Axel Erlandson and his unusual trees. Living trees tied in knots in the lost circus Axel Erlandson trees
Axel Erlandson, born 1884. He was the son of Swedish immigrants who settled in Canada and lived by growing legumes and grains.
They say that this particular activity, or more precisely, the bizarre appearance of intertwining flexible stems, inspired Erlandson to experiment with trees.
Footage from the early years of the Arbor Circus from the Erlandsons' home archives (photo from arborsmith.com).
And indeed: if they can bend and weave herbaceous plants, then why not do the same with trees? In general, this idea seemed quite fascinating to him, and for many years Axel became interested in tests with trees, the trunks of which, during growth, with the help of special devices, assigned a variety of shapes.
Pioneer arbor sculptor Axel Erlandson under a tree with four trunks joining into one (photo from arborsmith.com).
For a very long time this remained one of his family's favorite hobbies - until his wife and daughter went on a trip in 1945, during which they realized that people were so attracted by the sight of all sorts of strange things that they were ready to give money just to just look at them.
Returning home, they immediately said that their bent trees could be a more profitable sight.
Axel was instantly fired up by this thought, bought a small plot of land in California and began to transplant the most best trees from his own garden - it would have taken a very long time to grow - and already in 1947 he opened this extraordinary garden for viewing. It was decided to choose an unusual title for it - “Tree Circus”.
At one point, arbor sculptor Dr. Chris Cattle was asked by students, “How can creative energy be contained in furniture?” And he answered them like this... (photo from the websites arborsmith.com and growingvillage.com).
Erlandson dedicated 40 years to this hobby – both the garden near the house and the Circus. He made simply outstanding statues from living trees. When they asked him how such masterpieces grew out of him, he often answered something like: “I just asked them for it.”
The use of arborsculptures can be found anywhere (photo from the website arborsmith.com).
But in 1963, Erlandson sold the Circus and died a year later.
The green statues were so delightful that they could not disappear. Soon the Circus had new owners - Larry and Peggy Thompson.
They decided that the place should be the same attraction as before, and changed it quite a bit: they gave it a new name - "Lost World" - and placed fiberglass dinosaurs that were supposed to attract attention to the amazing park .
Various armchairs, chairs, seats are a separate topic (photo from the website growingvillage.com).
But, unfortunately, Larry soon died, even before The Lost World opened to guests, and Peggy, who was left with 3 children, had to manage the park herself for a couple of years.
She succeeded in this for a couple of years, but soon she wanted to realize the park. The problem suddenly turned out to be that for some reason the client could not be found.
Ficus house on the Okinawa Peninsula. Obviously, it was built without any building materials (photo from the website arborsmith.com).
The park's biggest difficulties arose in 1984, when serious debate began about whether the area could be considered a historical monument. In a different way" To the Lost World"was threatened with destruction by bulldozers.
It’s impossible not to be taken aback by the elegance of some of the works (photo from the website growingvillage.com).
In 1985, Michael Bonfante, owner of the Nob Hill Foods grocery store chain, purchased and replanted several trees for his own amusement park in the Californian town of Gilroy.
On at the moment statues from trees, or arbor sculptures (from the Latin “arbor” - tree), are created, mainly, in the same ways that Axel Erlandson used.
For example, trees are bent, pruned, grafted, or combined several at a time during planting or by grafting.
Dancing men. It’s interesting what kind of monsters they will transform into when the tree grows in a couple of years (photo from the website growingvillage.com).
In some ways, arbor sculptures can be reminiscent of bonsai - due to the same methods, for example, twisting or pruning.
But if we continue to associate further, we can see that wood works have nothing in common with the art of artistic pruning of gardens, because pruning only shapes the foliage. And tree statues are, first of all, a change in the shape of the trunk.
At the moment, one of the most recognizable arborsculptors is Richard Reams. IN general outline, what he does is the same as what his predecessors did. Except that his designs look much more diverse.
