Watering 1 500 plants every morning can be quite a task.
But, if it’s a priceless collection of bonsais, carefully and painstakingly reared for more than 20 years, then it’s a task done with love and affection.
For Durban bonsai enthusiast Farouk Patel, this is part of his daily routine as he snips and shapes the bonsai trees and plants he has created in his back yard in Durban North.
Patel’s garden is a miniature plant world. Little trees and pretty blooming flowers peep out of small pots from almost every nook and cranny.
Bonsai is an ancient Japanese art form of growing trees in small pots or containers.
“I used to do some gardening with plants such as roses when I was little, but then I wanted to do something more challenging, and took up the art of bonsai in 1985,” said Patel.
I joked that my knowledge of bonsais also extended to as far back as the late 1980s, albeit mine was merely in front of the television set, watching the famed karate kid Daniel trying to dig up a treasured bonsai tree which his karate teacher Mr Miyagi had brought back from his home town of Okinawa in Japan and re-planted on the cliffs around the Devil’s Cauldron in Los Angeles.
The movie, joked Patel, did inspire many people to take an interest in bonsai trees.
Patel, who is also the chairman of the Durban Bonsai Society founded in 1965, has more than 1 500 bonsai plants in his yard, which include olives, figs, junipers and what he calls his “forte” in learning to bonsai, the Dalbergia.
In fact, he has one specimen in his collection which he claims the thousands of other Dalbergias were propagated from.
His knowledge of plants and trees in general is extensive and he can rattle off lists of names and their characteristics.
But, in the middle of his garden, Patel has one of the few baobab trees in the coastal region.
He estimates it to be between 45 to 50 years old, and is waiting for it to grow leaves in the coming month.
“These trees take a long time to seed, roughly when they are between 70 to 80 years old,” he said.
Such is his interest in the art form, that he has been across the country, picking up baobabs in Gauteng, and other trees from Ladysmith.
Patel said almost any tree can be “bonsaied”, but he said in choosing a tree you have to look for characteristics that would enhance it becoming a bonsai tree.
“It must show some character that you can work with and as a person you must have an idea of what you would like it to look like,” he said.
And, thereafter, well, it just takes more than a decade to create a tiny tree that grows in a pot.
He suggested for the Durban climate that figs, Dalbergias and olives worked well and there were rich rewards to be gained from being involved in bonsai.
“You become more patient and focused, it gives you something to look forward to. Taking up something like this can calm a person down, and that is good for your health,” said Patel. - The Independent on Saturday