Before they became a long standing hobby, the first Bonsai Trees I ever saw made me feel an incredible range of emotions. At first, I was incredulous; I just couldn`t believe they were real because one, in particular, a straight, rather spiky pine in a very tired looking, unprepossessing brown dish looked just like the model shrubs my brother had by his model railway! I touched the Bonsai Trees gently and caught their natural fragrance and something touched a nerve back in me because surely, following a child`s reasoning, these were supposed to be flourishing proudly in woodlands not in tiny restrictive trays with no earth to ground them and barely the root space needed to feed and water them. I was told that was entirely the point because otherwise they wouldn`t be miniatures and I honestly felt sad because this didn`t feel like it honoured nature to me at all. (I should point out that my love of nature and gardening started at the age of four with my first home-seeded trays of sparkly mesembryanthemums.) But, despite these rising first feelings, there was something so exquisitely beautiful about the Bonsai Trees that I was held captive and spell bound, staring at them and wondering at their beauty. They seemed so perfect in shape and form, so lush and healthy, I don`t know, it was like a rush of excitement that I just had to understand this art more. And so began my lifelong fascination for Bonsai Trees and for attaining the gentle wisdom associated with the Japanese art of cultivating them.

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