An interview with Gerry Farrell

After decades in the art world, former dealer Gerry Farrell has traded galleries for gardens, devoting his retirement to the practice of bonsai. What started with a single gifted tree has grown into a collection of more than 200. We spoke with Gerry about how he fell in love with bonsai, what it’s taught him, and why “a tree in a pot” can reshape the way we think about time, patience and care.

Interviewer: So firstly, what is bonsai?

Gerry: Bonsai means “tree in a pot.” It’s that simple. And they are normal trees, completely normal trees. It doesn’t mean any sort of strange tree. I have trees that I’ve dug up from all around England, and I have trees I import from all over the world. But they are completely normal trees. Some are outdoor, some indoor. I mainly do outdoor ones. I’m not an expert, but I am an enthusiast. I love doing it, and I quite often do it wrong. And I think probably for a bonsai enthusiast, they’re not quite as perfect as they would like some of the shapes and things to be. But overall, it’s just really good for the soul, mind, everything. Heaven.

Interviewer: Was there a mentor or teacher who shaped your early understanding of bonsai?

Gerry: Mainly Mr Interweb. (laughs) But I have dealt a lot with a man called Peter Chan, who has a great bonsai nursery and is an expert, and who also has a huge YouTube following now, down in Lingfield, Surrey. He’s been enormously helpful. And then I’ve made friends along the way, fellow enthusiasts. I go to lots of bonsai shows and chat about things there with people.
But mainly, no, it’s mainly books. I’m an avid reader of everything, and I have a massive bonsai library. Mainly repeating the same things (laughs) again and again. But I do find them useful. That’s kind of how I learn. And I learn through experience. I’ve learned to embrace the sad death of a tree as much as when one works, because it happens quite a lot. But that’s a planting opportunity, you know.

Interviewer: What was your first bonsai, and do you still have it?

Gerry: I do still have it. It’s just over there. My sons gave it to me. Oh dear, it must be, God, 15 years ago, I suppose. And it was from Peter Chan down in Lingfield. I don’t know how they found him. It was an Ilex, and it was a tiny little tree. It’s quite big now, in a pot, still alive, and that got me excited. But I’d always loved bonsai. In my previous life, I worked for my father in a gallery called Christie’s Contemporary Art, and we opened a gallery in Japan when I was 20, so 50 years ago. I used to go there quite a lot, and I used to visit bonsai nurseries. That’s when I began to love Japan and the whole of the East and become fascinated by it. So I’ve always adored them. And then when they gave me the tree, it made me think, “I’d like to do that.” And I got a couple, and I got more, and now I’ve got over 200. It’s an obsession, you know.

Interviewer: Whereabouts in Japan was the gallery?

Gerry: We had it just opposite the royal palace in Akasaka, Minato-ku. It was really good fun, and it went incredibly well. We were there in the boom time and, you know, we were selling original prints and it went really well. Then the Japanese economy just went haywire and people started buying huge things, and we started selling things for huge sums of money, we even sold them water lilies. I mean, you know, unbelievable. And then the crash happened and it all disappeared. The gallery closed, very sadly. But I remained friends with all the people I met out there. I used to go and visit them quite a lot. Loyal, lovely people.

Interviewer: Is your oldest bonsai your first bonsai?

Gerry: No. My oldest bonsai is behind me up there. It’s a juniper that I bought, imported from Japan. It’s more than 80 years old and less than 120, so somewhere between those two. And it’s a beauty.

Interviewer: Was there a particular tree or moment that really hooked you? The first one your sons gave you?

Gerry: That one, yes, that one certainly helped. But I think… no, not a particular one.
I adore little forests of trees, and ones that I’ve not grown from seed. Ones I’ve grown from a cutting, or started with something quite small and they’ve just become right. And also my first azaleas. They look quite normal when you buy them, and then when they flower….unbelievable. You have pink, red, white, yellow flowers all on the same tree. In the spring I adore that.

Interviewer: Do you see bonsai as an art form, a craft, or a collaboration with nature?

Gerry: I would think a combination of all. Certainly the collaboration with nature. In Japanese it’s wu wei, which means effortless harmony. And it’s dealing with the tree and with nature in a way that helps you and the tree. I try, when I’m cultivating a tree, to go the way that the tree tells me it wants to go. So I don’t do massive wiring and things, which some people do to make shapes that they particularly like. I try to go with it. And I think that’s really good for the brain, the soul, all those things. So yeah, a combination of all three.

Interviewer: And what tools or materials are essential for your process?

Gerry: I love Japanese tools, so I have far too many pairs of beautiful little scissors I could show you, and snips, and chopsticks to dig at the earth. But at the same time, a perfectly normal pair of scissors or a cheap pair of secateurs are just as useful. But again, that’s part of the obsession. My other obsession is tea. Green tea, white tea and yellow tea. So I spend hours making peculiar teas and snipping away with various tools. The most vital are the snippers, ones to cut the roots. And the pots, of course. The bonsai pots are a great side of it.

