With the quickly impending springtime, Hugh and Jarryd share the work they have been cramming into the season. With the bustle of client work, the time for personal projects gets tucked into contemplative midnight dates in the freezing Winter weather. Further growing their artist's statements, they weigh up what it would mean to operate on a more focused line of work, returning to an emphasis on local trees and aesthetics. In understanding the lifetime it takes to create a body of work, they discuss the need for an intergenerational duty of care for trees both old and new. 

In this guest episode, Will Fletcher sits down with Jarryd and Hugh to share his long history of working with Tasmanian native trees for bonsai. As a major contributor to Australian bonsai, Will's nurseries Plants of Tasmania and later Island Bonsai, broke ground in determining which local tree species are reliable staples for bonsai cultivation. 

This week, we are in real-time as Jarryd and Hugh share life updates before Jarryd heads off the grid for an extended boating expedition. They talk about working landscape trees, approaching gardening through the lens of a bonsai education, and drawing out the design process. They share their experiences of how to teach beginners and some inside thoughts on running a collection versus a garden that vends. Lastly, they wrap it up with Hugh’s recent visit to Brisbane for the AABC National Bonsai Convention. 

Finishing their action-packed reflection on the month of April, Hugh and Jarryd pick back up after the Bonsai Open and the tree sale hosted at TreeMakers with field-grown trees from Jarryd's adolescence. They then dive deep into their annual epic autumn hike to see the changing colour of the Fagus somewhere in the wilderness of Tassie. Filled with side quests and rambles a plenty, the two praise their time in nature honouring some of Australia's most ancient trees despite all the strife and hardship of snow, rain, and cold. 

Jarryd and Hugh interview Australian bonsai legend Ric Roberts, who is now 88 and likely practicing bonsai for over 60 years. Ric shares stories from his long practice since the 1960s and his role in the ever-evolving bonsai culture in the Sydney region. Ric is now creating a garden on the Central Coast called Unryu-En. Here he is building a space to share and preserve the legacy of his collection. Supporter Jason Pomfret also joins in as he helps to usher in the new era of Ric's work through Unryu-En.

At Jarryd's house in Tasmania, Jarryd and Hugh are no longer in the podcast recording time machine - we are all caught up to the present day with reflections on the recent Bonsai Open in the Central Coast! 

After sharing a haunted American hotel experience, Jarryd and Hugh drift into conversations about tree tourism in the US, New Zealand, and Chile. Coming to the end of the hot summer, they reflect on a work-life balance... that is more asymmetrical than symmetric. They share a beckoning to nature through camping, campfires, and the idea of genetic memory from ancestry being tied to geography. 

As Jarryd and Hugh end the growth season in late January 2024, they talk about geographic flora boundaries and the vast physical differences between Southern and Northern hemisphere species affecting the approach to bonsai worldwide. Digging into native Australian species, broadleaf-evergreen physiology is explored, and the validity of shrubs in the bonsai form.  

It's December 31 of 2023 and Hugh and Jarryd reflect on their year and share future aspirations for their bonsai, hikes, garden design, and overall business approach as two professional bonsai practitioners. As with any art form that becomes employment, they struggle with the fine line between delivering their art, but also the commodifying and consumer end of the work. Coffee and beer usher in the new year!