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Jake Hobson is a European author who moved to Japan.\u00a0 Although now returned to his native England, he writes \u201cNiwaki: Pruning, Training and Shaping Trees the Japanese Way\u201d from his experience in Japan, including working at an Osaka nursery.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reliance on trees and plants is no different from most other gardening cultures in the world, climate permitting.\u00a0 What is<\/em> [author\u2019s emphasis] different, however, is how the trees look.\u201d\u00a0 These trees, or niwaki<\/em> in Japanese, are \u201cpruned to fit into the landscape of the garden in a way that is peculiar to Japan.\u201d<\/p>\n Hobson thinks these practices can be adapted for Western gardens, but counsels his readers to not slavishly follow Japanese plant selection.\u00a0 Instead, he urges the gardener to apply the Japanese level of intensity in the care of garden trees, using species that flourish locally.<\/p>\n The author summarizes this intensity as an effort to create a \u201ccharacter of maturity\u201d by \u201ctraining and pruning branches to give the impression that they are larger and older than they actually are.\u201d\u00a0 He then relates these practices to many of the Western traditions used on fruit trees to increase yields.\u00a0 This requires consistent and on-going pruning.<\/p>\n To illustrate these concepts, Hobson relies on mostly traditional Japanese garden trees but with some English examples.\u00a0 I came to the conclusion that this style might not suit everyone\u2019s taste, but this book gives you an in-depth introduction to the concepts and the process of niwaki<\/em>, and gave me a greater appreciation of this approach to gardening.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Excerpted from the Summer 2020 issue of the Arboretum Bulletin<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Jake Hobson is a European author who moved to Japan.\u00a0 Although now returned to his native England, he writes \u201cNiwaki: Pruning, Training and Shaping Trees the Japanese Way\u201d from his experience in Japan, including working at an Osaka nursery. \u201cThe reliance on trees and plants is no different from most other gardening cultures in the world, climate permitting.\u00a0 What is [author\u2019s emphasis] different, however, is how the trees look.\u201d\u00a0 These trees, or niwaki in Japanese, are \u201cpruned to fit into…<\/p>\n