Quick Takes With: Jake Hobson

Today’s featured guest submitted the most succinct bio we’ve had the pleasure of receiving so far: “I studied sculpture / went to Japan / discovered gardens and tree pruning / founded Niwaki.”  To that we add: became a master of and missionary for cloud pruning (the art of Japanese topiary); introduced Japanese tools, including the iconic tripod ladder, to Western gardeners; and grew a brand that has, since its founding in 2007, become synonymous with Japanese craftsmanship and style.

Contrary to the Quick Takes spirit, we asked Jake Hobson to elaborate on his answer: “When I first got interested in shaping and pruning I was in Japan. I kept seeing these amazing trees that looked so different to ours, and it took me a while to realise that it wasn’t because they were different species, but because they’d been pruned that way. Pruned to look like trees! I think that’s a very Japanese thing, refining something natural, reducing it to its essence. Since then, my passion has grown beyond the conceptual, to the practical. I love the physical side of pruning, both the immediacy of clipping—being in the moment—and the longterm consequences of what a single decision or cut can do. Generally, I’m quite impatient, but when it comes to plants, I love the sense of time involved.”

Read on for Jake’s thoughts on good conifers versus bad conifers, his favorite and least favorite plants (both begin with “ph”), and more.

Photography by Jake Hobson, unless otherwise noted.

Your first garden memory:

Playing in the sandpit with a huge spade. I grew up in Hampshire [in the UK] and actually have more memories of the woods than the garden. Campfires. The smell of wild garlic amongst coppiced hazel. The dark stillness of ivy covered understory beneath beech and yews.

Garden-related book you return to time and again:

Woody Plants of Japan, published by Yama Kei. It’s in Japanese and lists every tree and shrub imaginable. Would make a good partner to The Hillier Manual of Trees and Shrubs.

Describe in three words your garden aesthetic.

Sculpture. Nature. Jaketure.

Plant that makes you swoon:

Anything laden with ripe fruit. Wineberries in particular, and figs.

Plant that makes you want to run the other way:

Red phormiums.

Favorite go-to plant:

Phillyrea latifolia. Left alone it makes the most beautiful small evergreen tree. Fiddled with, it’s brilliant for topiary, cloud pruning, and clipped shapes.

Hardest gardening lesson you’ve learned:

I’m still learning it: Soil prep really does matter.

Unpopular gardening opinion:

Conifers are great. Just get the right ones. We moved into a house that was called “Conifers.” I cut down all sorts of classic, ’70s style conifers and promptly replanted with all my favourites. Cryptomeria japonica, Pines thunbergii, Podocarpus macrophyllus—proper tree forms.

Gardening or design trend that needs to go:

The mess outside new housing developments. Photinias, phormiums, spirals, and worst of all, chestnut cleft fences.

Old wives’ tale gardening trick that actually works:

Burying a lock of your mother-in-law’s hair in the garden to get rid of bind weed. Joking. I don’t know any.

Favorite gardening hack:

I’m too old to like the work hack. But cuttings get me every time, especially ones that root in water in a jar on the windowsill. So incredibly satisfying.

Favorite way to bring the outdoors in.

Amateur ikebana using Kenzan and whatever’s looking good at the time.

Every garden needs a…

…place to pee. One of my regrets is living in a town garden surrounded and exposed, but the freedom of treating a garden as nature is something I yearn for.

Favorite hardscaping material:

Long narrow granite slabs.

Tool you can’t live without:

So many! My Niwaki Topiary Shears, if it’s only one.

Go-to gardening outfit:

I suppose if I got dressed specifically to garden, it would be a massive Niwaki plug: my Shigoto denim work shirt, sleeves rolled up, with Kojima Work Trousers and Blundstones or Birkies if it’s warm enough. And a hat. Lots of pockets, big and baggy for easy movement, and definitely no synthetics. But usually it’s just whatever I happen to be wearing. New and smart clothes don’t stay new or smart for long.

Favorite nursery, plant shop, or seed company:

Black Shed Flowers in Sherborne, mostly because of the lovely owners Helen and Paul.

On your wishlist:

More sheds, an orchard, and space for a bonfire.

Not-to-be-missed public garden/park/botanical garden:

Hard to list just one, but recent visits to Great Dixter have filled me with inspiration and determination. Also almost anywhere in Kyoto.

The REAL reason you garden:

I’m not really sure. I spend a lot of time thinking about man’s relationship with nature, and how that manifests itself in the garden. What’s natural and what’s manmade, and the sweet spot where the two meet. Maybe it’s that. But mostly I like climbing up ladders, cutting things down, tying things up, that sort of stuff.

Future projects?

There are  a few really exciting projects going on at Niwaki at the moment. The most imminent is the release of our new publication The Niwaki Field Report this autumn, a beautiful, well-written and thought provoking journal, produced in house and the first of what we hope will be a yearly thing. We have so much to say about gardens, Japan, craft, people and tools, that we wanted to share.

Thanks so much, Jake! (Follow him on Instagram @niwakijake.)

For our full archive of Quick Takes, go here.