Peace sign (“pacific”, in other words). According to arbor sculptor Richard Reams, this is the strangest statue he has ever been commissioned (photo from arborsmith.com).
The main idea that guides Richard goes something like this: “Imagine for yourself the world you would like to live in, and make it yourself.” This is how you get the most wonderful art surprises - right down to houses made of growing trees.
Therefore, arborsculptural compositions, rather, resemble a trellis - plantings, which, as a result of the same operations - merging, bending, pruning - are transformed into a continuous living tree lattice covered with foliage.
The most exciting thing is that tree compositions do not require any sophisticated tools or special technologies. And why the arborsculptural movement in art and design did not appear in ancient times - this question remains a mystery...
Finding yourself in a park where living trees grow into each other, tie themselves into knots and take on the most incredible shapes, and you will really think that you have found yourself in some kind of lost world. But there is nothing fantastic here - it’s just that artists have worked here and can do whatever they want with trees.
Axel Erlandson, born 1884. He was the son of Swedish immigrants to Canada and lived by growing legumes and grains.
They say that it was this activity, or more precisely, the intricate appearance of intertwining flexible stems, that inspired Erlandson to experiment with trees.
Footage of the first years of the "Tree Circus" from family archive Erlandsonov (photo from arborsmith.com).
Indeed: if herbaceous plants can bend and intertwine, then why not do the same with trees? In general, this idea seemed quite interesting to him, and for many years Axel became interested in experiments with trees, the trunks of which, during growth, with the help of special devices, gave the most different shapes.
Pioneer arbor sculptor Axel Erlandson under a tree whose four trunks merge into one (photo from arborsmith.com).
For a very long time this remained one of his family's favorite hobbies - until his wife and daughter went on a trip in 1945, during which they realized that people were so attracted to the sight of all sorts of oddities that they were ready to give money just to just look at them.
Upon returning home, they immediately said that their bent trees could be an equally profitable spectacle.
Axel was instantly inspired by this idea, bought a small area of land in California and began to transplant the best trees from his garden onto it - it would have taken too long to grow - and already in 1947 he opened this unusual garden for viewing. It was decided to choose a non-standard name for it - “Tree Circus”.
Arbor sculptor Dr. Chris Cattle was once asked by students, “How can creative energy be contained in furniture?” And he answered them like this... (photo from the sites arborsmith.com and growingvillage.com).
Erlandson devoted 40 years to this hobby - both the garden near his house and the Circus. He created simply outstanding sculptures from living trees. When asked how such masterpieces grew out of him, he often answered something like: “I just asked them to do it.”
Arbor sculptures can be used anywhere (photo from arborsmith.com).
But in 1963, Erlandson sold the Circus and died a year later.
The green sculptures were so delightful that they could not disappear. Soon the Circus had new owners - Larry and Peggy Thompson.
They decided that the place should be the same attraction as before, and changed it quite a bit: they gave it a new name - "Lost World" - and placed fiberglass dinosaurs that were supposed to attract attention to amazing park.
A variety of armchairs, chairs, and seats are a separate topic (photo from growingvillage.com).
But, unfortunately, Larry soon died, even before The Lost World opened to visitors, and Peggy, left with three children, had to manage the park herself for several years.
She managed this successfully for several years, but soon she wanted to sell the park. The problem suddenly turned out to be that for some reason the buyer could not be found.
Ficus house on the island of Okinawa. Of course, it was built without any building materials (photo from arborsmith.com).
The most major problems near the park appeared in 1984, when serious debate began about whether this territory could be considered a historical monument. Otherwise, the Lost World was in danger of being destroyed by bulldozers.
It is impossible not to be surprised by the elegance of some of the works (photo from growingvillage.com).
In 1985, Michael Bonfante, owner of the Nob Hill Foods grocery store chain, purchased and replanted several trees for his amusement park in Gilroy, California.
Now sculptures from trees, or arborsculptures (from the Latin “arbor” - tree), are created mainly by the same methods that Axel Erlandson used.
For example, trees are bent, pruned, grafted, several are combined at once during planting or by grafting.
