Kitsune Bonsai

Carpinus betulus 'Columnaris'

2011-12-16T08:48:00.005-05:00

So its become pretty obvious that I don't really like to share my trees. Knowledge, tidbits, photos, yes, but my trees? Not so much. There are a couple of reasons for that, many of which sound like excuses, even to *me*. But the most important one is this:

I don't really have a lot of trees worth sharing yet. For a number of reasons that are relatively unimportant right now. Living in an area far away from anywhere I could collect, limited funds of a family where despite a love, bonsai gets ranked toward the bottom of needs, and the dying nursery business on Long Island (we've lost both of our bonsai nurseries here in the last four years or so), leave finding really good stock difficult, and leaves me instead with many pieces that are definitely 10-20 year projects. Which is good, because I'll be doing this the rest of my life! But bad for showing work on a blog.

Well, I'm going to do my best to change that. Some of the pieces I have I *can* share, and the only thing preventing me are unspoken excuses. So while they aren't anywhere near finished (though what bonsai is) I'm going to bite the bullet and start putting them up here.

Carpinus betulus 'Columnaris'. Columnar European Hornbeam. I picked this piece up at a place called Peconic River Herb farm about three years ago. I wish I had pictures from that year, but the computer they were all on is vindictive and cruel. I brought the height down by almost half. It is currently 30 inches tall. I have a lot of thinning out to do, after a season of unrestricted growth, and this tree seems prone to sending out shoots right above each other. There is a spot in particular where a very thick branch comes off of the trunk on the right hand side that I will probably remove. It contributes to the silhouette, but the branch is nearly as thick as the trunk at that point and while it looks good in leaf, that particular issue is a lot more obvious this time of year. It will leave a rather large bare spot, but a bit of a rotation will help that, and the tree is very good at sending out copious quantities of new shoots at the slightest provocation.

I know I should shorten the tree to give it a heavier look. And I know that I *should* wire down the branches. I will probably shorten it a bit, but since this is a columnar form I'm hesitant to do too much in the way of fighting mother nature on the wiring down issue.

Where's the Colour?

2011-12-12T10:06:00.006-05:00

Steven Katovich, USDA Forest Service, Bugwood.org
Fall color in northern Wisconsin, paper birch, and red maple.

"Why weren't the leaves as awesome this year?"

"My bonsai were kinda bleh this fall, I don't understand."

"The Japanese Maple in my front yard turns fantastic colours most years, but not this one. Why?"

"Where's the colour?!?"

From all quarters, there has been the same question this fall. "Where's the colour?" Over and over again that question repeated as autumn enthusists gazed over the yellows and browns, eagerly awaiting the vermillion foliage that typifies an East Coast fall. And over and over again, they were disappointed.

Oh, the golds and russets were lovely. But it just wasn't the same. Though there were a few die hard species in this area that, right at the end, put on a quiet, tired display that mimiced their reds of years past, here on Long Island we simply didn't see the autumn display that we usually do.

And we weren't the only ones.

So, what happened? Why was the colour muted this autumn? Why did the trees that turn yellow seem to be ok, but our glorious reds were, well, not so glorious.

For that we have to start with the science of why leaves change colour. During the late spring and summer, leaves are busy. Working hard. Making and utilizing chlorophyll, the green pigment which is where photosynthesis occurs. And therein lies the beginning of the entire cycle of energy on earth – plants take sunlight, water and carbon dioxide and create sugars and oxygen. Without this process, we wouldn’t even be here; there’d be no food, not enough free, breathable, oxygen. If this isn’t amazing enough for you, well, I don’t really know what else to say, and you should probably try a different blog.

Senescence in plants is the period of time between leaf maturity (where they are a sugar factory chugging out that beautiful oxygen by-product) and leaf death. A lot happens in that time, but the part that interests us here is the withdrawal and absorption of the chlorophyll. Triggered by cooling temperatures and shorter days, trees in temperate climates start to shuttle the energy and nutrient rich chlorophyll from their leaves, breaking them down in the process and returning those nutrients to their roots to store for the winter. Some of those nutrients and energy are what that tree is going to use come spring to start the whole process over again.

Now, yellow leaves are pretty straight forward. The yellow colour you are seeing is what is left behind when the more strongly pigmented chlorophyll is gone. As the chlorophyll is broken down and drawn back out during senescence, the yellow colour is unmasked. It was always there, we just couldn’t see it. These pigments are called carotenoids, an antioxidant specifically in place in the leaves to protect them from some of the damaging byproducts of photosynthesis. (For more about that, google ‘oxidation’ and ‘free radicals’ or just leave a note in the comments that you are interested in more SCIENCE in this blog, and I’ll be happy to oblige. For now though, we’re going to try to stay on topic with the science.)

Red leaves are a bit more complex. For the full story on just how complex you can see the original paper on it here: http://treephys.oxfordjournals.org/content/21/1/1.short. That’s just a link to the abstract, but you can get to the whole thing from there. “The physiological significance of anthocyanins during autumnal leaf senescence.” That’s a mouthful, isn’t it? Let’s see if we can break it down a bit and backtrack. A lot of that article is about the selective pressures, explaining WHY some trees tend to be red in the fall when others are yellow. It’s an interesting read, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

The red pigments that you see in autumn foliage are called anthocyanins. While carotenoids are simply left behind during senescence, anthocyanins are actually created by the plant as the chlorophyll is getting broken down. The mystery to scientists of course (which is part of the focus of the above paper), is why a plant would waste precious energy at the time of year where it needed to store every bit of it possible.

As it turns out, anthocyanins protect the leaf from damage from the sun directly. While the chlorophyll is being broken down, the leaves are more susceptible to damage, and would fall sooner, possibly before all of the chlorophyll had been absorbed by the tree. The anthocyanins protect the leaves, buying time and allowing the tree to absorb more of the chlorophyll and other nutrients before leaf death occurs. You might notice that many trees that turn red in the autumn turn a shade of darker burgundy before that brilliant crimson hue. That’s the point where there is enough of a mix of the unbroken down chlorophyll and newly created anthocyanins exist simultaneously in the leaf, creating that intermediate colour.

Trees that create anthocyanins also create carotenoids; the red pigment in the anthocyanins is just stronger than the carotenoids in these species, which is why red is the colour you see. Different species however will make different concentrations, which accounts for the breadth of red and orange hues available in the autumn palette.

There are theories about why some trees create anthocyanins and others do not. Many of those that do not are considered ‘pioneer’ species; species that are the first to colonize open land, and are already evolutionarily more adapted to high sunlight situations. Many of the trees that create them are those that evolved as secondary species, coming in after the colonizers. Many of these species start their lives as understory plants, growing in the shade of the first comers. Though they eventually outgrow their companions and take over a forest, the continued need for some protection from the sun may have led to the development of the anthocyanins. Trees that could tolerate shade in youth and then would be protected by the sun from internal sources at maturity would have naturally outperformed those that could not. This is mostly a concern in areas where fall days are sunny. It’s one of the reasons many native European species (not all, just quite a few) and those in the Pacific Northwest, tend toward the yellow end of the spectrum. In areas where autumns tend more toward the cool and cloudy, there is less biological pressure for those trees that begin life in the understory to protect their dying leaves.

This is all very nice and all. But why was the autumn colour this year so poor?

Many of the trees that normally are yellow in the fall seemed to do just fine. The problems came with our anthocyanin species.

There are many factors that will affect autumn foliage, and these can start as early as spring. Some known factors that will decrease leaf colour in the fall:

-A late spring.
- Summer drought.
-Uncharacteristic high temperatures in summer.

All of the above are likely to stress the tree and/or cause damage to the leaves. Though they do not directly affect the production of anthocyanins, they make the whole thing far more difficult and leave the trees with less resources to work with.

-Longer high temperatures in to autumn than usual, followed by a sudden drop and frost.
-Too warm nights in autumn.
-Not enough sunny days in late summer and autumn.
-Early autumn with cooler than usual days.

These four are situations that will direct impact the formation of anthocyanins. The best conditions for good autumn foliage? Typical (whatever that is for your area) spring and summer conditions, followed by warm, sunny autumn days and crisp, cool (but not freezing) autumn nights. During the warm days, the trees are producing sugars like mad, but the cool nights constrict the veins of the leaves and prevent many of these sugars from being absorbed again. Concentrated sugars and sun are part of what begin the process that spurs the tree to make anthocyanins.

What can we do about it, to bring the topic back around to our bonsai? Unfortunately, there isn’t a lot that we don’t already do. During periods of drought and high temperatures we can water and shade our trees properly, bringing them back out in to more sun again once the end of summer rolls around. The temperature and cloud cover are out of our control largely, and so far as I know, there is no information out there about using grow lamps during cloudy autumns to improve colour (if you try it, document it and document it well).

Here on the East Coast of the USA, our problems were definitely the summer drought and high temperatures of summer(112F days were killer), combined with a very rainy and cloudy late summer. We also kept our unseasonably warm temperatures later than usually, and had an exceedingly short period of properly cool nights with warm days. A lot of factors went in to this year’s autumn being dominated by the yellows and browns. While we can adjust the input to our bonsai far more than the general input to the plants in the landscape, we are still ultimately at the whims of local and global climate.

Blog Roll

2011-12-04T07:39:00.006-05:00

You may notice two new additions to the blog roll. If you read Wayne's work over at Bonsai Bark you're probably already familiar with them (and if you aren't already reading over there, well, why the heck not?)

Forgive the links to pictures instead of pictures, the photoclient is being buggy.

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The older of the two is Peter Tea Bonsai, a Journey of a Bonsai Apprentice at Aichi-en, Japan.

Some of the pictures from his latest post about the Taiken-ten (ok, maybe not some but all) leave me wistful and a little jealous of his adventures. The fact that he's going so far to catalogue and share those adventures thrills me and makes me smile. So I figure it evens out.

There are, no surprise, some amazing bonsai featured, just in that post alone. While there are some really fantastic conifers, I admit that the two that jumped out at me the most were an Azalea and a Princess Persimmon.

The Azalea appeals for the classic, powerful 'wow, that's some azalea', reasons.

