The summer was weird here in New England this year. Record-breaking heat, high humidity, drought conditions offset by heavy rains, you name it. Biblical weather. Consequently the plant life has been somewhat skewed as well. Crabgrass in my neighborhood is rampant in ways no one can remember. And look at this skeletal rosebush in my yard. Some flourishing stems, some desiccated ones, a blossom here and there. Odd as it looks, I like it. There’s something Japanese about it, don't you think? Something that might be found on a kimono, a piece of silk or porcelain, instead of against a stucco wall in an autumn garden.
Very Japanese indeed. The art of Bonsai is stunting, pruning and starving plants so that their leaves, trunks and blossoms remain tiny -- oh, and twisting the shoots and limbs into unnatural shapes. The result of this unnatural process is a natural-looking tree which looks beautiful after years of tortuous constriction. Very Japanese.
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