Daiju-en Bonsai Garden

We took the bullet train from Kyoto to Nagoya where we boarded our private bus for the day. First stop was Daiju-en Bonsai Garden of Toru Suzuki, third generation proprietor of the garden. I was fortunate to have known all three artists beginning with Saichi Suzuki over 35 years ago. Mr. Suzuki lived near a temple in Okazaki where a special cultivar of Japanese wisteria was growing. It had individual beautiful purple flower racemes, which can reach a length of SIX feet! Really. My chopstick size cutting gift from Mr. Suzuki is now thicker than me covering my “great wall” bonsai display. So far I’ve only been able to grow ONE flower to 56 inches, but I’m really not a size queen and truly appreciate those flowers of any length. He was one of the pioneers of pine bonsai and is most well known for the introduction…