I like the persimmon because there is a small child in me who saw the picture and immediately thought "Why didn't I know strawberries grew on trees?!" despite being perfectly aware of that they do not. I got very excited and confused for a minute. The fruits on that tree are miniature and perfect and while it may not be something that a lot of us here in the US consider desirable in a bonsai, it struck *me* with a sense of giggles and wonder.

One of the things I like best about the blog though so far, is that he's very casual, interjects vingettes and interesting tidbits that aren't strictly about the art of that bonsai. Like Peter's comment about the persimmon. "Now that is a lot of princess persimmons! Just a warning, for those who may not know. The persimmons taste horrible! I sacrificed my taste buds to get the word out."

There are about a half dozen other things I could comment on, but I'm going to let his blog speak for itself. It really doesn't need my help.

(Pssst.... look for the two ginkgos and the pine from Hiroshima in that same post. Well worth it.)

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The second blog, very recently launched, is Capital Bonsai, which features bonsai from the National Bonsai and Penjing Museum.

Besides featuring fantastic trees right here in the US, it's shaping up to be a great behind the scenes catalogue of the Museum. The first post about their first tree is a story I feel not a lot of people would have been familiar with for instance.

Is it obvious I like stories? I like stories. And bonsai. So the two together are exceedingly interesting in my book.

Though there are less than a half dozen posts so far, already the photography is grade A, and I look forward to more of it. For those of you who can't get enough of high quality photographs of beautiful bonsai, this looks like it'll be a great spot to go. In their Autumn Bonsai post they set the bar, and you won't be disappointed. Two favorites of mine from that post are the Toringo Crabapple and a shohin Trident Maple.

I'll be keeping an eye out here, looking forward to more.

Epcot Flower and Garden Show 2011

2011-12-01T09:05:00.007-05:00

Long overdue photos, taken during the Epcot Flower and Garden Show last February. I wish I knew who all these trees belonged to. I know they are trees from the members of the Bonsai Socities of Florida. I should have written down all of the info on the cards, but wrangling the family made just getting the snap shots a priority. Some of them I can still read in the photo if I zoom, so any information I can share that way, I will. If anyone knows additional info about any of these trees, I'd love to share it.

Click photos for full view.

Ficus nerifolia, Willow Leaf Ficus

Ficus nerifolia, Willow Leaf Ficus detail.

Ilex sp.

Ficus microcarpa "Green Island". Years in training: 10. Presented by: Erik Vigert

Details of Ficus microcarpa "Green Island". Plus little friend.

Podocarpus macrophyllus, Japanese Yew. Years in training: 10. Presented by: Charles Michelson.

Bouganvillea glabra, Paper flower. Years in training: 1. Presented by Tony Stewart.

Elm.

Casuarin

Ficus nerifolia, Willow Leaf Ficus. Years in training: 30. Presented by: Charles Michelson.

Details Ficus nerifolia.

And simply because it made me smile.....

Panda topiary!

It was the landlord, in the neighboring yard, with the herbicide...

2010-06-06T09:52:00.003-04:00

The death toll is mounting. I have thus far lost three trees, with three more showing the type of damage that I have come to associate with strong, non-specific, herbicidal chemicals. I don't use these in my yard for a huge number of reasons. I find weeds I don't want? I pull them out.

The landlord of my neighbor's property, however, apparently feels differently. And has been very....unspecific.... in his spraying on the other side of the fence. One of my benches is right up against said fence, and all of the trees affected have come from that bench. I've done my best to wash off the foliage, branches and trunks, as well as deep soil flushes, but nothing helped the ones that have already succumbed. I'm hoping for the other three, but those hopes are not high.

Six bonsai is not a majority of my collection. But that doesn't make the unnecessary loss of trees, all in varying stages of development, any easier. Two in particular were pieces that I was very proud of, and their loss is like a kick to the gut.

Beside the bonsai, my herb garden was also hit, though they have faired slightly better. I've only had to replace two types of sage and a thyme, with a lemon balm hanging in the balance. Which is, in the grand scheme of things, rather minor. My mint (which had been in a pot) was also hit, but has bounced back nicely since I found a corner of the yard (far away from the neighbor so there's no risk of it spreading under the fence) to plant it out in. We'll enjoy the smell of mint around the patch as it grows when we need to mow.

I'll be keeping an eye out for the landlord, and request (as politely as possible) if he could be careful not the spray through my fence. In the meantime, the bonsai bench is getting moved, though to where I'm not completely certain yet. My yard is relatively small.

This whole thing has been fairly frustrating to say the least.

Fertilizer 101

2010-05-21T20:27:00.001-04:00

What is NPK?
NPK is the abbreviation that stands for the elements nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. These nutrients are the three most important chemicals that plants need to thrive.

What do the numbers mean?
Usually represented by a number like 10-10-10, they are the percentage by weight of the three nutrients. The numbers are always given in the same sequence, NPK, with the first number percentage nitrogen, the second phosphorus, and the third potassium. Fertilizers with different numbers, but the same ratios are equivalent, but have different strengths. Two pounds of 5-10-5 fertilizer has the nutrients as one pound of 10-20-10. Fertilizers that contain all three of these elements are considered ‘complete’. A zero in any of these spots means that a fertilizer does not contain that nutrient. A 4-12-0 fertilizer contains nitrogen and phosphorus, but no potassium.

Nitrogen- Foliage Growth
Nitrogen is needed by all plants and is easily washed out of the soil. It stimulates shoot and leaf growth, and regular application is particularly important for green, leafy plants like grasses, lettuce, and foliage plants. Too much nitrogen, however, can cause other types of growth (such as flowers, fruit and roots) to slow down, and even stop. It can also cause fast growth, but weaken a plant, making it more prone to disease or pests. A low nitrogen fertilizer can be used to encourage flowering and fruiting over foliage growth. Nitrogen is absorbed or washed from the soil within a few weeks of application, and should usually be applied every month during the growing season.
Signs of nitrogen deficiency: old leaves turn yellow, slow or no growth, small new leaves.

Phosphorus – Roots and Flowers Growth
Phosphorus binds with other elements in the soil to form stable compounds. This means it does not leech out of the soil as quickly as nitrogen does, and therefore does not need to be applied in quantity as often as nitrogen does, especially for established plantings and tree. Phosphorus can usually be applied once a year, or when putting in new plantings and trees, and will remain in the soil.
Signs of phosphorus deficiency: leaves are dull green or grayish, purple foliage on otherwise green plants, short stems, few flowers, small fruit.

Potassium (Potash) – Overall Plant Health
Potassium is more soluble in water than phosphorus, but does not leech out of the soil as quickly as nitrogen does. A single application can last several months. It helps with root growth, disease resistance, and temperature tolerance.
Signs of potassium deficiency: Older leaves crinkle and curl upward, leaves turn yellow and scorch begins on leaf edges and progresses in toward veins, shoots die back late season.

Organic vs. Inorganic
The primary difference between organic and inorganic fertilizers is where the raw materials are sources from. Organic fertilizers use naturally occurring ingredients (either animal or plant based, ‘organic’ refers to from materials that were once living), like bone meal, as a nutrient source. Inorganic fertilizers use synthetic chemicals or mineral, like ammonium nitrate, to supply the nutrients. Typically (but not always) organic fertilizers are slow release, while inorganic are released more quickly. Nutrient content varies from fertilizer to fertilizer, but an organic and an inorganic fertilizer with the same NPK numbers will have equivalent nutrient amounts.

Fertilizer Applications:
Fertilizers come in several different forms. Most commonly they come in granules that are meant to be scattered on the soil. Watering will dissolve them in to the soil. Others are liquids or soluble crystals meant to be dissolved in water. These can be applied while watering, either with a watering can, a hose attachment, or through an automatic watering system. Some come in solid chunks or bricks. These are always slow release forms, and are placed individually above the root zone of the plants.
Follow the directions on the fertilizer package for specific application instructions.

Secondary Nutrients and pH:
Calcium, magnesium and sulfur are considered secondary nutrients. Secondary nutrients are no less important than NPK, but seldom need to be added in quantity to soils. Calcium (in the form of lime) is often added to make soil less acidic, while sulfur is used to make soil more acidic. If there is a concern about soil pH, have the soil tested before adding these amendments. There are fertilizers that are mildly acidic, meant for acid loving plants like azaleas, and can be chosen with those specific plants in mind.

Always follow package instructions for application amounts compared to the size of the area you want to fertilize. More than the recommended amount is NOT necessarily better!

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After putting this together for work, I thought I'd share it here as well.

Today in Bonsai

2009-10-09T10:10:00.001-04:00

From http://www.phoenixbonsai.com/Days/DaysIndex.html

1999 -- Rolf A. Stein died in Paris. (He was born in Berlin where he did part of his Oriental studies. Going into exile in Paris in 1933, six years later Professor Stein joined the prestigious École Française d'Extrême-Orient. His early field studies were done in Vietnam and China. In 1943 he published his first book, Jardins en miniature d'Extrême-Orient, a sophisticated exploration of a complex subject, full of brilliant insights. Later on he taught at the prestigious French institute Collège de France and it was during his tenure there (1966-1982) that he published successively three prominent books in relations to the Tibetan culture. Up until 1992 Stein continued to participate in the academic works, and in collaboration with other prominent Orientalists he authored books on Buddhism, Tantra and Mythology. In 1987 Jardins was republished in its original French along with a 1958 work about "Dwelling Places [of the Spirits], Their Physical Details." Three years later an English translation of those two was published with a new third study, "The World and Architecture in Religious Thought," as The World in Miniature: Container Gardens and Dwellings in Far Eastern Religious Thought. This awesome work brings into sharp focus myriad subtle mutations of the miniature garden which -- reflected in the temples of Heaven, pagodas, the felt tents of nomads, and ultimately the human body itself -- informs cosmology, ritual, ethics, aesthetics, and many aspects of everyday life. Symbolism and history of dwarf potted landscapes unknown anywhere else can be found here. Yes, we do deal with magical miniature landscapes.