Dancing men. I wonder what kind of monsters they will turn into when the tree grows in a few years (photo from growingvillage.com).
In some ways, arbor sculptures can be reminiscent of bonsai due to the same techniques, such as twisting or pruning.
But if you continue to compare, you will notice that wood works have nothing in common with the art of artistic pruning of gardens, because pruning only shapes the foliage. And sculptures from trees are, first of all, a change in the shape of the trunk.
Now one of the most famous arbor sculptors is Richard Reams. In general terms, what he does is the same as what his predecessors did. Except that his designs look much more diverse.
Peace symbol (“pacific”, in other words). According to arbor sculptor Richard Reams, this is the strangest sculpture he has ever been commissioned (photo from arborsmith.com).
The main idea that guides Richard goes something like this: “Imagine the world you would like to live in and make it yourself.” This is how you get the most delightful art surprises – right down to houses made from growing trees.
Therefore, arborsculptural compositions are more likely to resemble a trellis - plantings, which, as a result of the same operations - merging, bending, pruning - turn into a continuous living tree lattice covered with foliage.
The most interesting thing is that tree compositions do not require any sophisticated equipment or special technologies. And why didn’t the arborsculpture movement in art and design appear yet? ancient times– this question remains a mystery...
The more you look at the whimsical trees grown by Axel Erlandson, the more you admire his creations.
In the city of Gilroy, California, miracles are happening, but not culinary ones, although every corner is saturated with the smell of garlic. People in the self-proclaimed Garlic Capital of the World have long been accustomed to this. Other miracles growing from the earth stand out from the usual order of things, and hundreds of thousands of tourists come here, to the center of California, to see them, and these miracles are trees.
They decorate the entrance to the Bonfante Garden theme park. Ten living exhibits with lush spreading crowns, the sight of which will take your breath away in surprise.
One of the trees was nicknamed the Four-Ringed Tree for its pretzel-shaped trunk in the shape of two figure eights, one running lengthwise, the other across and intersecting in the middle. Another is the elegant Basket Tree, a sycamore tree slightly less than 15 meters high, the trunk of which is formed by six young trees intertwined with striking symmetry.
Collectively they are known as the “Circus Trees”, and an atmosphere of mystery and universal admiration reigns around them. Planted over 70 years ago by a farmer and surveyor Axel Erlandson on a dusty, windswept farm in California, today they serve as the centerpiece of a park owned by to the former owner supermarket chain to Michael Bonfante.
They amaze with their appearance, which contradicts all the laws of nature. Few people can say with certainty what methods they used. Erlandson, and no one has been able to replicate his creations on such a scale. And it is unlikely that it will ever succeed.
Erlandson He didn’t tell anyone how he managed to grow such trees. “He didn’t tell me or my mother anything. He was afraid that we would spill his secrets,” says his daughter, 73-year-old Wilma Erlandson. “And when children pestered him with questions, he answered: “I’m talking to them.”
The most amazing thing is that no one ever taught him this. Erlandson born in 1884, the son of Swedish immigrants. His parents settled in Minnesota when he was about two years old. He had an insatiable curiosity and was an unusually creative person, although he had only four years of education. “He published his poetry in the local newspaper, taught himself to play the violin and, while still a teenager, built a working model of a thresher,” says Mark Primack, author of an unpublished biography Erlandson.
Loop in a loop. - Eight is the magic number for this tree.
In 1902 Erlandson moved to California. It was there, while caring for the protective forest belt he had planted, that he noticed one amazing thing: if two branches of the same tree touch for a long time, they will eventually grow together. As an experiment, he planted four sycamore trees in a square at a distance of 180 centimeters from one another and, slightly bending them towards each other, he took and grafted the trees together. This is how the Four-Legged Giant was born, resembling a huge spider.
On this Erlandson did not stop, and by the mid-50s, having moved to Scotts Valley, he could already boast of 70 trees. Horticultural knowledge, the accuracy of a topographer and the creative energy of the artist made up that motley palette of skills that allowed him, by twisting, splitting and grafting trees, to make spirals, then hearts, or all sorts of other puzzling structures from them.
