state of flux. That makes us feel uneasy and the more bone idle one is the worse the feeling will be. Many have become used to living the good life of rest and ease. It appears to me those days are over. Our country presents some fantastic opportunities just now but that’s going to require work on our part if we hope to benefit. As always opportunity comes in overalls.

There are few things in life that are certain, as Benjamin Franklin made mention, “except death and taxes“. The other I would suggest is government incompetence. It baffles my little brain why so many people think that politicians have any answers. There is a universal cry rising from the British people that “the government should DO something“. WTF are they going to do? Government is a one trick pony as far as I can see but just chucking vast gobs of money at a problem pretty much never fixes anything. If things in our fair country are going to improve it can only come from our own individual efforts.

There really is no point in our trying to change the world, protesting, ranting, raving and the like only serves to annoy others. The only thing we have any business changing is our own selves. Leading by example is the only real option to change the world. I would prefer to get my own house in order before going out and foisting my ideas on the world.

Talking of uncertainty lets talk about the weather. Having done bonsai in the Blighty for over thirty years now, I can categorically state the weather is not our greatest ally. Over those years I have seen it all. In order to create beautiful bonsai we have to grow our plants. Growth comes from sunshine and warmth is required for cell division. This year I did not see the sun in August, in fact we had to spark up the log burner a couple of evenings because it was so cold. North winds have prevailed most of this year and being right on the east coast that has come close to breaking our spirits on more than a few occasions.

Over those thirty years of frantic bonsai activity I can safely say that the summer of 2020 was by a country mile the best I have ever seen. That resulted in strong vigorous trees chomping at the bit in spring 2021 which turned out to be the worst I remember. Now the trees are poor with little energy in reserve due to so little sunlight and almost no growth or development as a result. Across the board I have seen very little development in any of my bonsai this year. Even the apple trees in my garden are at least a month late this year.

Doing anything that is reliant upon the weather in this country is a fool’s errand. I sure am glad I never became a farmer. I am also quite pleased I don’t do holidays, caravanning, camping etc’. “exceptio probat regulam in casibus non exceptis” states if an exception exists or has to be stated, then this exception proves that there must be some rule to which the case is an exception. The rule being you can no more rely upon the weather than the actions of a politician.

The weather has put a dampener on the progress of my trees this year, and not for the first time either. However here IS the exception that proves the rule. The one tree that has grown spectacularly this year is this beautiful big olive from southern Italy. I have had it for about three years now and strangely it did not grow much in the balmy days of 2020 but in the cool dull days of 2021 it has grown faster than my lawn.

Considering that I have done nothing different, the development of this tree remains a mystery. It’s in the same pot, the same soil and lives in the same place. Last year it made a sickly few inches of growth that I did my best to wire into place at the end of summer. This summer it has grown and been cut multiple times and I had a huge mess of new growth to incorporate at the end of the season. I cannot explain why this tree above all others has done SO well but i’ll take it. Compare the pictures from Autumn 2020 and October 2021.

I guess it goes to show that even when everyone else is struggling we can, with the right attitude, do well and prosper even when conditions are not ideal.

Per aspera ad astra*

Graham.

*(Google it)

Olive October 2020.

The same olive in October 2021. 2 more years like this and i’ll be a happy camper.

Bonsai. It’s All About The Trees!

Sep 21, 2021 | General

Warning: Pretentious opinionated bullshit follows!

I am not the first to say, of late, that the world has gone insane. To be fair planet earth is just fine and carries on much as it always has done with it’s ups and downs, it’s the bit that we humans inhabit that’s gone nuts. Personally I no longer feel the construct we have created for ourselves is worthy of habitation. In fact it looks a lot like we will create our own mass extinction within the next cup-full of decades and not by the means the media and politicians would have you believe. That will sort out climate change and the earth will recover without us and life will go on in some form or another, twas ever thus.

Within that paragraph there are two words we need to focus on World and Earth. I use these to mean the following…

World: humankind; the human race; humanity and the structure of our society

Earth: A biosphere, this planet as the current habitation of humans

The insanity all around us is almost entirely of our own making. It’s largely down to our lack of respect for the resource we were given, greed, selfishness and a self serving competitive nature. You know only too well I would be the first to point the finger of accusation at our pathetic shower of political leaders but sadly we are all equally culpable. Only a fool would think there is a way out of all this mess based on our current trajectory. It’s like a fly caught in a bowl of shit soup looking for an island of croutons (cretins?) to save itself. It looks to me like the human species was doomed from the outset hoisted by our own petard of smug cleverness. Whilst we may be clever enough to dodge some trifling thing like Covid there are graver enemies at the door. The only way through is to live our own life, the best we can and with respect and honour. In the words of Robert Frost “The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep.” Time to get busy.

