Very few things get better with age. From movies and games to food and cars, time almost always makes things worse. Trees, however, do not follow this pattern. Trees can live for hundreds and thousands of years, sprawling into massive, beautiful structures in the wild. In a more controlled environment, however, they can evoke different imagery. Through a delicate and time-consuming effort, trees can become an art form. One of those artists can surprisingly be found within Sioux Falls, SD. Josh Plorde is an interventional radiologist at Avera and a father to two students at LHS, but in his free time, he parents a collection of roughly 50 bonsai trees.
It is a common misconception that bonsai trees are a breed of trees. Instead, bonsai, which literally translates to “planted in a container” in Chinese, refers to a way of growing trees. It is a meticulous process of pruning, grafting and wiring to shape the trees into a final picture. Plorde’s garden has a variety of coniferous and deciduous trees, including many different heights and ages.
Bonsai art is not common in South Dakota, and the spark had to come from an outside source. Plorde always had a fascination with bonsai, but it was when he took a trip to China during medical school that he saw how abundantly they were cultivated outside the U.S.
“People had these trees like at hotels and restaurants… And then when I came back to the States, I’m like what’s this going on? What’s the haps here?” said Plorde.
He had a deep appreciation for the art form and felt the need to start his own journey with the practice. At first, having lived in Seattle, he was not so alone in his bonsai journey, but moving to Sioux Falls brought new challenges.
“I don’t know anybody in this state other than one person that does this,” said Plorde. “If you lived in Southern California, Seattle, Pacific Northwest, it’s like every other person is jazzed about bonsai. Here, people think you’re a freak.”
Finding all kinds of supplies, from pots to fertilizer, can be much more difficult here in Sioux Falls than in the rest of the world. Plorde often has to get his seedlings and trees from garden nurseries, or at times by grafting off and separating parts of other trees. Additionally, weather complicates the trees’ life cycles, with the majority needing to be stored in a greenhouse through the winter months.
Learning can be just as difficult too. While most of Plorde’s work has been a solo venture, he does occasionally receive help. After a long course in California, Plorde now receives visits from a mentor every February to offer ideas and assistance for the garden. This time for touching up the trees results in their striking appearances come spring.
The hours of time spent carefully shaping trees result in powerful art that goes beyond just beauty. Some of Plorde’s work involves symbolism, such as cases where a tree splits into two and presents one branch “shielding” the other.
“It now has kind of this artistic form of a mother, daughter, father, son, a twin,” said Plorde.
Other cases involve intentionally overgrowing the base or roots of a tree despite the generally short height.
“It connotes a sense of age in a tree that’s maybe 12 inches tall and might be 50 years old,” said Plorde.
The pots paint part of the picture too, with many being of Chinese and Japanese origins. All of these pots can be deceivingly shallow.
“It looks more dramatic when you have this like little, big, powerful thing in this pot that’s not too deep,” said Plorde.
Some of Plorde’s trees are over 40 years old, dating as far back as when he just started out his career and lived back in Seattle. Spending about five hours a week for several straight decades has left Plorde nothing but pride and accomplishment. Some of his trees have sentimental value, while others are exquisite crafts of artistry. The end result is a passion project that doubles as an alluring display.
