By Kai Curry
NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY
As a young married man in Hong Kong, Robert Cho did what many enterprising young men do—he decided to open his own business. Cho looked around and noticed that, while they were privately popular, there wasn’t a lot of commercial distribution of bonsai. Cho jumped into the bonsai niche, and opened Asia Pacific Gardening, Inc. Soon, he was exporting to Europe. After moving to Washington state, he and his wife, Lily, who helps him, expanded their territory to the U.S.—today, mainly the western coast—though they will consider anywhere a bonsai enthusiast or nursery calls. With son Nolan and his wife, Cho operates a comfortably thriving bonsai business out of Kent. They teach classes, raise bonsai in the nursery, and even have a YouTube channel.
It’s not necessary to go big to be successful. That could be a double meaning, given the exquisitely miniature nature of bonsai. Perhaps Cho has learned from the trees themselves over the years that it’s most important to deliver quality over quantity. As long as it’s enough to look after the family, and share your love of bonsai with others, then what other need is there?
“We are not that busy but we make a good living,” Cho says.
Cho is not the largest seller of bonsai, but his bonsai are of high quality. A box of chocolate could cost you more and be quickly gone. Instead, you are getting a living plant that has been cultivated carefully for years.
“You are selling art,” Cho says. Nothing pleases him more than watching a client make a connection with a bonsai. The art of bonsai started in ancient China, and then was popularized in the West via Japan. While in some circles, the art of bonsai is closely guarded, Cho has no such reservations. He is happy to share his techniques and his know-how of bonsai with the Asian Weekly and our audience.
Now that summer is over and the temperatures start to drop, it’s time to think about how the changing season affects your bonsai.
It’s about temperature, lighting, and water. Whatever type of bonsai you have, keep it that way. If it’s an indoor bonsai, keep it inside. If it’s an outdoor bonsai, it should stay outdoors. Do not bring an outdoor bonsai inside for winter, Cho advises, as many mistakenly do.
“Each season has its own beauty,” he says. If you bring a winter bonsai, such as a local pine variety, inside, then you are not allowing it a natural cycle. It may last a little while, but eventually, that plant is likely to die. Likewise, a tropical or subtropical plant requires the same conditions as its origins. It needs humidity—the reason that Cho’s nursery has mainly gravel and dirt floors, not concrete. They need rather low, diffused light, which is why his nursery is covered with semi-opaque tarp.
One thing that Cho does warn against in winter, for outdoor bonsai, is watching the weather forecast for any sharp temperature drop. For the most part, your outdoor bonsai will be fine (provided you’ve got the right tree in the right environment in the first place). To protect the ceramic pot, and the plant’s roots, though, you may cover the potted area in soil for a couple of days when it gets very cold, and then return it to its usual situation. Cho and his family do this, bringing all of the outside bonsai under shelter temporarily when severe temperatures happen (if you see how many beautiful bonsai they have, you will realize what a task of love this is).
When Cho started his company, he was not a bonsai expert. Now, he is one of the best in the region, with several bonsai he has cared for in the collection at the Pacific Bonsai Museum in Federal Way. They are also the only bonsai nursery in the Pacific Northwest that houses tropical and subtropical bonsai, in addition to those they have that are suited to the local climate.
Cho, his wife, and his son nurture each bonsai, from the smallest to the largest, preparing some for commercial export and providing others to local individual customers. Cho also offers classes, both in his own front office area and in other venues. On the property at Asia Pacific Gardening Inc, along with a bounty of bonsai, you will find Asian-themed garden art, rock art, and the very friendly, resident cat. The whole family will be busy with various tasks around the facilities, from the bookkeeping that Lily does, to getting ready to film a YouTube video of one of their tiniest bonsai or teach a class on proper watering.
Speaking of watering, that bugaboo of gardeners everywhere, it may be that we are all worrying too much. Cho assures that, as long as you have your bonsai in the proper container—that is, with a drain hole—it is nearly impossible to overwater but it is possible to water incorrectly. “We always ask people: Do you water the plant?” Cho says. “The answer is always ‘yes.’” So then they ask, “How do you water the plant?” That’s where problems arise. Sometimes the owner waters just a corner, the center, or the top. It’s vital to keep the bonsai’s root system damp at all times—and to realize that the roots go all over. Cho is happy to help with questions and crises, particularly if the bonsai came from his nursery, though not exclusively. He keeps bonsai when patrons go on vacation, and he has a corner of the nursery reserved for “the hospital.”
Cho’s love of bonsai rubbed off on his son, Nolan, who decided to learn the craft after working as a manager in retail for over a decade. As a kid, Nolan would help his dad around the nursery, yet “the trees weren’t speaking to me at that time,” he says. Like many young kids, he just wanted to play video games. He taught himself photography and videography, which has come in handy with social media. Nolan wishes he had appreciated earlier what his dad built, yet through backpacking and hiking, he developed a love for nature. “This makes sense to me now.” Cho and Lily have another son, Vincent, who also works as a manager in the retail industry.
One of Cho’s favorite things is to take a plant that is not a bonsai and transform it into a bonsai. “You have to do art, with a story, from your heart,” Cho says of his approach to raising bonsai. While he does cherish a particularly beautiful cascading bonsai that he has been caretaking for many years, he does not have a preferred type of bonsai. “They are all my babies.”
For more information visit http://asiapacificgarden.com or go to social media i.e. www.youtube.com/@AsiaPacificGarden, facebook.com/asiapacificgardening.
Kai can be reached at newstips@nwasianweekly.com.
Leave a Reply