["Rolf Stein Passed Away in Paris," World Tibet Network News, Friday, October 15, 1999, http://www.tibet.ca/en/newsroom/wtn/archive/old?y=1999&m=10&p=15_6 ; Foreword by Edward H. Schafer in The World in Miniature (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1990), pp. xviii-xix]

The Crazy is Over... or maybe it is just begining

2009-10-07T08:25:00.004-04:00

On September 26th, I became Mrs. Pete Coste. It's a very short and simple way of explaining it all, though it may be missing something in the translation. Lemme try that again.

A little over a week and a half ago, I married my highschool sweet heart, exactly 12 years to the day after our first kiss. I try to keep this blog just about the bonsai, but this is such an enormous part of my life (and the planning of said wedding and the ensuing family vacation has taken my attention from my online endeavors), that not sharing it is impossible for me.

But rather than blather on and on, I will keep it simple. I am happy. A pure and heady happiness in a simple joy of knowing that I will be spending the rest of my life with this man. That we'll have the chance to annoy each other for the rest of our lives and terrorizing the grandchildren ;)

As post wedding events are winding down, thank yous are being sent and the house is slowly put back in to order after having several out of town guests, my time is just as slowly becoming my own again. The trees have not suffered, as they were my refuge when things got a little too hectic for me.

Autumn is swinging in, and bonsai life quiets down soon, but there are still things to do once it does. Work on websites and organizing, reading, research and tool cleaning. I am looking forward to being able to relax in to those habits again.

Strange Musings and Today in Bonsai

2009-07-29T09:34:00.004-04:00

It's hot. Hideously hot. Hopefully everyone is taking care of themselves as well as their bonsai in this nasty little heat wave we've got going across the USA. The nursery business is finally starting to slow down for us, but with the heat it still *feels* like we've been going full tilt when we get to the end of the day.

I'm sure that I don't need to remind folks who are reading this blog that we need to watch our watering. While not all of our trees may need to be watered two and three times a day, it's worth checking to make sure. I have a few small trees (mame and shohin) that not only need extra watering, but that are kept on trays of wet sand or in the cases of the smallest pots, are covered completely in a tray with sand or fine mulch to help keep the water levels right, because those pots dry out faster than I can sometimes water them, especially on long work days. A shade cloth does wonders, and just about everything *except* for my sun loving conifers (junipers, pines) are protected from the worst of the afternoon summer sun. Issues with water aside, those little pots get *hot*, and even more so the black nursery pots that much of my stock in training lives in.

Of course, my tropicals are thrilled. A few small ficus, fukien, serissa and a rather large scheflerra are all basking in the 90F (30C)temps and 90% humidity. Which is good, they deserve some happy time to. I, however, am not looking forward to the next three weeks of oppressive heat that we on Long Island usually get through August.

Otherwise, work has stopped on the trees. Fertilizing strength and frequency has dropped, and when it resumes, the type and goal will once again have changed (from spring and summer nitrogen growth to higher potash and phosphorus for prepping for autumn and winter). Once the weather cools off, work will recommence, but right now it's mostly focusing on keeping the trees (and myself) cool and watered.

The slowing down of the nursery season and the lack of work to do on the trees should mean that I get more writing done.... if the idea of sitting on my couch with the warm laptop wasn't so abhorrent. Still, there are projects to be done on that front, and deadlines (mostly self imposed) that I've been shirking. I'm several species entries behind both for Kitsune Bonsai (have any requests? Let me know. The order I do them in matters less than getting them done!) and KoB (Ficus wip, just a little bit more to finish. Just do it!), as well as a few other projects for KoB and AoB, one of which is top secret hush hush, if I told you I'd have to kill you.

Well, probably not, but it's funnier that way. At least, it amuses *me*.

Now, an interesting tidbit for today:

I came across a website, with something they call The Bonsai Book of Days. The Phoenix Bonsai Society (http://www.phoenixbonsai.com) has a list of what has happened in bonsai on "this day", going back about a hundred years (maybe more, I haven't read through it all yet).

http://www.phoenixbonsai.com/Days/DaysIndex.html

Checking out for July, I came across an interesting entry that I thought I would share.

July 11th 1981 - "An American Fantasy” was the title of the 5-1/2 foot long Bonkei (tray landscape) created by Mr. Yuji Yoshimura at the International Bonsai Convention in Atlanta today. He was assisted in the demonstration by long-time students Marion Gyllenswan and Phyllis P. Wishnick. The entire 1-1/2 hour program was coordinated by Edwin C. Symmes, Jr. Created by Mr. Yoshimura as a tribute to the country that has supported his efforts in teaching and creating bonsai for over two decades, “An American Fantasy” was comprised of three parts: 1) “The Rugged Mountains,” 2) “The Verdant HilIs,” and 3) The Welcoming Shore.” The landscape depicted a cross section of the American landscape. Starting on the left with the high mountain waterfall as a source -- and planted with dwarf juniper, Sawara cypress, Kingsville dwarf box and azalea -- the water then runs through a rocky mountain gorge. As it enters the second tray, it flows around a hill -- planted with dwarf juniper, serissa, andromeda, cryptomeria, and Trident maple -- and into a pond before continuing out through the flatter landscape. The water continues past a hardwood area with Trident maple in the third tray, into a swampy area with bald cypress and then into the sea. Every aspect of the program was carefully chosen to heighten the dramatic effect. The lighting, music, and drama was effective creating a very dramatic demonstration of the art involved in this creation. Typical of Yoshimura, months were spent preparing the plant material and the entire tray landscape was actually assembled the week before for Symmes to photograph. After the slides were developed the composition was taken apart and replanted in to training containers only to be recreated at the convention. Then immediately following the convention presentation, which was done in the dark with lights only on the plants and no photography permitted to spoil the mood, a complete set of slides was available to memorialize the event.

For a picture of "An American Fantasy" - http://www.phoenixbonsai.com/Days/AmericanFantasy.jpg

I'm interested in several facets of this project. One is how the whole thing was created, in what I can only relate to a test run, *before* the event itself. Is this a common practice for people giving demonstrations? I rarely see saikai done in a demo, but especially if you are bringing your own stock and supplies, doing this makes a lot of sense. How much agony (which I've seen a lot of in demos) would be saved if this was done first? Would it make the demo lose some of its "magic"? I don't think so, but maybe that's just me. And of course this can be applied to more standard one tree demos. How often do the demonstrators request/receive advanced photos of the stock that a club has for them to be working on? This seems like a no brainer to me, and whenever possible, I'd like to know what I'll be working with in advance, give myself some time to look over it (yes, I know, pictures are limited, but limited is better than nothing.). I've only done two demos/workshops, and both of these were for children ( a lot of fun, by the way. They really get in to it, more than some adults I know), but it seems like having a photo in advance of what you'll be working on would be a huge boon.

I also admit to being curious about the make up of the piece. Junipers and serissa? Seems like a couple of the plants in there have vastly different care needs. I can't find any modern references (i.e. anything newer than the blurb about its creation) to the piece, so I wonder how well all parts survived. Which I see as unlikely. But I could be wrong. Part of me would like to be wrong.

I'm going to stop my wonderings here, though this piece may again show up as a topic of conversation. I'd love to hear what you have to say about it.

All this talk of pots, part 1

2009-07-22T09:07:00.009-04:00

There has been a lot of talk of pots lately it seems. Partly, I know, spurned by the reproduction Ming Dynasty pots Robert Steven has available via AOB. (If you are interested in more info/seeing the pots, here you go: http://www.aobkobstore.com/)

I ordered one. Regardless of collectability, I really like the way it looks, and I have a soft spot for Asian history that most think is limited to Japan. Focused on, perhaps, but not limited to. But this post isn't about Steven's pot in particular. Just wanted to share a few pots that I've come across in the last months that I was particularly fond of, for one reason or another, or that just caught my eye.

The first pots were actually posted by Wayne over at http://bonsaibark.com/ , though, unfortunately, we don't know who made the fourth one, or really much about it at all. Time to ramp up learning kanji now that I'm set on hiragana and katakana! The first with the crickets (my favorite of the three, though all of them are made by him) is by Master Potter Gyozan Nakono.

Next set of pots by Andy over at Stone Monkey Ceramics (http://www.stonemonkeyceramics.co.uk/). The last one is one of the pots I purchased from him last year, along with the accent pot from the Thyme post last week.

More to come at a later date I'm sure.

Parsley, sage, rosemary and....

2009-07-11T12:55:00.005-04:00

Thyme.

Thyme and three mosses, pot by Andy over at Stone Monkey.

I might retake this shot later, around five this evening when the light will be a bit more diffused. Just to see if it looks nicer. Click on the images, since all of the details are lost in the thumbnails.

A slightly better shot of the pot, because I love this pot....

Memories of Golden Bonsai

2009-07-09T20:25:00.013-04:00

While I was sorting through old files on my computer yesterday, I came across some pictures from Golden Bonsai Nursery, before it burned down, some of which I don't think have ever seen the light of day. Just thought I'd share them.

Little Azalea

2009-07-08T16:38:00.005-04:00

I don't frequently share my trees online. There are a couple of reasons for this. Partly, the work I do and time I spend on my trees is a highly personal experience for me. But there is a far more concrete reason as well. None of my trees have been in cultivation for more than two years and I'm just not ready to share them. With the divorce and the move from Ohio, it was a complete restart... well, with everything, not just bonsai.

However, I figured I am overdue for a couple at least. Below is an azalea I picked up last summer from Edna over at Green Garden Nursery. I almost walked right past it, because it was so large and scrawny, my eyes just cast over it. It wasn't until I was on my way back through to the front of the nursery, and caught a glimpse of the 'back' of this that I pulled up short. I hadn't even been looking for an azalea that day, but then, I always leave Edna's with more than I intended on.

The above picture was just taken for my own reference, so forgive the mess in my work area. Anyway, this year I repotted and did a serious pruning. It has backbudded very well, and growing very well in general, so I'm pretty happy. Obviously, this is no where near complete. I'll let it grow out for the next year and see where I'm keeping the new branches. In two years, I might cut it back even further, as the lower trunk would make a pretty powerful shohin. Right now, it is about five inches high, the trunk is just under three inches wide. The picture makes the roots look a lot messier than they are, though they do need work.