Talking of poets reminds me of East Coker from T.S. Eliot’s  Four Quarters. The poem discusses time and disorder within nature that is the result of humanity following only science and not the divine. Leaders are described as materialistic and unable to understand reality. The only way for mankind to find salvation is through pursuing the divine by looking inwards and realising that humanity is interconnected. Only then can people understand the universe.

“So here I am, in the middle way, having had twenty years-
Twenty years largely wasted, the years of l’entre deux guerres (between two wars)-
Trying to use words, and every attempt
Is a wholly new start, and a different kind of failure
Because one has only learnt to get the better of words
For the thing one no longer has to say, or the way in which
One is no longer disposed to say it. And so each venture
Is a new beginning, a raid on the inarticulate,
With shabby equipment always deteriorating
In the general mess of imprecision of feeling,
Undisciplined squads of emotion. And what there is to conquer
By strength and submission, has already been discovered
Once or twice, or several times, by men whom one cannot hope
To emulate – but there is no competition –
There is only the fight to recover what has been lost
And found and lost again and again: and now, under conditions
That seem unpropitious. But perhaps neither gain nor loss.
For us, there is only the trying. The rest is not our business.”
― T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets

So, what’s all this jabbering got to do with bonsai trees? With my advancing years I begin to see there are two worlds we are exposed too. One is a deafening cacophony of discordant noise characterised by fear, anger, doubt, violence and destruction and silliness. The second world is the one that was here before us and will continue long after we are gone. We might call it the natural world with it’s cycles of life and death, cold and heat, light and dark. It’s where we came from and once our “miles” are done it’s the place to which we will return, of that there is no doubt. We may spend our waking moments and days in this human construct but make no mistake when this all ends we are no more than fertiliser for the trees we bonsai folk love so much.

That’s still a bit cryptic so in the words of a politician ‘let me be clear’. Bonsai success can only be attained through an understanding and appreciation of time and the natural world, it’s principles, cycles and rhythms. This esoteric wisdom is available to all who can quiet their souls sufficiently to find it. It’s like a wisp of morning mist laying on grass before a rising summer sun. Sadly most of us never make it because the writhing cacophony of the world keeps us from it.

Still not got it? ‘let me be clear’……. again. There is the right way to do something and there is the popular way to do something. It’s a rare day indeed that these two converge. I think we could all agree that lying and deception are wrong but that does not stop politicians doing it and because it is ever present we just go with the flow rather than make a fuss. Bonsai is a bit like that. These days our plate is piled high with goodies and, much like a chumpster at an all-you-can-eat buffet, we know what we like but figuring out what’s actually good, or necessary is a whole other issue. Just because a lot of folk tell you something is ‘right’ does not make it so, especially in a world where popularity is often lauded above fact or truth.

This is known as ‘crowd thinking’ to which we are doubly susceptible during periods of transition or uncertainty. We question the wisdom of the past and even our own experiences and learned behaviour. As billionaire investor Warren Buffet says….

“I will tell you the secret to getting rich on Wall Street. You try to be greedy when others are fearful. And you try to be fearful when others are greedy.”

I would call that swimming against the tide, not just going with the flow. That’s tough but when you do a couple of things happen. Firstly you will be more likely to find new ideas in a quiet less crowded space and secondly you are also going to find cracks, issues and problems with the popular position. A skeptical eye is priceless. And even if you go with the flow, you’ll see the potential pitfalls and will be more ready to succeed than others picking the path because it is the most popular.

A little peace and quiet for the mind, a skeptical eye and an assumption that anything is possible opens doors. Having the ability to shut out the noise and slow things down can really make all the difference. It’s what Kevin Willson calls ‘a moment of clarity’. But, we have to create the opportunity for it to happen. Just be careful what you put on your plate, just because it’s served up in front of you do not, for a moment, assume it’s good for you. If a blind squirrel can find a nut or a country clod-hopper like me can produce a nice bonsai tree from time to time how much better are your own prospects?

Bonsai is about an almost spiritual connection with nature through the medium of a living breathing tree. We might like to think we are bending the plant to our will. In fact the opposite is actually true, once we master the art it’s the tree that bends us to it’s will. If we fail to yield, the tree will likely die and we will lose our soul. The best bonsai are created by those who respect their plants and understand them and how this all fits together. It’s not all about wiring, styling and carving it’s all about respect, cooperation and understanding and the first step is to entirely dis-regard the opinions of other folk in pursuit of our own individual journey. All that matters is that silent little tree that is entirely dependant upon you for it’s life and survival. It could be said our trees are our prisoners but I prefer to consider myself a prisoner to my love of those little fellows whom I respect and care for so deeply and that give me so much in an entirely over crowded noisy and ruinous world.

