Today we’d like to introduce you to Ryan Huston.
Hi Ryan, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My story as a bonsai artist starts when I was young. At 8 years old, I vaguely remember visiting the Franklin Park Conservatory for the first time with my parents and sister and being stunned by the bonsai on display there. I don’t remember exactly how I talked my mom into it, but she let me buy a cheap $10 prebonsai there as well as a book called the “Bonsai Survival Manual.” I was mystified by these little trees so much that after reading through the book I would flip through it again to see the pictures of the specialized techniques and all the beautiful examples of bonsai again. Inevitably, I killed my first tree, but soon there was a second, and I still had that book to refer to. Luckily the second tree has survived to this day, although I still killed other trees here and there in the learning process, especially when we went on vacation. When I finally left for college, I left my surviving trees behind for my parents to water. Luckily my mom already was used to houseplants, so it didn’t much bother her. In my undergraduate program though, I got the bonsai itch once again while I was studying biology. Even though I went down a path focused on human biology, I still took elective courses in plant biology when I could. This led to a greenhouse tour at the University of Washington where they gave us each a seed from a cocoa (chocolate) tree to try to grow. While growing this little seedling, I looked into more advanced bonsai techniques online for the first time and was inspired to go deeper. I stumbled on an online forum contributor who seemed very knowledgeable and who was based near me in the Pacific Northwest. I reached out to him to see if I could help him with his trees, and he introduced me to his teacher, Dan Robinson, who has operated Elandan Gardens – a public bonsai garden in Bremerton, WA – for more than 30 years. This led me to visiting Dan’s garden weekly to volunteer with maintaining the trees at the garden. Over 4 years there, I advanced my basic skills and learned how to prune trees which have become too dense, how to wire and style branches, how to care for ancient natural bonsai trees which Dan collected from the wild, and even how to carve deadwood to add interest to scars and improve the sense of age that a tree gives. Spending such time surrounded by incredible trees and with the wisdom of an experienced teacher propelled me to where I am today. Eventually, I started expanding my own collection and collecting trees from the mountains and wetlands of Washington myself.
Ultimately though, my professional life has led me back to Ohio. After loading up a UHaul full of the trees I wanted to continue tending to here, I have continued pushing myself in bonsai. I have rebuilt a sizable collection through digging unwanted shrubs from people’s landscapes, collecting invasive plants which have bonsai potential, growing from seeds I collect locally, and from studying and digging up some native plants from our Ohio forests. I enjoy the entire process of bonsai, from the excitement of the first dig to the science of keeping them healthy and to the calm repetitive pruning and adjusting stages that can come when trees reach maturity. I also enjoy employing my skills to artistically prune landscape shrubs and trees in the Japanese style of “Niwaki,” which is very similar to bonsai styling.
Outside of the artform itself, today I have also become more involved in the Columbus Bonsai Society, and I enjoy occasionally lecturing for them both in the scientific aspects of bonsai as well as the artistic side. I am also currently involved in starting a bonsai club for Ohio State University students (where I am now a graduate student) with a fellow student and CBS member, Kevin Faris. Lastly, as time allows, I also write educational articles, record videos, and produce a monthly podcast all to share more information about growing bonsai and the stories of the crazy tree people in our art. Hopefully, through these efforts, I can help someone else discover their spark for bonsai so that they can also enjoy this art form as I have.
We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
There are a few obstacles when it comes to becoming an advanced bonsai practitioners. I often think that young people, in particular, have it rough as we are more likely to be renters with limited space, limited options, and limited funds for a hobby which can easily become expensive, which is best done outdoors, and which is learned most quickly when you have many trees to work on. Certainly, others looking to get started can start small on a single or a handful of trees. This is especially important when you are in the first phase where you are only learning to water. My first challenge was also in that phase. There is a steep learning curve in bonsai. You have to learn what do plants need to survive. When do plants need water? Which plants need winter dormancy? How much light is enough? How do you know when you prune too much? When should you disturb the roots? After crying over and killing a few trees as a kid, I started to learn the rules where they existed and started to build my intuition around these questions. Now mentally it is still a difficult thing to lose a tree, especially one with sentimental value or one that you invested a lot of time and effort into; but you do have to accept that this is inevitable to the learning process and focus on what you can learn from a lost tree. Just to give you a more recent example, last winter, I lost a cherished trident maple which I traded to my bonsai teacher for when I left Washington. He had grown it from seed for 9 years, and I had a great PNW native I dug from a mountain that would not have survived in the Ohio summer. The trident maple did well here for the first year, but I chopped some major branches just around the end of winter/the start of spring. I thought if I protected the tree from frost that it would not have an issue with this timing, but I watched the tree over the next few months, and it just never woke up. It was alive for several months, but slowly it started to go dry under the bark. A painful lesson, to be sure, but in the future, I’ll save the major cuts for summer when the tree is better able to heal.
