ssh -X without/with using xquartz
The '-X' parameter to ssh instructs ssh to open an XWindow session, which is why xquartz is launched automatically.

You can ssh to a remote server without -X and interact with it on a command line, however, to forward the XWindow display needs XQuartz.

To debug the problem you are seeing you may want to:


Ensure there are no errors when you connect to the server (i.e. 'X11 forwarding request failed on channel 0')
Test other X window commands after you establish a valid connection (like xeyes or gvim)
Check the value of $DISPLAY.