A Closer Look - Bonsai Pests, Scale

2009-07-05T22:08:00.007-04:00

A Closer Look - Bonsai Pests

Part 2, Scale

Scale are another ubiquitous garden variety pest in temperate regions. Scale insects are small insects of the order Hemiptera, generally classified as the superfamily Coccoidea. There are about 8,000 species of scale, with many of that rather large number considered pests on our plants. Scale are one of the most destructive insects in the United States, with many species invaders from other areas of the world. They can survive in harsh conditions, from the tundra to the tropics, and thrive on all parts of a plant, commonly the underside of leaves and on branches, but are not limited in their location habits.

There are three general categories scale insects fall in to: most common being Diaspididae, or armored scales; Coccidae, or soft scales; and Pseudococcidae, commonly known as mealybugs. The armored scales are the ones with the most effective outer coating, and subsequently, the most difficult to deal with. (Photo above: Calico Scale)

Scale Habits: Most scale are plant parasites. They feed on the sap of a plant, usually pulled directly from the vascular system. While one or two scale may not be a cause for alarm, a host of these little critters feeding on a tree will quickly lead to problems. Almost every woody plant is a target for one scale species or another. Some scale feed exclusively on one type of plant. Others target a small number of species, while still others are happy to feed wherever they end up.

Scales are around year round. They can over winter in any life stage (see Reproduction/Lifecycle below), but eggs and mated females have the best tolerance and survival of low temperatures. Once the weather starts to warm up in temperate climates, the new flush of growth we see in our plants coincides with egg hatching, though there may be later and earlier hatchers, depending on the scale species and host plant.

Soft scale and mealy bugs can excrete honeydew, sometimes in large amounts. Sooty (black) mould happily grows on this stuff, and while it is generally harmless, it is unsightly. Ants are also attracted to the honeydew excreted, though they do not herd scale the same way they do aphids. Armored scale do not excrete honeydew. (Photo above: Mealy bugs)

Scale Reproduction/Lifecycle: The sexual dimorphism (differences in appearance between male and female) is huge (relatively speaking) in scale insects. Mature female scale are sessile (which means they are unable to move), have no legs or antennae, usually much larger than the males, and are usually the ones we see when we notice a scale infestation. Mature males are smaller, typically have visible wings (one pair, thus making them resemble true flies), do not feed (they don't even have mouth parts), and die in a day or two.

Anatomy of a Scale Insect: Scale insects vary greatly in size, as well as appearance. They can be very tiny, at only a millimeter in diameter, or a little larger, though few are larger than about five millimeters across. Scale come in almost any colour, from brown to green, white to yellow, all depending on the species, and range in shape, including round, oval, pear shaped, oblong or threadlike. They are covered in protective coatings, ranging from shiny waxy covers to pearl-like, from woolly to oyster-like. These coatings are excreted by the insect for protection, the scale living and feeding under the protective coating. While there is a wide range of appearances, most resemble the scales of a fish or reptile, or like scale armor of the medieval ages (hence, the common name!). The armor of female scale are often larger and more obvious than that of the male. The appearance of the armor can vary not only with species, but also the host plant the scale is feeding on, gender, life cycle stage, time of year, and other environmental conditions, which can make identifying the particular species, or even genus, of scale by the layman, very difficult.

All scale have (or had) antenae and six legs, though mature females lose (or almost lose) these features completely. They have piercing and sucking mouth parts.

How do you know if you have Scale: Scale come in all shapes and sizes, but the appearance of small, scale like or woolly *things* on your plants, especially the trunks and undersides of leaves, is usually a good indicator. There may be no other signs until an infestation is serious. A serious infestation will be obvious by stunted growth, yellow spots on the top of foliage (caused by scales feeding on the bottom part of the leaves - these spots will get bigger and bigger the longer the scale feeds), premature foliage drop, and dieback of young twigs and even whole branches if allowed. An untreated scale infestation could easily be the death of a tree. Fortunately however, these are easy to spot early just by keeping a keen eye on your trees. Also keep an eye out for sooty mould or ants, which can be a sign of both scale and aphids.

Scale can live on any part of a plant, so beside checking the most common locations (the stem and under sides of the leaves) be sure to also check in leaf axils, buds, the tops of leaves, along the midveins of leaves and anywhere else you can reach. A magnifying glass can be useful if in doubt, as some scale can look less like bugs and more like naturally occurring bumps on a leaf or stem surface. Crawlers can be detected by wrapping double sided sticky tape around a branch and seeing what pops up over a day or two. Pay careful attention to old wound scars so common to bonsai. The bark may be thinner here, especially if the wound is only a few years old, and the folding of the healing bark can hide scale effectively from view. The colour differences between bark and scale can be very subtle. Wetting the bark can often help differentiate between normal bark bumps and scale.

Examine plants for live scale insects by crushing the wax cover. Dead scales are dry inside. Live ones... well.... are not.

Scale prevention: The best prevention for scale is healthy, happy plants and early detection. When plants aren’t stressed, they have better defenses against infestations. Keep a good distance between your trees to keep good airflow, adequately water your bonsai, and make sure they are getting the right amount of light for their species preferences. Don’t over fertilize. Chemical fertilizers high in nitrogen produce large amounts of just the right kind of growth that attracts aphids and scale. Scale will also lay more eggs on plants receiving more nitrogen. Slower acting, organic fertilizers are better for helping prevent these infestations. While we go for good growth in our trees, this is another reminder for us that balance is the key to all things in bonsai. Scale can also thrive in thick inner canopies of trees, so keep your trees from getting too over grown in the interior. Allowing light and fresh air to penetrate will help prevent other diseases as well. Because they thrive in warm, moist areas, adding additional fans to increase airflow may help. Keep new plants isolated for a week or two before putting them near your other bonsai. This way, if there are scale nymphs (harder to spot than mature females) on the tree that you may have over looked at purchasing, you have a chance to catch it before it spreads to your other trees.

Scale Removal: If despite your best efforts, you notice a scale infestation on one of your trees, don’t panic! There are several steps you can take, ranging from the simple to the more complex. Scale is a difficult insect to get rid of using common insecticides. Because in mature scale (which is usually when we notice an infestation) their waxy coating protects them from most insecticides, other courses must be followed.

In cases of only a few scale, the best bet is to just remove them with your finger nails or a stiff bristled brush. Use a strong jet of water afterward to wash off the plant and any possible eggs that might have been left behind. Continue to check back every few days or so, just in case.

Scale are preyed upon by parasitic wasps. Check for tiny holes in the outer armor which is a sign that the beneficial wasps have already been on the job. Some other beneficial insects, such as lady bugs, green lace wings and praying mantis feed on the nymphs (crawlers), but not on mature scale. These beneficial insects will stick around as long as there is food (i.e. scale crawlers, aphids, etc), but you can encourage them to stick around longer by planting certain things that attract them (yarrow, cilantro, parsley and sweet alyssum are all plants that lady bugs in particular like). Lady bugs and praying mantis eggs can be purchased at most garden centers now, as an alternative to chemical pesticides. If you are going to try beneficial insects, make certain you don’t use any pesticides, as these will kill the good bugs as well as the bad.

Insecticidal soap or horticultural oil (like neem oil or dormant oil) can be used against all stages of scale growth, including mature scale (it suffocates them), and is generally safe for bonsai, but check the label, and if in doubt, do a test on a small portion of the plant to be certain it does not cause an ill effect. An even coat that gets every part of the plant (especially the underside of the leaves!) is necessary. These only work on contact, and do not provide long term prevention. If a spot is missed on the plant, the infestation can balloon again once the oils have dried, and applications may need to be repeated. Do not use oils on water stressed plants (those that have been under watered and have wilted, or those that have been over waters and may have root rot), or if the weather exceeds 90F (30C), as this can harm the plant. Supreme- or superior-type oils will kill overwintering populations when applied in late autumn and again in midwinter. These can be safe to use in conjunction with beneficial insects.

Most insecticides that list scale on their labels are really only useful during the crawler stage, or on mealy bugs. If use of an insecticide seems necessary, use the double sided tape method to watch for crawlers and spray then. If possible, prune off as much of the infested foliage as possible before reating, not only to remove the scale, but also to allow deeper penetration of the insecticides. Follow label instructions, coating the plant thoroughly on all surfaces (especially under the leaves!). Some systemic insecticides may be useful as well. Repeat the process if needed (which is likely) one to three weeks later. Some insecticides are safe for bonsai. Others are not. General guidelines are to follow the instructions on the bottle for usage, including timing and dosage. If in doubt, test it on a small area of the tree. If there are no negative affects (dying leaves, blackening bark), you can probably proceed with the rest of the tree.

Even once scales are dead, they will not always fall from your plant. You can tell a dead scale from a live one by crushing the outer coating. Dead scale are dry on the inside. Live scale will squish. There is no way to remove dead scale, other than manually. Use your fingernails or a stiff brush to remove them from the bark and leaves.

*****

Want to know exactly what kind of scale you are dealing with? Below are two online resources that may help further identification of your scale infestation. There are too many types to go over here, and it would be a disservice to everyone involved if I tried.

Scale Keys - http://www.sel.barc.usda.gov/ScaleKeys/index.html

Scalenet - http://www.sel.barc.usda.gov/scalenet/scalenet.htm

Shoes and ships and sealing wax....

2009-07-03T09:25:00.005-04:00

I discovered something yesterday. I cannot bend the thickest wire I have. Don't get me wrong, if I have a length of it and put both hands on either side, it bends easily. I cannot bend small areas with my finger tips while I am wiring a tree though. I spent a few minutes, very perplexed over this, and eventually just switched to two strands of a smaller gauge wire. I don't have many larger trees that might require the largest size of wire I have. Heck, I didn't even buy the largest size, but had it given to me as a throw in on a purchase at Golden Bonsai two years ago. I don't even know what gauge it is, but for reference it's about as thick as my pinky finger. I was going to use it to wire up a new leader on a Japanese Maple I acquired earlier in the year, but otherwise, in two years, I've have no use for it whatsoever. And now, knowing that I can't even bend it the way I need to, well.... it'll just keep the bottom of my wire tree balanced.