Interviewer: What happens when a tree doesn’t survive or doesn’t develop as you planned?

Gerry: I used to find when you’ve only got 10 trees and one dies, it’s really upsetting. But now I’ve got quite a lot, and my garden is full… It’s not that I like a death, but I’ve learned to go with it, and it’s part of the whole wabi-sabi thing. Trees die. That’s part of the process. And for me, it’s a planting opportunity. I can buy another one. And Mrs Farrell is very understanding. (laughs)

Interviewer: Can you tell when a tree is young that it will make a good bonsai?

Gerry: Yes, I’ve learned that. I quite often visit friends in the country and I’m wandering around their gardens and I’ll see some tiny thing sprouting and think, “Ooh, that’d be good.” And I dig it up. There’s a privet I’m really happy with, there was a gnarled root in somebody’s garden and I dug it up and trimmed it round, and it’s become the most beautiful shape. So yeah, that’s satisfying.

Interviewer: Bonsai has deep roots in Japanese and Chinese traditions. How do you navigate the cultural aspects and personal interpretation?

Gerry: It started for me with the Japanese side. My Japanese friends were really helpful, and the nurseries were always… not friendly exactly, because that’s not so much the Japanese way, but they were helpful. I spent hours with those people looking at things before I’d even owned a bonsai, and I guess they got used to the weirdo turning up. (laughs) I read a lot about China and Japan. I read Japanese novels, from Murakami to less well-known people. I’ve just finished Michael Wood’s book on China. I’m a sort of Sinophile, Japanophile, whatever they are.
So I kind of see them in the same way, even though I know the whole China–Japan interaction over the centuries is very complicated. But I kind of take the best from both.

Interviewer: Do you ever exhibit or photograph your bonsai? Do you share them, or are they quite personal?

Gerry: I put them on Instagram, on my TinyTreeMan. But I’m not very good at that.
I’ve shown a tree once at a Wisley bonsai show. But one of the reasons I retired from the art world was I couldn’t take the stress of it all. And even the simple stress of people wondering whether my tree’s good enough. I just went, “No, no, that’s not for me. I’ll stay at home with the garden.”

Interviewer: And then I guess it becomes more of a job and less of a hobby as well.

Gerry: Exactly. Exactly.

Interviewer: Has your relationship with nature changed a lot since you started practicing bonsai?

Gerry: No, I’ve always… As a child I was a mad keen birdwatcher, and I still am, but I just don’t get away very much. I’ve always loved nature in all its forms. I’ve done gardening, had a little house in the country. I adore our relationship with it and relish it, and pray it isn’t ruined by us.

Interviewer: How do you see the future of bonsai evolving?

Gerry: I think it’s becoming more and more popular, just looking on the internet. Certainly my friend Peter Chan in Lingfield, who has the nursery, and another lovely nursery I work with in North London called Miyagi Bonsai, are really busy and getting busier. And they’ve got more expensive…..much more expensive. I had a friend come round who knows about prices and he looked at my trees and I can’t believe what some of them are worth now. I’m quite glad I don’t need security. It’s quite hard to get in here.
But yes, more and more popular. The difficulty is that a lot of people buy bonsais at nurseries thinking they’re easy to look after, but they’re basically trees, and they live outside. Even the “indoor” ones don’t really work. So it’s not easy.

Interviewer: What lessons do you think bonsai teaches beyond horticulture. About time, humanity, patience, humility?

Gerry: I think all those, all the Tao virtues of stillness, quiet, acceptance of circumstances. If you have anxiety problems, all those things.
It’s that thing of being close to a growing thing and feeling that you’re helping it. It’s a strange relationship, but unbelievably beneficial.

Interviewer: What advice would you give someone starting out with bonsai?

Gerry: If you can, if you have a balcony or any outside space, it’s much, much easier to keep a bonsai alive and happy outdoors. It’s basically a tree, okay? Trees don’t live in your house.
Indoor ones live, but they’re not nearly as satisfying and it’s much harder. Central heating and all that. It’s just not the environment for a tree. So if you can, get an outdoor one. Start with something small, just a perfectly normal little beech tree or a little oak. They work incredibly well. It’s just teasing around a little pot, playing with the soil, playing with the leaves. Getting into that tiny space is unbelievably good for you. I recommend it highly.

Interviewer: And lastly, any misconceptions about bonsai that you think people hold?

Gerry: Just that you can buy a bonsai easily in a shop and it’ll live in your house. It won’t.
But at the same time, they’re not complicated. And bonsai doesn’t mean some strange tree, it’s just a normal tree. It’s no different from other gardening, it’s just smaller. And I just can’t tell you how much pleasure it’ll give you. From one tree to millions of them. It is heaven.