Without trees all human life on earth would be lost. Trees are our air filtration system not just a source of wood for us to pillage. If bonsai can teach us anything it’s that OUR entire existence is thanks to them and not the other way around. Most of the trees on earth have already been lost. Bonsai is something that can help re-connect us to our most important ally. It’s not about winning a trophy or bragging rights, it’s not a competition, that’s all bullshit. It’s ALL about the trees we need so much and our very survival depends upon. As bonsai folk we should know this. We need more trees!  Spread the word!

As Mr Eliot said  “there is no competition – There is only the fight to recover what has been lost”

Graham.

Bonsai. It’s all about the trees

A Smashing Time

Aug 18, 2021 | General

This week I had several tons of Bonsai pots delivered. The experience got me thinking about where we find ourselves and what to expect going forwards. If strong language offends PLEASE do not read further. If you are a bone-idle tired hands please do NOT read further.

First pallets of bonsai pots hot off the boat.

At some level the past few months have been tough for most everybody. The last thing you need is for me to start griping about how tough my life is. For sure some folk around the world are in a struggle for their very existence, by comparison our ‘first world’ problems are petty and inconsequential. However, for any number of reasons, there are some storm clouds on our horizon that are beginning to rain toast crumbs into the comfy bed of our lives. The world is awash with hyperbole about ‘the new normal‘ and using our current straightened circumstances as a springboard towards a ‘new’ start.

I have some very strongly held opinions on what’s going on but to be honest nobody gives a shit so I will keep that to myself. Suffice to say much of what is wrong today is the idea that we need to change everyone else in order to make a better world. Protesting is rife and anger is on the streets. In my opinion and experience there is only one person we have a legitimate right to force change upon and that’s ourselves. There is no way to change the world by telling everyone else they are wrong, trying to do that just makes matters worse. All we can really do is stay home and work on being the best person we can and doing the very best we can in relation to our own work and contribution to the rest of humanity.

I have written many times here about folk NOT doing their jobs. A lack of care and consideration and blaming everyone else is bringing our country to it’s knees. Here’s a recent example….. I had five tons of Pumice arrive from Italy. It was dropped off at Dartford and was due for delivery a couple of days later. I got a call and headed for the warehouse. We don’t have a fork truck so rely on tail lift drops which was made plain when booking the transport. So this guy arrives with five big pallets over 6′ tall and a thousand kilos each. A hundred and twenty mile run one way just for this drop. Upon arrival he refused to offload because his lift was only rated for 500Kg. We offered to jump up and reduce the pallets in size but apparently letting us on his truck was more that his job was worth. So getting arsey with us I told him to GFYS and left. The pallets then went all the way back to Dartford before the following day coming all the way back to my freight agent 25 miles away and he dropped them off as we had requested the following day without incident.

That’s a lot of pointless waste considering we have done this job multiple times with the same operators. That’s at least 240 wasted miles at an average of 8 miles per gallon, 30 gallons (136L) of juice up in smoke and about £200 plus 2 working days. When someone fails to do their job properly the repercussions are far reaching and the most insignificant detail can cause total chaos and cost a lot of money and resource. There are people everywhere that do the bare minimum in their work, just enough to get paid and not get sacked. Whatever happened to pride in a job well done?

I have based my entire business philosophy upon doing the best we can. That’s not to say we are the best and I would be loathe to make that assertion over something that’s a matter of opinion. However we do the best we possibly can all things considered. If that involves going the extra mile, getting up early, staying late, working weekends or missing meals we are all happy to do just that in the pursuit of customer satisfaction. For me it’s all about the pride in a job well done and delivering my very best. Some folk will never be satisfied but they get short shrift from me. Nobody is perfect but that’s no excuse for not bothering.

That philosophy has also driven my bonsai since day one. I do bonsai for myself and I simply do not care what anyone else has to say. My bonsai, my work and my appreciation of the result. I know if I have done my best and expended appropriate effort and that’s ALL that matters to me. I can’t help thinking the world would be a better place if we could all muster the energy to do our best. As Vince Lombardi said… “I firmly believe that any man’s finest hour, the greatest fulfilment of all that he holds dear, is that moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle – victorious.”

So, back to those toast crumbs. I have been warning for a long time a change was coming. There is too much demand in the world and not enough supply, of anything. In a bonsai context bear in mind most of what we use comes from small specialist cottage industries. There is no ‘economy of scale‘ enjoyed by more mainstream pursuits. Akadama is pulled out of the ground by a few guys, a loader and some open ended poly tunnels. Tools are made by a dozen guys in a unit with some archaic machines. Nothing is mass produced and it’s only thanks to the passion of a lot of dedicated folk that we have anything to use at all. Trust me nobody in bonsai is getting rich.