We (my son and I) went to Green Garden nursery in Northport yesterday. Mostly, I've been searching for a pot for a banyan style schefflera, but you can't go to Edna's and not look around. And I can't go there and not walk out of there with at least three things I didn't actually go there for. In this case it was two J. maples and a Sargent Crab apple. One of the maples and the crab apple are just whips, though the lowest part of the trunk on the smallest maple is nicely shaped. The larger maple is destined for shohin (heck, all three of these are eventually). I found the pot I wanted for the schefflera. It's an interim pot, shallower than the pot it is in now, but not as shallow as I'd like yet. Heck, it is a poor match for the tree in general, expept it was the only pot that was the right width, length and depth. As schefflera are tropical trees, I'll be repotting this sometime in the next week and will post pictures then.

My son turned seven last week. Two years ago, we started a tradition. Beside the usual birthday stuff (this year, he wanted these things called Bakugan), he also gets to pick out a piece of bonsai stock, something that will be his tree in years to come. Sometimes he likes to help water them, sometimes I take care of them (let's face it, mostly I take care of them, but watching him water his trees is too cute for words). This year he picked out a Japanese Maple. The trend is generally whatever tree I've spent the most time on before we go is the kind he picks out. He always picks out the tiniest trees he can find ("Because I'm small too"), and this year I was pretty impressed by the piece he picked out. It's only five or so inches tall, but rather than just being a thin, whippy trunk, the bark is mature and rough (rather than smooth and green like most of the rest of the similarly sized maples), the trunk well shaped and quirky, and the tree, in general, is going to be a nice little shohin in a couple of years. The leaves are abnormally large, however, so we'll see how they reduce in time. Edna actually gave him the tree in question as a gift, which was very sweet of her.

Rowan and his little maple under the big maple in our yard.

Happy Birthday Ro!

Persimmon?

2009-06-30T20:01:00.002-04:00

So this is less an informative post and more a post looking for information. I've been looking for a certain variety of persimmon as stock for some time now. Diospyros rhombifolia, or Princess Persimmon. These have very tiny fruit, about an inch across, and I've been wanting to get my hands on one, even just a very small (read: twenty year project) piece of stock to try. If anyone knows someplace on Long Island that sells them, or a reputable online dealer (Brent at Evergreen Gardens had them, but he's sold out :( ), please, let me know!

Summer Poetry and Maples

2009-06-29T21:39:00.005-04:00

Michi no be ni
shimizu nagaruru
yanagi kage
shibashi tote koso
tachidomaritsure

In willow shade
where clear water flows
by the wayside-
"Just awhile!" I said
as I stopped to rest

-Saigyo, Poems of a Mountain Home

Summer is here, with a large lack of spring. Today was the first day in a month in a half that I've had to water the bonsai myself. I shall not miss the rain, I promise you that. We didn't really have a spring this year, and summer is launching right in to the thick of things with the wet, humid heat that breeds fungus and pests in bonsai and discontent in bonsaists. Watch here for the next installment of the Closer Look, Bonsai Pests. We'll be hitting Scale insects next.

My species sheet on Japanese Maples has hit the newstands at KOB, check it out!
http://knowledgeofbonsai.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=117&t=2937

Garden Photos

2009-06-29T15:30:00.013-04:00

I took more photos than usual of my garden this year. As in, I normally don't take any. Some of these are from my own house, and some from the nursery I work at. Enjoy.

I blame the peonies for my photo craze. These were the pride of my yard a few weeks ago. Can't tell so much in the picture, since there is no frame of reference, but the larger blossoms were the size of dinner plates this year, and I had more than two dozen of them. Gorgeous.

Close shot, same bloom.

Stella d'Oro Daylilies, first of the season a little early.

Rhododendrons on a shrub (I say shrub, but it's taller than my house) that's estimated at around 200 years old.

Mock Orange (Philadelphus) Blossoms. I love the way these smell, like a cross between orange blossoms (hence the name) and jasmine.

Astilbe.

Magnolia.

Yarrow in pinks and yellows around a weeping cherry tree.

More Stella d'Oro.

Hydrangea.

Bonsai Study Group, from Matsu Bonsai

2009-06-20T23:04:00.002-04:00

If you note my blogroll, you'll see a blog called "Matsu Bonsai."

The folks over there are involved with a new bonsai forum, the Bonsai Study Group.

http://bonsaistudygroup.com/

It's apparently just finished testing and is now open to the public. I've always enjoyed the posts over at Matsu, and I'll be dropping by myself to check out their forum there as well.

Welcome to the neighborhood, BSG :)

A Closer Look: Watering - Rain Rain

2009-06-18T11:30:00.006-04:00

Tsukuzuku to
noki no shizuku o
nagametsutsu
hi o nomi kurasu
samidare no koro

Staring blankly
at the drops
from the rafter ends,
barely getting through the days -
fifth-month rainy season

****

Samidare wa
iwa seku numa no
mizu fukami
wakeshi ishima no
kayoido mo nashi

Rock-damned marsh-
in fifth month rains
so full of water
you can't pick your way
over the stones any longer

****

Samidare wa
yukubeki michi no
ate mo nashi
ozasa ga hara mo
uki ni nagarete

In fifth month rains
no trace of a path
where I can make my way,
meadows of bamboo grass
awash in mud

*****

Saigyo, one of my favorite poets, seemed about as irritated, yet resigned, as I am about the rain. Though June is the sixth month of the Gregorian calender, in times past (Saigyo was born in 1118 CE, in Kyoto, for the curious) Japan's fifth month ran from around the middle of May to the middle of June. And Japan's fifth month, was of course, the rainy season.

Here on Long Island, we don't have a rainy season. Yes, like many places, it rains more in the spring than other times..... but this.... this is not typical. It has rained six out of seven days a week (or more) for the last five weeks. Some days it has only showered briefly, but other days (like today) it has just poured down buckets all day long.

This is a problem. Don't get me wrong, my garden is *loving* all of this rain. It is so happy right now if they could, the plants would get up and do the watusi. However, as has been stated over and over again by many, many bonsai enthusiasts... a pot is not the same as the ground. And my bonsai are a little dubious of all this rain.

I can already hear the question, "well, don't you have a good, free draining soil mix? What's the worry?" I *do* have a free draining soil mix. It's great, and I haven't had any issues with root rot, well, ever, but that's as much from watering correctly as it is from the soil mix. You *can* over water, even with a free draining mix, it's just a lot harder, and most people won't be out there, soaking their trees six or seven times a day in my climate.

But the worry is related to that, in its way. The soil never getting a chance to even partially dry out. I repotted a lot of trees this year, including several from over grown nursery containers where I had to put a lot of stress on their roots just to sort out the mess. Let's say that easily a third of my trees are, this season, on sub par root systems, for one reason or another. So what do I want from those trees this season? I want them to grow roots! Lots and lots of roots. But see, here is the problem.

When roots are always wet, they don't need to grow as much to get the water they need. It's all right there! This is noticeable on Jade trees you might have indoors. You can't even get a cutting from one of those suckers to root unless you let it dry out a little. Jades put out roots in response to low water situations. A lot of trees are like this, only it's not so obvious as Jade cuttings that'll sprout roots in a day or two under the right conditions. Ever wonder why they tell you to water lightly after a tree has been repotted? Many people cite that it is because the tree doesn't need as much water, and the roots can't take up as much water, since they've been pruned, and you might rot out the roots. This is half of the story. It's also because if the roots are kept soaking wet, they don't need to *try* to grow. The plant tells itself "there is plenty of water coming up here, we don't need to release hormones that will make the roots grow. We're steady in this pot (they put wires on us for that), so between stability and a readily available source of water (we'll worry about nutrients later), we're good to go!"

So, where does this leave me? Trees that I would have watered sparingly (plenty to keep them alive, just not like this, sheesh) are getting soaked and staying soaked.... every day. So root growth has slowed down considerably. Ok, again, what's the big deal? So the trees need an extra year to recover, right? Maybe, but for different reasons than just improved rootage.

Michael Hagedorn commented on what is going to be my problem in a month or so on his blog, http://crataegus.com/2009/05/31/watering-tip/.

Before the real summer heat hits, consider how you are watering your
trees.
Have you ever seen your trees grow through spring just fine,
only to get fried leaves at the first onset of early summer? Ever wonder why
that happens?

Those trees just don’t have enough roots. Those are the trees that got
overwatered, or simply never dried out, in the cool spring months. Their roots
were never encouraged to hunt out water, so these trees could survive in the
moist cool weather on about three roots. First hot day: bam, they get hit hard
as they have a spindly root system, not enough to support their overlarge, over
long leaves and shoots on dry hot days. (A bonsai version of a company that has
overspent just before a recession…)

Especially on cool overcast days, if you can monitor them, water each
tree only when it is really drying out and not by rote. Watering by a schedule
is the surest way to have some really weak trees that show themselves in the hot
summer!

I discovered this the hard way two years ago, when I thought I was doing my newly repotted trees a favor by giving them extra water to make it easier on them. And, as Michael said *bam*, first hot day, bad news. At the time, I knew the trees weren't getting enough water to keep the leaves from burning, but why? I watered them, plenty! I just didn't know. It took me a couple months and *a lot* of reading (in some very heavy botany books) to figure out what had happened, and why those trees, that had seemed so healthy, that I had been watering (what I thought) was correctly, had ended up like that.

It's just like kids. Making everything easy for them doesn't encourage them to grow. They have no reason to. I'm not saying kids (or bonsai) need to be thrown to the wolves- but a little hard work never hurt anyone.

So in July and August, I can pretty much count on most of the trees I repotted and did serious root pruning on this year having trouble. Too much heat, not enough roots, so not enough water getting up in to the leaves. This, beside the obvious unsightliness, is more importantly an issue because of the stress these trees will be under. Stressed bonsai are more susceptible to disease, pests, die back, and a host of other issues.

If the roots ain't healthy folks, ain't nothing healthy.

There is, unfortunately, little I can do about it at this point. Those trees that were repotted have been placed under bonsai benches and generally shaded from the worst of the rain, but with the humidity so high, the soil is still unable to dry out. When the rain stops, and it starts to get hot, these trees (especially those that I know already have the weakest root systems) will continue to be protected, especially from the sun in the hottest part of the day even if I wouldn't have normally worried about them. These trees will get a changed fertilizer regime, lowering the amount of nitrogen, but keeping the phosphorus and potassium at the same levels. This will help keep the amount of foliage that the roots need to supply with water to a more manageable level (lower nitrogen), but still encourage root growth (phosphorus).

