Phil Tacktill

We could have spent all day there. We would have loved to lose ourselves in the yard, feeding the tame blue jays with peanuts from our hands. All around, everywhere we looked, there were more good trees. Large and small, countless species of trees in every stage of training; rambling through the yard, up the terrace, down the hill, along the house…. From the tokonoma display under the house eaves to the cactus garden in the lower yard, there were so many trees. As well as cactus, grass, orchids, succulents, and rocks. Ever so many rocks. We had a very enjoyable day at the home of Phil and Janet.

 

 
 

Phil began giving bonsai classes five decades ago. He was in New York, dabbling in bonsai for his own pleasure, and he was asked to give a bonsai class. Which he agreed to, if there were at least ten students. The ten students showed up, and he held the class in his basement. That was the start of a long career, and Phil is still teaching and educating. He taped a video class that is still in use in the New York area today. He was a very active member of the Bonsai Society of Greater New York.  But his pride and joy was the nursery he started in New York, Juisan Bonsai Nursery, which is still in existence today. Phil says that when his passion for bonsai and his interest in providing his students with pre-bonsai outgrew his home, he began to rent a small space from Sterns Pickle Products. It was an indoor space, and Phil had to learn how to keep the bonsai alive and well indoors. He was able to keep both tropicals and non-tropicals in good health, and he remembers refusing to sell trees to people who couldn’t give them the right environment. One man in particular stood out in his mind. The man came in, wanting a pine for his home. When Phil heard this, he questioned the man, who compared buying the pine to buying a flower arrangement. “When it dies, I’ll throw it away,” the man told Phil. Who firmly refused to sell him the tree.

Juisan Bonsai Nursery was based on Phil’s interest in growing shaped pre-bonsai in small containers, rather than letting the root balls grow too large. He could grow a nice fifteen inch maple in a four inch pot, ready for a forest planting or to be potted on into a single bonsai. Eventually, the nursery built a greenhouse for tropicals and semi-tropicals, and a cold house for trees needing the cold. He particularly loved picea, which is wonderful for both tray landscape plantings and for larger bonsai. 

Yuji Yoshimura was his teacher, and a major influence on him, and he speaks of Yuji with reverence and love.

 
Now Phil and Janet live in Southern California, and in discussing the differences in bonsai on each coast, Phil points primarily to the water. Our water here is very alkaline, whereas on the East Coast it is more acidic. He also mourns the fact that some trees, such as Japanese Maples, are difficult to grow here. However, that is made up in some degree by the simplicity of being able to leave the bonsai, even the ficus, out all year around. He showed us a ficus “burt-davyii” that he had brought with him, with wonderful aerial roots. (photo below) Collecting yard trees is a passion for him, and he must have very good luck with it, because there were many lovely stumps and trees under development! 

Phil has a tree in the National Arboretum, a Birds Nest Spruce (picea abies) forest planting, with a small azalea on the forest floor. Six of his trees have also been pictured in Japanese publications. Twice, he was on the television show “Green Thumb”, among his many accomplishments.

 
One of the most interesting aspects of speaking with Phil is his interest in all of the related disciplines… bonsai, saikei, penjing, hon non bo, he emphasizes that all of them give us opportunities to learn. Opening your mind to the creativity and the possibilities inherent in each of these disciplines is a theme that Phil is adamant about. He even has cactus and succulents in bonsai forms! To speak to Phil about widening your horizons, is to come home looking at your trees differently. His lifelong interest  and intense knowledge give him the ability to discuss every aspect of bonsai and horticulture with ease. He is a natural teacher, one who inspires and encourages.

We plan to return again to Phil and Janets, to delve deeper into their bonsai and their interests. Janet does very small plantings, both bonsai and accent types. We hardly scratched the surface of her corner of the yard, with tiny pots buried in sand trays, each one containing a fascinating little jewel.

And we’ll be bringing peanuts for the Stellar Jays, too.

(every effort has been made to assure that the information here is correct, but any error is entirely mine- Joanie Berkwitz)