Each incision made for grafting Erlandson wrapped it with a cloth ribbon, hiding from prying eyes what and how he had conjured there. In addition, the wounds on the trees healed, leaving no trace of his manipulations.
However, with all his skill, the secret is far from exhausted by just one set of knowledge and tools. Just like people who are gifted with the ability to handle animals, says Bonfante, Erlandson had a special approach to trees. “They felt Axel’s soul and responded with the same love.”
In 1947, hoping to make some money from his passion, 63-year-old Erlandson opened on the way from Santa Cruz to San Francisco, where the traditional tourist route, an attraction called the Garden Circus. There were visitors, of course, but it didn’t cause much of a stir. By the time Erlandson sold his land in 1963, the circus had seen 24,361 people, earning its owner a "huge" profit of six thousand dollars.
A year later, Axel passed away, and the park was forgotten. Having lost the caring hands of the owner, most of the trees died.
Bonfante conceived his park in 1983. Having heard about the plight of the trees, he was inspired by the idea of breathing new life into them. “I knew enough about gardening to understand what this man had accomplished,” he says, “and I thought it was fantastic.”
A year later, he transported 25 surviving Axel trees to his park, 75 kilometers away, where for 15 years they, like dancing bears and trapeze artists, prepared for public appearance, the only difference being that they had domes above their heads there wasn't.
In the Bonfante Garden, more people saw Erlandson's trees in a week than in the entire 16 years of the Garden Circus' existence. But no matter how much they puzzle over how he managed this, they cannot find an answer to this question. Why myself Axel Erlandson I would be only too glad.
Sometimes, watching crookedly growing trees, it seems that there is nothing difficult to make them grow the way you want, but of course there is a limit to everything. But one person decided to go further and create absolutely fantastic designs from living trees...
Erlandson began his first experiments in 1919. Having spent his entire youth on a farm, he was always amazed by nature's ability to create complex designs from branches and stems. At first, he used common gardening methods of pruning and grafting shoots to “nudge” them to grow in the right direction. Some compositions were created by the fusion of two or more trunks pressed against each other, such as an elegant arched tree (also known as a “two-legged tree”). Over time, skill grew, new methods of work appeared.
He experimented with birch, ash, elm, weeping willows, creating loops, hearts, spiral staircases, zigzags, rings, bird cages, towers, photo frames, etc. from their trunks.
He soon realized that his trees were popular and decided to create the Tree Circus park.
Erlandson did not reveal the secret of his technology to anyone, carefully protecting the “recipe” for the grafting he gave to trees from spies
However, when they began to ask Axel about the secrets of his trees, he only laughed it off: “I just ask them about it.” The most favorite “pets” in Erlandson’s garden were plane trees - it turned out to be easy to work with them, giving shape at an early stage.
Soon after returning from a trip abroad, Axel Erlandson started thinking about creating a large garden museum. By 1947, he moved several dozen already grown compositions to the purchased plot in the town of Scotts Valley. Most of the exhibits were already several decades old by that time, and their creator was in no hurry to plant new ones, because there was practically no chance of finishing work on them. The museum was called the “Wood Circus” and immediately attracted crowds of curious tourists from all over the country.
Arbosculpture is a type of creativity that occupies for many years and requiring great sophistication, but it is surprisingly durable and harmless to both environment, and for the material. The trees do not experience any discomfort and continue to grow, even if they are “tied” in a knot.
The green crowns of Erlandson's living sculptures are the most the best for that proof.
After the death of the owner in 1964, they tried to make another tourist attraction out of the tree circus, called " Lost World" But plastic dinosaurs against the backdrop of unusual trees only irritated visitors, and the idea was soon forgotten. The living sculptures themselves continue to stand, and are obviously doing great. Arbosculpture has found new fans, and now Erlandson’s garden is not the only one of its kind. But take away from this unique place no one can tell his story.