Hey, I said I didn't want to throw them to the wolves, didn't I?

In Japan, watering is considered an art in and of itself, and some apprentices are at a nursery for two or three years before they are even allowed to touch a watering can. I'll be honest, I'm not certain I should be allowed near the hose myself.

But I'm learning.

Article Contest 2009

2009-06-15T09:25:00.002-04:00

http://knowledgeofbonsai.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=146&t=4298
AoB/KoB article contest for 2009 has begun. They're sponsored by Bonsai Focus Magazine. An excerpt from the above linked rules:

The contest objective is for participants to write an original article
about bonsai in a professional and educational manner. The goal of this contest
is educational and is meant to bring out the author in all who participate, as
well as to encourage the creation of much needed articles for the bonsai
community not only during the contest, but indeed after the contest as well. It
is our hope that the participants of this contest will continue to write and
publish articles afterward and in doing so, add to the knowledge base.

You need not be a member of The Art of Bonsai Project or The Knowledge of
Bonsai Forum to enter. This contest, like all of the content on AoB and KoB, is
free, viewable, and open to all who are interested. Those that wish to
participate in discussions on the contest or other topics on the forums will be
required to join in order to comment.

Bonsai Focus has
graciously agreed to publish the wining article, as well as to consider
publication of other quality articles submitted.

Follow the link above for complete official rules. We look forward to seeing your articles!

Recalling the Blossoms After They've Scattered

2009-06-12T19:31:00.003-04:00

Photo by Harold Davis

Aoba sae
mireba kokoro no
tomaru kana
chirinishi hana no
nagori to omoeba

Once I see
the new green leaves,
my heart may take to them too-
if I think of them as mementos
of blossoms that scattered

-Saigyo, Poems of the Mountain Home

Just a little something.....

2009-06-10T16:08:00.004-04:00

.....to brighten up the day.

Blue Eyed Grass, Sisyrinchium "California Skies", and miniature oxalis.

A Closer Look: Bonsai Pests, Aphids

2009-06-09T19:41:00.004-04:00

A Closer Look: Bonsai Pests

Part 1 - Aphids

Aphids are a ubiquitous garden variety pest in temperate regions, as irritating on our tomatoes as they are on our bonsai. Also called plant lice and greenflies, Aphids are part of the insect superfamily of Aphidoidea (which pretty much covers all of the types of aphids but two), with over four thousand species known (over two hundred considered pests to horticulturalists), ranging in size from one to ten milimeters. Soft bodied, tiny, and destructive, they are seriously irritating little buggers that feed on the soft parts of our plants. (photo of aphids feeding on a fennel stalk, open source from wikipedia)

Aphids, for the most part, cause damage to our plants in one of two ways: by feeding off of the sap of the plant, and by potentially introducing viruses to the host plant (though fortunately, this is more common with vegetables than with trees, phew). The first is easier to deal with by dealing with the infestation. And, I assure you, if you see a couple aphids now, deal with it, rather than waiting. A couple aphids might not do much, but if they like your tree, they will reproduce, and *quickly*.

Anatomy of an Aphid: Aphids have soft bodies, ranging in color from green, yellow, brown, black and pink (though green seems to be the most common). Some species may appear waxy or "wolly". Their bodies are squat, and frequently pear shaped, with a tail like protusion (called a cauda). They have two compound eyes. Aphids have antenae, like all true insects, with as many as six segments. They feed themselves through stylets, which are the sucking mouth parts we find so detrimental, which are enclosed in a sheath called the rostrum. They have long, thin legs compared to their squat body shape and size, with double clawed "tarsi", which is just a fancy name for a certain part of an arthropod's leg. Most aphids have a pair of abdominal tubes (called cornicles or siphunculi), through which they exude defensive fluids to help ward off predators. The presence of cornicles distinguishes aphids from all other insects.

Aphid Habits: Some species feed on only one type of plant (these are called monophagous), though there are others that will feed on a large number of different types of plants (the green peach aphid, Myzus persicae, as a for instance). They are passive feeders. This means rather than sucking out the sap of a plant, they use their mouth parts to puncture the phloem of their host plant, letting the natural pressure within the phloem force the sap out to them. Since the sap of most plants is relatively high in sugar (a product the aphids don't need much of) and relatively high in nitrogen (something the aphids do need a lot of), they frequently give off a waste product known as 'honeydew', drops of sweet liquid containing the sugar they didn't need. Ants on a plant can frequently be an indicator of an aphid problem, as ants are attracted to the honey dew. Some species of ants will even 'herd' aphids as food sources, moving them to new plants and protecting them from predators. When host plant quality becomes poor or conditions become crowded, some aphid species produce winged offspring (known as alates) that can disperse to other food sources.

Aphid Reproduction: Interesting note- Aphids give birth to live young, called Nymphs. At least, some do, others lay eggs. There are also species that can reproduce asexually, which, considering how invasive these things are and the fact that they can be spread via wind, goes a long way toward explaining why this family of insects is so darn pervasive. Different species of aphids have different methods of reproduction, which makes it difficult here to give a brief over view. But the general gist is that most aphids reproduce rapidly when conditions are right. In the spring and summer the females (asexually) give birth to live young (all female), some of which may have wings to help them spread. At the end of the summer, males and females are produced, and eggs are laid and fertilized from this generation which will hatch the following spring. But in a warm situation like the tropics or a greenhouse, female aphids can reproduce asexually for years.

How do you know if you have Aphids: Aphids come in a number of colours and sizes, but all are tiny, soft, pear shaped bodies with cauda (tail like protrusion) and cornicales (two tubes protruding from the rear end). If you have an infestation, you'll be able to see them. You can also look for ants that are traveling up your plants (they look like they are on a mission, which is pretty accurate actually). Honeydew, the sweet liquid excreted by the aphids is another sign. Black moulds can grow on the honey dew, but they are generally considered harmless. Ugly, but harmless. Aphids leave pretty distinctive signs, even beside themselves. Leaves in an infested part of a plant will often look wrinkled or folded, even outright distorted. Aphids feeding on the base of a leaf will cause the leaf to curl backward, folding over them. Flower buds may be damaged or fall off completley. Some species of aphids will form a gall (an abnormal lump on a branch) and live inside of it, to help protect them from predators. You may also see yellow, stunted growth, wilting, mottled and brown foliage. Beside the weakening caused by the removal of sap, some aphids' saliva is actually toxic to the plants they feed on.

Aphid prevention: The best prevention for aphids is healthy, happy plants. When plants aren't stressed, they have better defenses against infestations. Keep a good distance between your trees to keep good airflow, adequately water your bonsai, and make sure they are getting the right amount of light for their species preferences. Don't over fertilize. Chemical fertilizers high in nitrogen produce large amounts of just the right kind of growth that attracts aphids. Slower acting, organic fertilizers are better for helping prevent these infestations. While we go for good growth in our trees, this is another reminder for us that balance is the key to all things in bonsai. Aphids can also thrive in thick inner canopies of trees, so keep your trees from getting too over grown in the interior. Allowing light and fresh air to penetrate will help prevent other diseases as well. There are also some studies that have been done using reflective mulches (silver coloured polyethylene sheets) to help prevent aphid infestations, though I'm not sure if anyone has tried them in bonsai cultivation. Keep new plants isolated for a week or two before putting them near your other bonsai. This way, if there is an aphid problem you may have over looked at purchasing, you have a chance to catch it before it spreads to your other trees.

Aphid Removal: If despite your best efforts, you notice an aphid infesation on one of your trees, don't panic! There are several steps you can take, ranging from the simple to the more complex.

The simplest, and cheapest way to deal with a mild aphid problem is to spray the entire plant with a strong burst of water to knock the aphids off. Make sure you get everywhere, especially the bottoms of the leaves and branches where the aphids might hide. Remove any leaves that have curled in on themselves, as aphids will hide in these as well. Don't just knock them on to the soil beneath your benches though, as they will just come back. Find someplace out of the way or over a drive way where you can then wash the whole thing down again. Spray your plants early in the day so they have a chance to dry and you can check them again in the afternoon. A solution of soapy water can also be used to wash over the entire plant.

My personal favorite (an a prevenative measure I take almost every year anyway) is to release insects that feed on aphids in to my garden and amoung my bonsai. The most common are lady bugs, though there are also types of parasitic wasps, aphid lions, crab spiders, syrphid flies and lace wings amoung others. These beneficial insects will stick around as long as there is food (i.e. APHIDS!), but you can encourage them to stick around longer by planting certain things that attract them (yarrow, cilantro, parsley and sweet alyssum are all plants that lady bugs in particular like). Lady bugs can be purchased at most garden centers now, as an alternative to chemical pesticides. If you are going to try beneficial insects, make certain you don't use any pesticides, as these will kill the good bugs as well as the bad.

Insecticidal soap or neem oil can be used, and is generally safe for bonsai, but check the label, and if in doubt, do a test on a small portion of the plant to be certain it does not cause an ill effect. An even coat that gets every part of the plant (especially the underside of the leaves!) is necessary. These only work on contact, and do not provide long term prevention. If a spot is missed on the plant, the infestation can ballon again once the oils have dried, and applications may need to be repeated. Do not use oils on water stressed plants (those that have been under watered and have wilted, or those that have been over waters and may have root rot), or if the weather exceeds 90F (30C), as this can harm the plant. Supreme- or superior-type oils will kill overwintering eggs of aphids trees if applied as a delayed dormant application just as eggs are beginning to hatch in early spring. These treatments will not give complete control of aphids however, and additional controls may be needed later in the season. Earlier applications will not control aphids.

