The bonsai expert and nurseryman on his journey from writing speeches for Margaret Thatcher to demystifying the ancient art of sculpting live plants. Words Paula McWaters Portrait Richard Bloom
Peter Chan’s knowledge of bonsai is self-taught. “Many people, when they see a Chinese face, think ‘Oh, you must have learned the art of bonsai from your father or grandfather’. No way. I taught myself and everything I have learned has been through my own experimenting.”
Not that Peter keeps his 57 years of bonsai experience and expertise to himself. On the contrary, he runs Britain’s leading bonsai nursery, Herons, on a seven-acre site in Lingfield, Surrey, and shares his knowledge worldwide through his books, workshops and how-to videos.
“Creating and teaching are what I love. YouTube has been a revelation. I only started my channel four years ago and I have built up a following of more than 452,000,” he says. “I want to make bonsai simple. There should be no mystique.”
At 83, Peter is enjoying the increased attention that his videos have brought him. He says he is shy, but he is not afraid to promote his skills and he comes to life on camera, in a colourful Hawaiian shirt, demonstrating with great dexterity the shaping, pruning and wiring that is required to produce a fine bonsai specimen. “It is living sculpture with plants, and it’s so satisfying. You need patience and calmness. By doing it you learn to look, to appreciate the beauty.”
Bonsai is living sculpture with plants, and it’s so satisfying
Many of his students tell him how bonsai has helped them through trauma and difficulties. His own life has had its share of twists and turns, with fate leading him to move to the UK from India, where he was born and brought up, third generation Chinese. He had just finished a degree in electrical engineering at the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology when the Sino-Indian war broke out in 1962 and his family had to flee to evade internment by the Indian government.
“While most of my university contemporaries went to America, I came to England because my pen friend Dawn, who I’d been writing to since our teens, was here.”
Peter’s love of bonsai started four years later, when he and Dawn married and bought their first home, a flat in south London with a big balcony, where Peter’s desire to grow things and the necessity to raise them in pots coincided. He learned pottery at adult education classes and then “plucked a few seedlings, tried a few things and that’s how my knowledge of bonsai was built”.
The very first pot that he made is still proudly displayed in his studio. At this stage, it was still a hobby, albeit one he was passionate about. He joined then became chairman of the British Bonsai Association, and won 21 Gold RHS medals for bonsai exhibits, some as a solo amateur.
You need patience and calmness. By doing it you learn to look, to appreciate the beauty
Professionally, he worked ten years in the UK electrical supply industry and then later as a senior administrator and speech writer for the Department of Energy, occasionally penning speeches for Margaret Thatcher. “I thought that when I reached 55, I might ask for early retirement and start a little hobby business, nothing more than that.”
That all changed when the premises in Lingfield came up for sale in 1985 and he decided to wave goodbye to a steady job in the Civil Service and take a giant leap. “It was a big risk – we had two children by then – but I felt ready. I had built up a reputation for bonsai and a young bank manager who had faith in me was willing to grant me a loan, so the die was cast.”
As an engineer, Peter was used to problem-solving. “We had setbacks, but I always look for the positive. The site was semi-derelict and it was just Dawn and me working it, but even when the greenhouses blew down in the 1987 hurricane, I saw it as a chance to rebuild.”
I believe that knowledge is a human birth right. It should not be kept to yourself
With his initial stock of 300 bonsai larches – raised in the garden of their previous house – selling out within six months, Peter had to start growing on a much larger scale. He now employs eight full-time and two part-time staff and the nursery is filled with bench after bench of perfectly proportioned trees, ranging in price from £15, for a starter tree, to tens of thousands of pounds for a mature specimen.
In 1997, Peter and Dawn loaned 20 bonsai trees to RHS Garden Wisley, creating the Herons Bonsai Walk to give visitors a chance to get up close to bonsai and admire the skill with which it is created. Peter still regularly tends the display and he is delighted by how the appeal of bonsai has grown over the years. “Almost every country in the world has its own bonsai society now.”
Although Peter lost his wife Dawn to cancer six years ago, he intends to go on teaching bonsai for as long as he can. Keeping fit and healthy, he swing dances two or three times a week in a large studio at the nursery.
“I believe that knowledge is a human birth right. It should not be kept to yourself. I am still very happy doing what I do. At university I wanted to switch courses to architecture but they wouldn’t let me. But in a way I have come full circle because bonsai is so creative, I feel I have fulfilled my dream.”
Useful information
Address Herons Bonsai, Wiremill Lane, Newchapel, nr Lingfield, Surrey RH7 6HJ. Tel 01342 832657.
Open Wednesday – Saturday, 10am-4pm; Sundays 11am-4pm.
View Peter’s videos at youtube.com/@HeronsBonsaiUK