Landscape architect and bonsai expert Veena Nanda spends most of her time in other people’s gardens or terraces. “I graduated in arts from MES College, but always loved to be amidst plants,” says Veena, who belongs to a family of coffee planters in Chikkamangaluru. “I enjoy working outdoors with greens instead of in air-conditioned interiors. I am under a roof only when I sleep,” quips Veena who has more than 500 bonsai plants displayed at her house in Indiranagar.
Celebrating 25 years in the field, Veena is amongst the few in the city who deals with greenscape and hardscape gardening (landscaping, bonsai and structural needs). She has grown at least 10,000 bonsais of more than 100 varieties of plants in shallow ceramic containers, drift wood, laterite stone and narrow pots. She will be holding a special workshop on bonsai for corporates next week.
Although Bengaluru has several bonsai circles, all sharing stories on their adventures with the miniature trees and shrubs, there are just a handful who offer professional classes and workshops. Veena has conducted 580 workshops in 25 years and has trained nearly 3,000 students in the art of bonsai.
The road to teaching was not easy, she says, as people were not willing to accept bonsai as an art. “Bonsai was never on the radar because of its small size and it was considered unlucky according to Vaasthu principles,” says Veena.
Showing several containers with their plants and explaining the reason for making them smaller, she says the science behind this art is simple. “It was considered an art to have plants grown small, owing to space problems. And not everyone has land for gardening,” says Veena about bonsai, which originated in China and later became popular as a Japanese art.
Demonstrating how the art involves handling the shoots to prune their excess growth and thereby controlling the root development, Veena says, “It is only for the initial trimming that we use scissors on the roots. After that they are firmly placed and tied in the container so they don’t fall off.”
The technique of dwarfing involves trimming the shoots only, she reiterates. Containing the shoots shrinks the roots naturally. This does not mean bonsai plants lack nutrients. “The healthy plants grow differently as they are patterned differently,” explains Veena.
For the growth medium, bonsai requires a mixture of soil, with spagnum moss (to trap moisture) along with peat (sticky soil for binding) coco-peat, vermicompost and sand. “Maintenance is minimal and they are hardy as they grow in good sunshine and enjoy longevity. The older they are, the costlier they get,” shares Veena, who has bonsai plants in the range of ₹3,000, to nearly a lakh (a bonsai of an old banyan tree).
Veena has grown every possible fruit, vegetable and tree in bonsai form.
After taking us around her floor and terrace gardens where banyan, guava, sapota, lemon, mango, tamarind, ficus, pomegranate, figs, karonda cherry, gooseberry amongst others are seen, she says, “We even have banana and coconut bonsai which is expected to yield fruit in five years.”
Even in the mid-1990s when Veena had just returned from Mumbai to settle down in Bengaluru, she was shocked to see people reject bonsai.
“I would get passionate and explain what bonsai was all about. So my workshops start with factual elaborations, followed by demonstrations and practical field lessons to nurture bonsai,” says Veena.
Veena was trained in bonsai in Mumbai by Jyothi and Nikhanj Parekh who were part of the Japan Bonsai Association in the 1980s. She bagged prizes in the Lalbagh Bonsai competition for five consecutive years from 1997 to 2002. She has also appeared in TV shows, demonstrating the contemporary Bonsai Mural art.
(This column features people who have exchanged their cubicles for the open fields)