There are also many other, stronger insecticides available for aphids (malathion, permethrin and acephate to name a few). Some of these are safer for bonsai than others. Especially if a certain tree is hit consitantly by aphid infestations, a systemic pesticide might be worth considering. Maples and Elms in particular can be susceptible to repeat attacks. There are so many kinds available it is hard to go over all of them. General guidelines are to follow the instructions on the bottle for usage, including timing and dosage. If in doubt, test it on a small area of the tree. If there are no negative affects (dying leaves, blackening bark), you can probably proceed with the rest of the tree. If you can, however, avoid the use of diazinon and chlorpyrifos; beside diazinon being dangerous for a few species we use for bonsai, both have been identified as serious sources of pollution in lakes and rivers. Carbaryl is not recommended because it is not very effective against aphids. In general, check the labels and see what pests they are effective against.

Keep in mind that if you see ants in conjunction with the aphids, you also have to deal with the ants, as they will simply reinfest the plant. If they have made a nest in the pot itself, repotting and making sure to remove all of the old soil is effective. There are also some insecticides useful against ants, but many are not, so be certain to read the labels. Smaller garden centers can often lead you in the right direction for which pesticides will be the best for your area.

On large, landscape trees, Aphids are seldom a problem. But on small bonsai with limited roots, they can weaken a plant quite a bit, and even lead to death if not taken care of. While it may seem simple, or even not very worrisome if you see only a couple aphids, whether on a bonsai or another garden plant, early reaction and prevention are your best defenses again a full blown infestation.

Just Me and the Trees

2009-06-08T09:21:00.003-04:00

That's all it's been. Just me and the trees.

A dire need to step back from certain aspects of the bonsai world as it has become, brought me back to basics. I needed a gentle reminder of the reasons I do this. And there is no gentler reminder than full bonsai benches waiting anxiously for me to pull my attention back from drama and politics and fix my thoughts on the important things.

Just me and the trees.

Several new trees have made their way in to my hands. Alright, so more than a few. Some new pieces of material of species I've worked with previously, including another 50 year old kingsville boxwood from Edna down at Green Gardens that will be a rather unconventional bonsai. Several junipers, including a very large J. chinensis "Blue Point" that has my fiance scratching his head and wondering aloud "how do you make a seven foot tall tree in to a bonsai?" A number of maple seedlings have been pricked out and potted from last year's seeding, not only Japanese Maples, but a number of local species as well(not all of which are destined for bonsai, but also for planting out in conjunction with my son's school next spring). A larger piece of stock, a Sharp's Pygmy Japanese Maple that will be the largest maple stock I've ever worked with, it staring at me through the living room window, bright and green and eager.

There are also a number of species I have not worked with before. Some just because I hadn't purchased them, and some because they aren't at all what most people would consider suitable species for bonsai for one reason or another. A very small cotoneaster found its way to my benches, as well as a Japanese Larch. Of the three that I don't typically see as bonsai, there is a Top Hat blueberry that I have already started work on, and am *very* happy with. I stumbled across a Dwarf Eastern White Pine when I wasn't even in search of stock one day. The needles are smaller than I'd expected, almost as small as the needles on my J. White Pine, and I'll be giving it a shot, though I might need a hand bending some of these branches (which are pretty monstrous) in to position when the time comes. A Heptacodium miconiodides, or a Seven Sons Tree has be wondering mostly invovling if the four inch leaves will reduce at all (if you've ever worked with this species and have any tips, let me know!). The stock itself has beautiful exfoliating bark, great movement, and even if it never makes a "show quality bonsai", I find that I don't really care. Just me and the trees, right?

Several smaller indoor trees followed me home occasionally from a variety of places. I do little work with indoor tropicals. I have very little free space in a very small home, but several changes and the addition of a window sill on a large bay window where none had been previously suddenly made it possible. Serissa, ficus, scheflerra and fukien tea are now settled in different parts of the house (though some have moved outside for the summer, I had very bad luck with my serissas last year and their change from outdoor summer plants to indoor winter plants, so they get to be indoor plants year round now. They are happy enough, I'll leave them alone.).

Just me and the trees.

So where does this leave the society, bonsai blog and the rest of the internet aspects that I had been participating in?

Honestly, I'm not sure yet. There are some things I miss doing, and some places I miss being. And most of all, there are some people I miss being able to talk to on a regular basis. I needed a hiatus from all of it, time to recenter and refocus on what was important and what wasn't. It isn't necessary to point fingers and proclaim nonsense, and I'm not going to do so. Additional drama is never a good thing, and I've made myself a promise of not getting sucked back in to the parts that drive me nuts and just do what's important.

So, what's important then? The people, mostly. The sense of community with folks who have similar interests and a drive to share. Not just sharing their knowledge, but also their time and their friendship. I do miss being able to have people I trust to ask a question to. I miss working on the species sheets at KoB, and shuffling photos together for galleries at AoB. I miss working on my own Kitsune Bonsai project, as well as using this blog to share what I am working on and to organize my thoughts.

It's amazing how making a mental list of the things you enjoy against a list of the things that drive you nuts can focus you down to what is worth doing. It's so simple. And it has removed a lot of things now that I'm just not interested in wasting my time on, because they bring more grief than peace. There's enough grief in any life without inviting more in.

Just you and me and all of the trees.

I'll be spending the next week or so puttering around, mostly with my trees when the sun is shining (it's been raining for weeks here), but also starting to get back involved where I can, and where the door is still open.

-Heather

Merry Christmas, Happy Birthday, your pick

2008-09-19T09:38:00.004-04:00

A recently passed birthday has given me the perfect excuse I need to finally purchase some pots from Andy over at Stone Monkey. I've been admiring his pots for some time, and frankly, was overdue to get a couple from him. So while his recent post at Knowledge of Bonsai was labeled as "Merry Christmas", I'm happy to call it "Happy Birthday" in my head.

My photoclient is being all buggy, but you can view the pots here:
http://www.knowledgeofbonsai.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=50&t=2924

The very first one (accent plant), and the very last one (the green glazed shohin), are the pots I've ordered, and I am happy as I wait for them to arrive. I hemmed and hawed between the green one, and the grey rectangular pot above it (you'll see what I mean... I love the glaze on that one too). Really beautiful batch all around.

Maples!

2008-09-17T08:16:00.004-04:00

This is less a news post, and more a call for information.

So typically, the most common maples we see as bonsai are Japanese maples and Trident maples. But there is a wealth (over 160 species in the genus) of different maples that could be used. While some might be unsuited for smaller sized bonsai, due to a lack of leave reduction and long internode size, almost any maple has the qualities needed to thrive in bonsai cultivation (tolerance to root pruning, quick healing, etc). But traditionally we focus on two species of maple, to the near complete exclusion of so many other interesting and potentially beautiful choices.

I've been working a bit with my own local maple species as bonsai. And while none of these have been in cultivation long enough for them to warrent anything other than the name 'prebonsai material,' I am looking foreward to the next few years working with them.

So what's my call for information?

I'm looking for people who have worked with non traditional maple as bonsai stock. I'd like to hear your opinions on them, your experiences with lead reduction, root pruning, or any other observations you have with a particular species. I'd be interested to know what prompted you to give it a try in the first place. Was it simply cheap local material to practice on? A beautiful yamadori you couldn't resist? Recommendation? I'd also like to see pictures of any you've been working on, in any stages of development.

Now, the why.

I'm working on compiling a list of the nontraditional maples that could be used in bonsai cultivation. I would like to include more information than what is available to me in books and the internet. I can include my own experiences with my own local species, but so many of them I do not have personal access to. It means that while I might be able to make cultivation notes from research, I wouldn't actually know that (insert x species here) has long internodes, making it difficult for small bonsai cultivation, but it can tolerate radical root pruning, or that (insert y species here) has leaves that while they seem unreasonably large in the wild, reduce drastically for good use in even shohin bonsai.

That kind of personal experience is what I'm searching for. Eventually, I would like to put up the list on my website, Kitsune Bonsai, if I can get all of the information I need. Contributors, whether of useable information or photographs, will be included. I recognize that I simply cannot experience every species of maple on my own, not even in the next ten years.

Drop me a line here, or at the website if you have worked with any nontraditional maples you would like to share with others who might be hesitant to try experimenting with their own local maple species. Even if it's "I had trouble with this one," that's a help!

I feel like local native trees are all too often over looked in bonsai, in favor of published, more well known "traditional" trees. I enjoy working with traditional subjects, but it is also a huge boon, and even an adventure, to discover and experiment with local species to find what works and what might not. The eventual plan is to detail all of those local species, but of course I have to go and start with the most difficult!

What a long, strange road we walk

2008-09-11T10:21:00.003-04:00

Health problems. New jobs. Summer vacation for the kiddies. Computer getting the binary version of the clap. Frustration with politics, both in the national sense and in the internet sense. Moving. Home ownership. Historical epiphanies.

What do all of these things have in common?

They've brought about the neglect of my bonsai. Both in physical and digital format.

The last months have been a rollercoaster ride. And my hobbies are always the first to suffer when things go crazy. Not only my online bonsai participation dropping to level zero, but even my trees themselves suffered neglect this summer. While I only lost three trees (two due to watering mishaps involving a relative and vacation time, and one for unknown, boggling reasons. I will miss that mugo pine.), what I truly lost was a season worth of work. Fortunately, in a life long hobby, a single season seems small in the scheme of sixty years or more if I'm lucky (or unlucky, depending on your point of view).

While I know that on a logical level, it sometimes feels like a physical blow when I look at my benches, and realize that I have acomplished *nothing* this year, other than the basic task of keeping these small reflections of myself alive with the bare minimum of care. Which oddly enough, reflects the effort I've put in to myself as well since April.

Winter, as always, is a quiet time for bonsai, though I have much to do still before cold weather hits here. While repottings, trimings, wirings and a number of other verbs ending in -ing will have to wait, there are still things that I can do with certain trees, and preperations to begin for winter care and protection, now that the backyard is of a significantly (read: less protected) different quality.

Where does this leave me? With the nursery season tapering off, my time (and hopefully energy) will be rising again. And especially once the cold of winter hits, with less to do tree wise, my time will again turn to books and the computer. I hope this winter to come closer to completing the Kitsune Bonsai project, get back involved on the forums, and generally set myself to remembering just who I am outside of everything but my own mind.

As the crazy fades away, I get a chance to remember that it is not a defining part of life. Merely a symptom of it.

