Master gardener finds peace in meticulous care of bonsai trees

Roy Yamashiroya found a lifelong hobby after viewing a bonsai exhibit at Ala Moana Center more than 25 years ago. As he admired the intricate miniature plants, he knew he wanted to grow them.

Now, after much practice, the 83-year-old Salt Lake resident has a manicured yard featuring dozens of bonsai plants of varying sizes. He knows so much about the Japanese art of growing artificially dwarfed trees and shrubs that he teaches others how to do it. In Japanese he’s called a sensei.

“If you ask a sensei how to shape a plant, you’ll get five different answers,” said Yamashiroya, retired owner of a printing and publishing company. “We all have our own way of shaping plants.”

Yamashiroya said it takes a few years to learn the basics and a lifetime to perfect them. Most of his training has been at international workshops in China, Korea, Bangkok and Japan.

He finds the meticulous work required to shape his plants relaxing. Branches need to be restrained with wire, and plants need to be trimmed. Sometimes he uses the “root over rock” style: A tree is placed over a rock so the roots can travel down the rock and into a pot.

“You’d be surprised how time flies when you’re working on plants,” he said. “I get so involved. It takes my mind off everything. You forget all your troubles.”

To be successful in the art of bonsai, it’s crucial to learn about plants, from the root systems to pest control, said Yamashiroya, who became a master gardener after taking classes in the Oahu Master Gardener Program at the Urban Garden Center in Pearl City.

“You have to learn about the plant itself,” he said. “Environment has lots to do with what types of plants that you can cultivate in your yard.”

Plants are sometimes purchased for collections or passed on when someone dies or can no longer care for a plant. After the death of a fellow member, Yamashiroya inherited his oldest plant, a 100-year-old buttonwood tree, which is a native of Florida. “I’m the third owner,” he said. And he has a 60-year-old pohinahina plant. One of his favorites is his Surinam cherry tree, a variety commonly used for bonsai. “I like the flowers,” he said. “Hibiscus also makes a good bonsai.”

As a member of the Hawaii Bonsai Association, he learned how to properly care for his plants.

“They teach you and give you experience to help maintain plants,” he said. “If you do anything drastic to the plants, they will go into shock and die. I’ve learned from mistakes. There’s lots of variables. Plants are unforgiving.”

One of his biggest problems is that local resources are limited.

“We can’t dig up plants in the mountains and watershed areas on this island,” he said. “And on the neighbor islands there’s lots of conservation and historic sites. In the mainland they have deserts and forests where you can go dig up plants. Here we get cuttings and seeds or take plants that people don’t want.”

Gardening gives Yamashiroya and his wife, Jane, an 82-year-old retired schoolteacher, an opportunity to spend quality time together. Jane Yamashiroya enjoys creating bonsai and maintains the couple’s fruit trees, including their tangerine, Meyer lemon, calamansi, pomelo, lime and starfruit trees.

“The miniatures are more difficult to care for,” she said. “They need to be watered twice a day.”

The Yamashiroyas have two children, seven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Having the fruit trees has benefited the entire family because Jane Yamashiroya uses them regularly in her cooking.

“The grandchildren used to love to make lemonade with the lemons,” she said.

Jane Yamashiroya typically spends a couple hours a day in the garden, but there are days when it’s much longer than that. And she even creates her own ceramic plant pots.

“Sometimes I’m outside until it’s dark,” she said. “It’s so peaceful. I just lose track of time.”