Scenes from Nature’s Way Nursery
Spend a few hours with Jim Doyle, owner of Nature’s Way Nursery in Linglestown, and you may find yourself looking at trees in a whole new way.
Not just as something that provides shade, cooling and refreshing you on the hottest summer day. Not just breaking up the monotony of buildings and blacktop, or absorbing water falling from the sky or rushing across the ground.
Beyond all this functionality, every tree has a design. Most of us may not even notice it, or if we do, we are content to let nature shape the design, what the sculpture will become. We are onlookers.
For 51 years and counting, Doyle has been an active participant in the sculpting of trees—the ancient art form known as Bonsai.
Bonsai done right means that the intervention of man—or woman—is not apparent in the sculpting of the tree.
Now 72, Doyle was a dancer for 30 years. That experience shapes what Doyle sees when he considers a tree—in its simplest terms, the trunk as the torso of a body, the branchings as the arms and legs.
Most works of art—a painting, for example—have a start and finish. At some point, the artist puts down his or her brush and says, “That’s it.”
Jim Doyle with his son, Max Doyle
Not so with Bonsai.
“Bonsai is never done. It’s a living art; it is continually growing,” Doyle said. “It’s the only living art that I know of that is continually growing.”
Bonsai does not end, even when a tree dies. The lessons learned are passed on.
“I’ve killed a lot of trees,” Doyle said. “I’ve always said that, through death, there is knowledge. Each time a tree dies, I hope to learn something so I keep the next tree alive.”
Bonsai started as a hobby for Doyle. It then became a passion, one from which he has made his living.
He tells his wife Libby he is going to work, when actually he’s going to play. Bonsai keeps him active, mentally, physically and creatively.
“When something is bothering me, I escape in a tree,” he said.
He’s also very good at it. Doyle is sought after to give presentations on Bonsai throughout the United States, Canada, Europe and elsewhere.
The soft-spoken Doyle isn’t one to sing his own praises. He’s needed a little coaxing at times, such as when Libby—a lecturer in her own right as a distinguished professor at Penn State—invited him to accompany her while she was teaching at universities in Ireland and in New Zealand.
“Before I knew it, I had a little tour in Ireland and a little tour in New Zealand,” he said. “It was a great experience, and they threatened to have me back, so I guess I did something OK.”
Jim’s daughter, Nell Leaman
Never Stops
Before Doyle could teach Bonsai, he had to learn it.
First exposed to the art at Longwood Gardens in 1973, Doyle sought out Chase Rosade, who had a Bonsai nursery in New Hope and became his mentor.
Rosade let Doyle shadow him as he worked on trees. One was a 50-year-old Japanese maple—2½ feet tall.
Later that day, a college classmate taught Doyle tree climbing. Seventy feet above ground in another 50-year-old maple, Doyle had an epiphany: the proportionality, movement and branching of the two trees were the same. The only difference was their size.
By then, Doyle and a partner had started Nature’s Way. The name comes from the 1970 song by the rock band, Spirit.
Horticulture degree in hand, Doyle spent his first year in business living in a tent with his dog, Life, clearing land to plant trees and shrubs for his nursery.
His passion took him to China, where the art started about 2,000 years ago, then to Japan, where Bonsai migrated from Korea about 800 years ago.
Doyle has had an enduring fascination with Japan, visiting the country about 15 times since 1984 to attend the world-renowned Kokufu-ten Bonsai exhibition, held annually in Tokyo.
His most recent pilgrimage to Japan was in February, accompanied by his son, Max, who lives in Alaska.
Doyle and another Bonsai enthusiast started Susquehanna Bonsai Club in 1980. The club grew to 200 members before spawning other clubs throughout the midstate.
Interest in Bonsai grew “tremendously” following the 1984 movie, “Karate Kid,” Doyle said.
Bonsai also became more popular during the COVID-19 pandemic. People trapped inside needed a new hobby. With Zoom, they could learn Bonsai from Doyle and other experts without leaving home.
These days, Doyle is back doing in-person instruction at Nature’s Way and elsewhere. If you see a class you like, Doyle suggests you sign up early as classes fill up fast, testimony to Bonsai’s popularity in the Harrisburg area.
Doyle is also excited about the region hosting the Mid-Atlantic Bonsai Society Show April 19 to 21 at the Holiday Inn Harrisburg-Hershey in Grantville.
Doyle isn’t among featured presenters, but he will be there soaking up knowledge. At 72 years young, the learning never stops.
Nature’s Way Nursery is located at 1451 Pleasant Hill Rd., Harrisburg (Linglestown). For more information and to sign up for Bonsai classes, visit www.natureswaybonsai.com.
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