Covid has turned the world on it’s head. It’s been the catalyst for a lot of change. Ever since the early eighties, we Brit’s have been enjoying increasing prosperity. A lot of that has come from falling prices relative to earnings. In the late 1970s, one pound in every four spent, and nearly one pound in every three for pensioners, went on food. That is now down to less than 13% for those of working age and 18% for pensioners. In 1977 56% of households had one or more cars by 2010 that was 75%. Basically we got wealthier to some considerable extent thanks to the relative decrease in the cost of manufactured and farmed goods. Thanks to efficiency and mechanisation and the ability to cheaply transport goods from low wage parts of the world we all get more for less.

If you earn £20,000 a year in Britain today you are in the top 5% of the worlds most wealthy people. However it does not feel that way thanks to the cost of living. A person earning less than a quarter of that in another less developed part of the world could easily live a millionaire lifestyle. Still, for most of my life we have been enjoying ever-cheaper consumer goods when compared to our forbears.

As an example when I started out in bonsai at the turn of the 1990s a bonsai branch cutter cost £30. For me at the time that was about 13% of my weekly wage. Today 30 years later that branch cutter costs £33.50 which is actually £32.80 adjusted for increased VAT. I earn more than I did back then, I’m old, so let’s take my son-in-law Richard’s earnings as an example as he’s not far off the age I was then. Our branch cutter will cost him 9.4% of his weekly take home pay. For the same percentage as I was paying Richard could get the same branch cutter and a pair of very good scissors which, from a certain perspective could be viewed as free. We like to bitch and moan but I recon we are, by and large, doing okay.

The media have been slow in pointing out the problems our reactions to Covid have caused in global shipping though as the effects feed through it is making secondary headlines. Most of us know there are a lot of shipping containers in the wrong place. According to my freight agent our government has 15’000 containers of (rapidly going out of date) PPE sitting in a field in Essex. That’s a lot of landfill and a lot of tied up boxes the world needs.

This is happening everywhere so a lot of the initial problem was simply a shortage of boxes. However underlying that was a shortage of container ships. Bear in mind that 90% of the worlds non-bulk cargo is carried by these behemoths of the sea. Because shipping rates have been so low for years now I guess buying container ships has been less than attractive considering the hundreds of millions involved and many industry experts agree that a lot more capacity is required. They also agree that current record prices will continue in the medium term.

These things don’t come cheap. Our pots are on there somewhere.

So what does this largely esoteric information tell us? Bonsai is overwhelmingly dependant upon import and rising costs there mean rising costs for our stuff. Because of employment conditions and business costs imposed upon us here it’s largely not possible to manufacture goods at a reasonable, let alone competitive cost. I recently negotiated with a UK manufacturer to have Copper bonsai wire drawn and processed. The cost was 2.5 times more than I can source it offshore. The minimum order was massive, I had to stump up five figures with the order and the lead time was in excess of three months. These guys call themselves wire manufacturers, seriously?

I really want to support the old country. I am constantly trying to find folk to make stuff for us. However I bought my copper in China. No up front money and it was on the port within two weeks, even adding all the rip off port and customs fees and charges it ended up costing me well under half the UK manufacturing cost. We currently charge £12.95 a 1/2 Kg. For a UK sourced product that would rise to about £25-28. How patriotic are you now? I’m not, sorry.

Just yesterday I was notified a shipment price had risen by 500% since October last year when we previously ordered. This week we had tons of pots arrive from China for which I was quoted £1200 door to door. When the shipping invoice arrived there was an additional fee of  £2600 levied by the boat owners on top of that. As it stands these record high prices mean record retail prices because little guys like us have no choice but to pass on the cost to our beloved customers and that really SUCKS. Anyone seen the price of Akadama recently? Even at that price I guess we should be grateful that at least we can still get it because that simply is not going to be the case with a lot of things. Going forward stuff will cost more so lets just value what we have and take care of it just that little bit better.

Safely stashed away. Just glad we have something available for ya’ll.

So, my shipment of pots cost exactly double the FOB price thanks to all of the above. What adds insult to injury is the fact we get such high losses simply because some tosser could not be bothered to pack stuff properly despite the fact we paid a high fee for them to do so. That’s just how it goes and I have to suck it up. However in light of my frustration at everything that is conspiring to thwart our efforts I have to highly recommend the cathartic activity of destroying (previously broken) bonsai pots. Once I got past the disappointment busting this lot up was an absolute joy.

To all those folk that spend their lives doing the bare minimum to keep their jobs FUCK YOU!

So next time you are minded to question the price of something try to consider what might be happening behind the scenes and give a fellow a break. In the words of my hero Forrest Gump “That’s about all I got to say ’bout that.”

G.