felton jones memorial page

The bonsai community in the United States suffered a great loss the night of August 19th, 2007, when artist, teacher and horticulturist, E. Felton Jones, died peacefully in his sleep at his home in Durham, North Carolina.

It was a quiet and dignified end to a lifetime lived by a remarkably quiet and unassuming 86-year old southern gentleman. E. Felton Jones spent the majority of his lifetime teaching and promoting the art of bonsai throughout America, and particularly the Southeastern US.

Even so, many who read this article will have little or no memory of Felton Jones, because in recent years his failing health prevented him from pursuing his great passion for teaching and promoting bonsai. For those who do remember, his dedication to the art would have to be described as nothing short of monumental.

Felton Jones was born on the 7th of January 1921 in Johnston County, North Carolina. He continued to live in the Durham area for the next 22 years and attended Duke University for a time, studying botany. During the early 1940s, Felton spent some time living and working in Florida. Following the end of WWII he returned to the Durham area to continue his senior year in botany at Duke. Then in 1950 he hitched a ride with a friend to Los Angeles. His plan had been to move to Hawaii to start a business venture with some friends from Florida. Instead, Felton spent most of the next decade living and working in the Los Angeles area.

It was there that he met and began to study bonsai with artist Frank Nagata. Mr. Nagata was one of the founders of the California Bonsai Society and operated a nursery and bonsai school in the LA area. Felton’s passion for the art was so great and his desire to learn so strong that, in 1955, Mr. Nagata arranged for him to study with another California bonsai artist, Mr. John Yoshio Naka, which Felton did until returning once again to North Carolina in 1960.

In November 1960 Felton returned to NC ready to share his skill and love of bonsai. It was in the Charlotte area that Felton and his bonsai were first "discovered" by the public shortly after he produced a small display of trees at a local garden center. A member of the Charlotte Ikebana Society saw his work and arranged for him to display his trees along with the Society’s ikebana arrangements at the 1964 Southern Spring Home and Garden Show. Several residents in the area, who had been quietly learning bonsai on their own, saw the five little trees and contacted Felton. They soon became students at his Little Pines Bonsai Nursery in Matthews. It was this small group of individuals which formed the Bonsai Society of the Carolinas with Felton serving as the new club’s first president.

By 1967 Felton was on the move again. This time to Atlanta, Georgia to design and supervise the installation of the Bonsai and Japanese Garden at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens. Felton also became a director of the American Bonsai Society and served in that post for more than nine years helping to shape the growth and popularity of bonsai at the national level. He was also a frequent contributor to The ABS Journal, the Society’s official publication.

In October 2001 Felton was honored officially during the Carolina Bonsai Expo in Asheville for his many contributions to the art and for his tireless efforts to promote bonsai throughout the Southeastern US. Although we are all saddened by Felton’s passing, it is well to remember that the legacy which he created will be with us for many, many years to come. Although we may not realize it, much of what we in the Southeast know and enjoy about bonsai today, was due in large part to the teachings and wisdom of E. Felton Jones. He is... as the old saying goes... gone... but not forgotten. Like the small trees which we have all come to love and treasure, Felton has taught us much about beauty, grace and patience and has asked very little of us in return. Rest in peace, sensei. We will not forget.

ABOUT THE PHOTO: The photo above shows Felton Jones on the occasion of his 80th birthday celebration. The photo was taken in October 2001 during the Annual Carolina Bonsai Expo which is held each year at the North Carolina Arboretum in Asheville. Mr. Jones was honored for his many contributions to the art and for his tireless efforts to promote bonsai throughout the southeast. Part of the fund raising efforts for the Arboretum's new Bonsai Exhibition Garden was obtained from the sale of a special, limited edition, bonsai container created by California bonsai artist and potter, Jim Barrett. Only ten containers were made and all were signed and numbered. One of them can be seen sitting on the table next to Felton. Each special pot contained Felton's personal "chop mark." Also in the photo is a semi-cascade style Pitch Pine which Felton collected in the Charlotte area many years ago. The tree is now a part of the Arboretum's collection as is the camphor wood stand on which it is sitting.

If you have some remembrance or comment you would like to make regarding Felton Jones, we would like to include them here. All you need to do is drop an e-mail to Randy Clark at randybonsai@carolina.rr.com and he will add them to this web page. We hope you will participate in this tribute to one of America's great bonsai teachers and will tell us a little about your personal knowledge of this special man.

In reflecting on the influence of Felton Jones on the bonsai program and the staff at The North Carolina Arboretum, terms such as selfless, visionary, mentor, and wisdom come immediately to mind. It was Felton who, out of his own resources, stepped forward to help us envision, design and ultimately to execute the creation of the Bonsai Exposition Garden here at the Arboretum. His generous gestures of support accompanied by a deep faith in the integrity of the bonsai mission here and by his affirming friendship with Curator Arthur Joura, became important drivers of our development process – both of the program and of the new garden.

Felton’s inspiration here, as in many other places, has opened yet another door of enjoyment of bonsai for hundreds of thousands of people and for future generations. On a personal level, I always enjoyed his earnest interest in our institutional development and his dry wit. Once, while Arthur and other colleagues were up to their elbows in a Saturday demonstration lecture before a large, casual audience at one of our Carolina Bonsai Expos, I was seated near the back next to Felton. He passed me a note that read “you’re not wearing a tie.” I wrote back and told him that I tried to borrow one from Arthur, but didn’t think he owned any ties. He flashed me that twinkle of the eye so characteristic of Felton and calmly turned his attention back to the demonstration.