Regarding the struggle of being a renter, you do not have control over the space. I cannot build a greenhouse to elongate my growing season or to protect my trees from winter cold, so much like in the realm of cost, one has to be resourceful. I am well acquainted with my yard and I put trees that are recovering in the available areas which are the shadiest. I shield my outdoor trees from wind, and this year will put more effort into insulating all the pots with dead leaves or straw to better protect their roots (I previously only did so for ones I expected would be sensitive and had some unexpected damage last winter).
Lastly, in the realm of limited space and options, volunteering to help my teacher with his trees and his garden was a fantastic option for my learning, as when I first started helping him, I was still living in a dorm and had no trees of my own to work on. The benefit of having many trees (or, in my case, the fact that my teacher had many) is that there is always something to work on without overworking and over-stressing your trees.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Although I am still very early in my bonsai career, therefore, luckily, I am not known for much, and I have room to explore! While I certainly prefer trees that are “naturalistic” in style and include deadwood and reveal their branch structures rather than being overly dense, recently, I am especially enjoying exploring the intersection of mankind with trees through my displays. For example, last year, I used a dead tree that I originally collected from above a forest fire-affected area in Washington state. Unfortunately, the tree did not survive as a bonsai, so I burned it and displayed it alongside an oil derrick and a watercolor of a forest fire. This display was modeled after the traditional Japanese “three-point displays,” where a tree is displayed alongside an accent rock, plant, or figurine and an accent scroll painting in order to add some context to the story of the tree. In this case, I wanted to reinforce for the audience the link between our fossil fuel addiction and the rising rates and severity of forest fires. It may be hard for Ohioans to grasp the severity of some of the forest fires which are affecting the American west these days, as well as other areas around the world. When I left Seattle in 2020, their forest fire season was so bad that there were days when the sky itself was orange, and the sun was totally blocked out by the smoke cloud. I wanted to bring this experience closer to home for Ohioans to experience a piece of that during last year’s CBS Annual Show.
More recently, at the onset of the war between Russia and Ukraine, many of us, even in America, felt a great feeling of despair and a desire to help in some way. For my part, I decided I would donate some of the proceeds of my seed sales to Ukrainian charities, and I make a display using a Ukrainian native species (European privet). I staged the tree and some model tanks illuminated only by candlelight. The act of putting together the display was cathartic, and I was surprised by the support I received from Europeans on social media over it. While that was months ago now, I hope that these sorts of displays can capture a moment in time and help people relive their emotions around different issues. As this crisis is ongoing, I will be showing an improved version of the display this year at the 50th Annual CBS Show.
Lastly, I’ll give you a sneak peek into another tree I have planned to show at a CBS Annual Show. If the tree is healthy enough following my recent work on it, I will show it this year; if not, I will show it the next. Anyways, the tree itself is a tree of heaven – an invasive species which is known to produce a toxin in its leaves and stem, which accumulates in soil and drives out native species. Although their large leaves make it an unlikely bonsai subject, I dug up an interesting one from aside a dumpster and have been experimenting with it. For this display, I also commissioned an entomologist to make an educational display showing the life stages of the invasive spotted lanternfly, which is recently introduced to the US and poses a severe economic risk for many crop and ornamental plants – especially in Pennsylvania, where the bug was first found. These two invasive species are quite fond of each other as they originate from the same area of China. Although the spotted lanternfly can feed on over a hundred species, the tree of heaven is its most preferred host and can be a magnet for spotted lanternflies. My hope is that this display will educate the public at the CBS show to identify and remove these invasive species, when possible, for the benefit of our native species.
Where we are in life is often partly because of others. Who/what else deserves credit for how your story turned out?
As already mentioned, my original bonsai teacher, Dan Robinson of Elandan Gardens, gets the most credit for where my skills are today. However, the supportive and welcoming bonsai communities both in Seattle (see the Puget Sound Bonsai Association), in Columbus (see the Columbus Bonsai Association), and even on online forums have all contributed to my learning as well. I also have to give a shout-out to Rob Hoffman of Yume-en Bonsai in Columbus, as he started Columbus’s first bonsai nursery right before I got here and has been an invaluable source of information, essential supplies, and community for myself and others. Likewise, I have to thank Mark Passerrello of Ancient Art Bonsai, who is the current Columbus Bonsai Society president, for all he does to keep the club together and help us maintain our local community, as well as for supplying us with affordable handmade bonsai pots! I also have to give a shoutout to Kevin Faris, who is my co-conspirator in starting the Ohio State University Bonsai Club and as he has also served as my co-host for the Bonsai Time Podcast and helped lighten the load on that project. Lastly, I owe thanks to all my landscaping clients who have entrusted me with their trees as well as thanks to those who have allowed me to explore their private land to scout for potential bonsai trees.
Pricing:
- Pricing for landscape tree pruning can be negotiated based on your needs.
- Bonsai seeds with my 5-year bonsai-growing guide start on my Etsy for $10.
- Next year I’ll be selling more of my trees once I am a licensed nursery next summer. Check my website or contact me for details!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.ry2tree2.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ry2tree2/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Ry2Tree2
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC08W2inLN9xOYmbhRluDPBg
- Other: www.bonsaitimepodcast.com also has its own instagram and facebook feed.
