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Bonsai Bond

Finding true love, it’s often said, is a combination of luck and happy accident. If that’s the case, then the story of how Bob and Pam Hampel discovered their passion for bonsai is the textbook example that proves the theory true.

Their story goes like this, and like most of the tales the Hampels tell, they tell it together. “It was 25 years ago,” Pam begins.

“And I was lying in a hammock, relaxing on a Saturday afternoon and Pam said, ‘Let’s go to the state fair,’” Bob continues. The thought made him cringe because, he says, he would “rather run naked down main street than go to the fair.” But he could see Pam really wanted to go, so off they went.

They’d barely begun to stroll the fairgrounds when it started to rain. The Hampels took shelter in the horticulture building, where they stumbled upon an exhibit by the Minnesota Bonsai Society. They’d never thought much about bonsai trees before, but now they were captivated by the trees’ delicate beauty. “By the time it quit raining,” says Bob, “we’d signed up for workshops, and on the way home we stopped at a nursery to buy a couple of trees to start practicing on.”

Soon they’d acquired five or six trees, joined the Minnesota Bonsai Society, and began working diligently to learn the basics of bonsai. Nevertheless, only one tree survived the winter. A lucky thing, Bob says, or he and Pam might have decided to take up growing orchids instead.

More than two decades later, Bob is president of the Minnesota Bonsai Society. And the couple is hooked on bonsai—so much so that 15 years ago they bought their White Bear Lake home more for their growing collection of bonsai trees than for themselves. “We’ve never loved this house,” Pam says, waving her arm in the direction of the couple’s nondescript rambler. “But we knew this lot was perfect. So we bought the yard and the house just came with it.”

Working together for the past 15 years, the Hampels transformed their yard from a flat, acre-sized stretch of cornfield into an elaborate Japanese-style garden that shows off their collection of nearly 400 bonsai trees, many of them quite old—a few more than 400 years old. Bob built 90 individual sections of fence to enclose the garden, while both of them planted hardy tamaracks and ponderosa pines for their collection. The preliminaries taken care of, the couple started composing the meandering paths and individual planting beds that would contribute to the intimate feel they were after.

“We created the garden to frame the trees,” Pam explains. Bonsai specimens are often displayed in lines on benches, but the Hampels wanted to exhibit their trees in a more artistic and experiential way. “A lot of garden tours stop here,” Bob says. “We notice how people like to enjoy the whole atmosphere, not just walk in and look at the trees and walk out.”

One of the most popular spots for visitors to linger is the koi pond, which Bob dredged after excavating a bit too enthusiastically for some shrubs. He also built the graceful bridge arching over the pond, and then added a covered sitting area. Never one to waste good building materials, Bob made the seating area from boards recycled from the old deck he tore off the house when he built the current, more spacious, one.

Behind the pond, a steep hill dotted with low-growing plants, shrubs, and decorative rocks features a gently flowing waterfall that streams down into the pond below. “You’d never know it now,” says Pam, “but this hill used to be a big, ugly pile of sod we’d put here over the years as we tore up the yard to build the garden.”

Though they talk about cutting back on the number of trees in their garden, they find it hard to resist bringing more home, she says, likening the collecting of trees to needing to eat just one more potato chip. “That’s the nice thing about both of us doing bonsai together,” she says. “We like different things, so there is a lot more depth and variety to our collection.” Still, their dual hobby has its drawbacks. “We aren’t like normal people who go on vacation and see the sights,” she says. “We go on vacation to visit botanical gardens and nurseries, and bring back plants we can’t get here. And we never rent a car. We always get a van. Heaven forbid we wouldn’t have enough room to bring something back that we really wanted.”

Nor does every tree in the Hampels’ care thrive. “Oh, you know, you love your ugly children anyway,” says Pam. “But sometimes, for whatever reason, a tree just doesn’t do well, and we’ll give it away or let it be auctioned off at a bonsai society event only to find out that it did really great with someone else.”

Before going on display in the garden, young trees and those needing extra care are placed in a small growing area adjacent to the two-car garage the Hampels converted into a workshop and storage area for non-winter-hardy bonsai trees. “It’s a lot of work to carry all of the trees in here in the fall,” says Bob. “Some of the pots weigh around 100 pounds.”

A small room off the shed serves as Bob and Pam’s workshop where they can putter with their trees year round. “We really miss the garden in the winter,” says Pam. “All summer long, we pretty much come home from work, grab a quick bite, and then stay out in the yard working on the garden until it gets dark. We know we can’t do this forever. But we’ll do it as long as we’re physically able. It’s something we dearly love.”

Meleah Maynard is a Minneapolis freelance writer.

—M.M.