Today, I am wearing a tie – the way he usually saw me at work. It has trains on it, with smoke coursing horizontally backward indicating the forward motion of the engine. That’s the way I think of Felton’s life – a man pursuing a consistent and focused course across the country and always demonstrating and nurturing forward progress. He knew who he was and what he was about – and he lived it out with his friends until his last day.

All of us who knew Felton here at The North Carolina Arboretum valued deeply his friendship and his passion for bonsai and for life. We will miss him very much, but we will recall with fondness his unique talents and inspiration as we pass the plants, the garden and the program he so graciously helped us build.

Felton was fond of telling me a story about one of his early teachers, who once said to him, "Felton, you are an old man, trapped in a young man's body!" I only ever knew Felton as an old man, but in those later years he made what must be seen as one of his most significant and lasting contributions to the world of bonsai. No one needed to tell Felton the importance of having public displays of quality bonsai as a vehicle for promoting public knowledge and appreciation of the art. Bonsai display was one of his great interests. It was no surprise, then, when Felton began advocating for a permanent bonsai display at the North Carolina Arboretum. What was surprising, astounding really, was when he showed up one day at the Arboretum pledging a substantial amount of money to start a fund to be used for building such a display. Felton was never wealthy. He lived modestly, humbly, and most people assumed that he had no money to speak of beyond what was needed for his simple means. The money he was offering to the Arboretum was nothing less than his life savings. This should tell you something you need to know about this remarkable man: Felton Jones' commitment to the art of bonsai was pure, his generosity was limited only by what he had to give.

The financial gift that Felton made in 1998 became the seed money for what would eventually become a $1.8 million capital project. The Arboretum's Bonsai Exhibition Garden took 5 years to design and nearly 2 years to construct, and all that time Felton was patiently waiting, prodding the process forward as best he was able whenever he felt it necessary. When the garden finally opened to the public in October of 2005, E. Felton Jones was there, as a guest of honor, to help cut the ribbon in the opening ceremony. He spent most of that evening in a wheelchair, his energy diminished by failing health. But as he surveyed the scene, taking in the sight of hundreds of people marveling at a beautiful new public bonsai display, built to last, built to bring bonsai to millions of people for years to come, he had tears in his eyes and that knowing smile on his face.

There is a plaque on the wall near the entrance to the Bonsai Exhibition Garden, acknowledging the contributions that made the garden possible. Up near the top it says this: "Inspired by the gifts and vision of E. Felton Jones, native son of North Carolina and the first great bonsai teacher in the American South." I see that plaque every day when I work in the garden. I see Felton Jones in the garden, and in the bonsai on display, and in the rapt faces of all the people who come to the garden and see real bonsai for the first time in their lives. Each life touches many others. I'm grateful that my life was touched by Felton Jones.

Susan Harris, Major Gifts Manager, The North Carolina Arboretum

I spent much of Monday feeling sadness and a deep sense of loss at Felton's passing.

Then, toward the end of the day, I walked through the Bonsai Garden he inspired at the Arboretum ... and realized he will always be there. "My favorite hilltop" was how he described it in a 2004 letter. His name and his story reside in the garden. His belongings and his spirit are knit into its plants, stones and earth. Indeed, my fondest memories of him are wrapped around the bonsai garden - as he patiently taught me about bonsai forms and the placement of stones, recounted detailed stories of his trees and pots, and lovingly remembered his students and his teachers.

Felton and I enjoyed the story of someone planting a few daffodils that, years later, covered an entire hillside with golden beauty. When a visitor admiringly asked how this magnificent planting occurred, the answer came: "A handful of bulbs and a little time!" To us, it seemed a lovely and apt metaphor for his gift to the Arboretum.

It was my privilege to know a little of E. Felton Jones' gentle journey on this earth. In his eighty-plus years, he planted "daffodils" in various ways ... and we are all better for it.

Chase Rosade , Bonsai Teacher & Grower, Rosade Bonsai Studio , New Hope, Pennsylvania

Knowing Felton was a joy. The only subject he talked about was how to grow bonsai, how to display and about his Bonsai friends, without ever saying an unkind word about any one.

I first met Felton in the 1960's at a bonsai meeting where he gave a demonstration. Our friendship grew since we talked the same language. Our discussions lasted most of the night. Sometimes it was at his place in Atlanta, behind the church, others at the house he bought allowing the weeds to grow high so strangers could not see his Bonsai. In his early trips to the Northeast in his old vehicles, I sometimes wondered if he would make it up the driveway with all he was carrying. His stays were always short, only a few days, never eating much and never wanting to go to bed. More than once I would remind Felton that the sun was coming up. He would leave saying he had others to see. Felton, as I remember, was never in a hurry and always had time to talk. He was a true Southern Bonsai Gentleman.

Ed Trout, Hialeah, Florida

I had the distinct pleasure of meeting Felton when he headlined a BSF convention years ago. I was fortunate enough to have breakfast one morning with him and Joe Samuels, and enjoyed their reminiscing about bonsai. It seemed to me that Joe and Felton were very similar in their attitudes toward bonsai, and the way they unselfishly shared their wonderful knowledge. My sincere condolences to his family, students, and friends.