Pasiminan
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For those who remember the Ranch Nursery, or even before that, Croton Hill Farms, we’re back… After a brief hiatus of fifteen years or so, Clif Pottberg has opened his nursery again. Material has continued growing and developing its potential through the years, though, from shohin to huge sizes.
Clif Pottberg started in bonsai in 1965. By 1971 he had started teaching basic classes in the Baltimore area. That same year Clif began Croton Hill Farms, a Baltimore based bonsai nursery which was subsequently renamed as Modern Plant Technology. He studied at first with E. Felton Jones and subsequently with John Y. Naka. He taught bonsai throughout the Baltimore-Washington area at community colleges, the American Horticultural Society and the Smithsonian Institution’s Resident Associates program, while touring occasionally on the bonsai circuit as time would allow.
During this time he held numerous Bonsai administrative positions. Clif was a founder and past president of the Baltimore Bonsai Club in 1971. He has been VP of the American Bonsai Society, a founder and president of the Potomac Bonsai Association several times starting in 1972; the Annapolis Bonsai Club, the Washington Bonsai Club, and the Gulf Coast Bonsai Society after moving to Florida in 1981. At that time Clif began “The Ranch Nursery” a wholesale bonsai nursery and wholesale general landscaping nursery. In 1983 he began RN Products, selling wholesale bonsai supplies nationwide as some will remember. In 1992, Clif had to cease operations due to time constraints and other business ventures. Now he has re-commenced the series of occasional weekend retreats which was begun over twenty years ago.
The nursery is shaping up nicely, finally, too…
and the bonsai and bonsai area, long neglected, are coming back into shape…
So, we’re getting there!
There’s still a long way to go, but we’ll share our progress (and I’m sure some mistakes) with you. In general, we will usually be open on the second Sunday of the month, and the last weekend of the month, but it’s still best to call ahead. Of course appointments at other times are welcomed also. We hope that the nursery and activities that we plan will bring new relations between the clubs in the area and the participants as well. We’ve called the nursery Bonsai! at Pasiminan because of the numerous other activities to which the farm is also devoted: drum circles, occasional tai chi and yoga workshops, raku firing workshops, and rainbow and other spirit gatherings. *Pasiminan, pronounced Pass-sim’ in-on, is an old Cree Indian term for what we call the persimmon. We have a small grove of persimmons and they grow wildly well here. We love them and Possums love them (the direct meaning of the term pasiminan: possum fruit), and our farm historically was called Possum Run. Since the possum was constantly dying (playing possum) and being “resurrected”, most native Americans thought of the possum (the “white beast”) as a messenger of God. Thus, especially because the persimmon is sooo sweet, the term could also be interpreted as “fruit of the gods.” Interestingly, the term Linnaeus gave to the persimmon, Diospyros, means the same thing.
Far be it from us to imply that our bonsai activities might also warrant the moniker for the same reason, but it does bring to mind a ditty that hung on my grandmother’s wall until her death at the age of 101: The kiss of the sun for pardon,
The song of the birds for mirth, One is nearer God’s heart in a garden, Than anywhere else on earth. |