At Last

2008-03-20T21:43:00.006-04:00

Ready for repotting. The weather is finally at a point I'm comfortable with for this, my new soil sieves arrived in the mail today (almost a month after ordering them, much to my general annoyance), and though I am hoping to pick up some haydite from Tom of the Eastern Suffolk Bonsai Society sometime soon, it's not something I've previously used in my soil mixture, so I'm ok with not including it in every pot this year.

While repotting bonsai with a small child, I recommend several things:
1) at least one tree that he is allowed to repot, largely on his own
2) soil that you don't need/regular potting soil, a trowel and a bucket that he can go to town with once he gets bored with the trees themselves.
3) A week worth of days to work with, rather than the three days you should normally need.

If I can get an hour of repotting done in a day with the kiddo around, I feel like I've gotten in a good day of it. Ideally, I'd only need a couple days to do all of them, but it'll take up to two weeks likely to actually get them all done. I don't mind this hugely. It forces me to be more personal with each tree, take my time and enjoy just playing in the dirt. Hey, he does, why can't I?

Oh, I almost forgot something:
4) a shower waiting, because he will be *covered* in dirt by the end of it all.

So, what am I using? I'm still working on getting my "ideal" soil recipe down. Will that ever happen? In theory.... maybe. Different trees get different soils, but the general components that are used to make up all of them include:
-Turface (because akadama around here is more than I can afford for the number of trees I'm repotting)
-Lava rock
-chopped Sphagnum moss
-fir or pine bark
-pea gravel/granite chips

Haydite this year? We'll see where it finds a place. Tom and Eric will also be digging up something like 200 field grown trees this year, and I'll admit I'm waiting with baited breath to see what's available and bring something home with me when the time comes. The haydite is just gravy.

In other news, there are two new links on the sidebar to bonsai blogs. I recommend them, drop by and take a wander through. Both have good information, pictures, personal bonsai journies, all of which equals a good read to me.

Knowledge of Bonsai contests

2008-03-18T08:21:00.003-04:00

So the 2007 Green Award, the Indonesian bonsai photo contest sponsored by KoB has come to an end, and the winners have been announced. The quality of trees entered in the contest were fantastic, well done to everyone who entered! You can check out the contest, all of the entries, and the winners here:
2007 Green Award

There are also three other contests running, one at KoB, one at AoB and one running congruently at both:

*****
KoB/Bonsai Focus Progressive Styling contest 2008

The Knowledge of Bonsai Forum
Proudly Presents Our Second Annual
Progressive Styling Contest
Sponsored by Bonsai Focus Magazine

The contest objective is to obtain stock and style it into a presentable
bonsai within the time frame allotted by the rules below. In order to include
all levels of enthusiasts and all levels of stock, we have created a
professional and a non-professional category and sub-divided these into
different stock categories. There is no price limit on stock.

Continuing
our goal of presenting a contest that is educational for all, we have continued
the modified “before and after photo” styling contest common on most forums with
our original progression requirement addition.

Each entry will consist
of three parts containing the following as outlined in the rules below:

• Three before photographs submitted with accompanying descriptive text,
as outlined in the rules below.
• Three progression photographs submitted
with accompanying descriptive text, as outlined in the rules below.
• Three
final photographs submitted with accompanying descriptive text as outlined in
the rules below.

This year we have decided to expand the parameters of
the contest by allowing the submission of tanukis, groups, and forests. These
will have their own category and will be judged against others of the same
styling.

You need not be a member of The Knowledge of Bonsai Forums to
enter. This contest, like all of the content on KoB, is free, viewable, and open
to all who are interested. Those that wish to participate in discussions on the
contest or other topics on the forum will be required to join in order to
comment.

Please read all rules before submitting your entry and refer
back to them before submitting your before, progression or final photographs in
order to prevent misunderstandings or needless disqualification. Most of all,
enjoy yourselves and have fun.

*****
AoB/KoB Article Contest

The AoB / KoB ARTICLE CONTEST
Sponsored by The American Bonsai Society
Journal

RULES

The contest objective is for participants
to write an original article about bonsai in a professional and educational
manner. The goal of this contest is educational and is meant to bring out the
author in all who participate, as well as to encourage the creation of much
needed articles for the bonsai community not only during the contest, but indeed
after the contest as well. It is our hope that the participants of this contest
will continue to write and publish articles afterward and in doing so, add to
the knowledge base.

You need not be a member of The Knowledge of Bonsai
Forum or The Art of Bonsai Project to enter. This contest, like all of the
content on KoB and AoB, is free, viewable, and open to all who are interested.
Those that wish to participate in discussions on the contest or other topics on
the forum will be required to join in order to comment.

The American
Bonsai Society Journal has graciously agreed to consider publication for all
winning entries as well as for other quality articles submitted.

Please
read all rules before submitting your entry and refer back to them before
submitting your article in order to prevent misunderstandings or needless
disqualification. Most of all; enjoy yourselves and have fun.

****
AoB Photo Contest

The Art of Bonsai Awards
Sponsored by International Bonsai

After careful deliberation, the staff at AoB has decided to focus
on one contest only
each year. It is our hope that by doing so, we can bring
together a larger
representation of bonsai from around the world, while
continuing to offer a
respectable prize list and maintain our high standard
of professional judging.

We have taken all of our groundbreaking and
record setting contests and
incorporated the best ideas from all into one
single photo contest format. This
new design includes multiple categories,
while creating a format where other
categories and subdivisions can be
easily added to meet the needs of our members
and sponsors in the future.

We have also decided to offer additional
awards, in cooperation with
other bonsai organizations and our sponsors, such
the American National
Bonsai Exhibition Award, and the ABFF award. These awards
are in addition to our
primary awards, which are designed to reward and
recognize the very best
bonsai in the world.

We have eliminated our
previous sub-categories
dividing professional and non-professional entrants. It
is our decision to
hold contests that reflect the philosophy of the Art of
Bonsai Project,
namely that all content here be of the highest caliber.

We sincerely
hope that you will help spread the word about this contest
and participate
yourself.
Good luck to all!

*****

Check out the links for further details on each of these contests. All cater to a different aspect of bonsai as a whole, and I am really looking forward to seeing this year's entries in all of them!

Though I lack bonsai with the finished capacity for the AoB photo contest, I am considering entering the Progressive styling contest as well as the article contest. I'm on the hunt for just that right piece of stock that I know I can work on during the time period alloted.

I've come across one such piece, but it would be a whole new beast for me. A species I've never worked on, and the sheer *size* of the stock is daunting. I would primarily in shohin and chuhin bonsai, mostly due to my own space restraints (though I've been teased that I like little bonsai because I am a small person). But this piece of stock is over four and a half tall, and would retain at least three to three and a half feet of that height, possibly a more, even after styling. This would be, in my mind, a suitable time to take on a task like this, a good time to challenge myself and break myself out of my small bonsai mold. Part of the issue is space however, and unless I can find a *place* to keep the hulking monster, a smaller piece of stock will have to be found!

Eastern Suffolk Bonsai Society and more

2008-03-14T11:01:00.005-04:00

I've spent much of this week sick (not unexpectedly, my house as been a source of the black plauge), but fortunately, I didn't succumb until after Tuesday evenings Eastern Suffolk Bonsai Society meeting.

I was invited to attend by Tom and Eric, two very active society members, one of whom I'd met previously when he came to see Mike Hagedorn speak for the BSGNY. Though I had no clear notions in mind of what to expect, I have to say that the evening has been one of the most enjoyable ones I've had in some time. The first thing that strikes one about the members of the ESBS is how friendly everyone is. I can't say enough how wonderful it was to be greeted so warmly by those I met on monday night. That in and of itself would have made the night well worth it.

Their speaker was Bob Mahler, who has been studying bonsai since he was 15. He studied bonsai in Japan, with Susumo Sudo, and worked at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens for eleven years. Tom provided a really nice piece of stock, a field grown Japanese White Pine. I wish I wish I wish I had brought my camera, but this was one of those rare occasions where it slipping my mind and I didn't have it on me. Bob was an enjoyable presenter, very knowledgeable about bonsai in general, and white pines in particular. The tree took shape over two and a half hours, and was raffled at the end, going home with one of the club members.

Check out both the ESBS website (http://www.easternsuffolkbonsai.org/index.cfm) and Bob Mahler's as well (http://www.sexybonsai.com/).

Partly inspired by that demo, and armed with a new understanding of white pines, I ended up with a dwarf white pine from Edna at Green Garden Works. More about that in the future, and once I get some pictures taken.

BSGNY's monthly meeting is tonight at Farmingdale University. The topic is Maple grafting, the lecture and workshop with Rich Perricone. I don't think I'm going to be able to make it, the way I feel today... and I really don't want to spread the plauge any further >.<

I'll be taking it easy the next few days. Fortunately for me, this chosen hobby of mine is a perfect thing.

Forget the Robin....

2008-03-07T08:54:00.005-05:00

Haven't seen a robin yet, but for the first time this season, the call of the Redwing Blackbird sliced out over my front lawn this morning as I saw my son off to school. Though the robin is the herald of spring, I have to admit that the return of the Redwing Blackbird is a much more important sign for me. Why's that?

Repotting time.

It's not fool proof, and sometimes the birds get a tad confused and get themselves caught in a late freeze (though for them it's less of an issue than the neo-tropical birds that migrate based on day length, rather than current climate conditions). But typically, within about a week, two tops of the arrvial of these birds, I'm comfortable starting my repotting. Odd way to gauge it? Perhaps.

So what am I waiting for? Beside the slew of bad weather we're slated for this weekened (rain, rain and more rain), the new set of soil sieves I ordered has not yet arrived. I'm not a frequent e-bay customer, it has never really appealed to me, and the tardiness of the delivery isn't making me more of a fan, I have to admit. I've had good luck with Dallas Bonsai for items like this in the past, and I'll order from them again next time, or for that matter, this time if I can find a way to just cancel the order at this point.

Soil ingredients are most ready. The fir bark hasn't come in yet at a regular local nursery, but everything else ready and waiting. I use some combination, depending on the tree, of turface, pea gravel, lava rocks, and pine or fir bark. I'd tried to Oil-dri after a recommendation, but frankly, am less than thrilled with the results. It broke down far more than I'd expected in the few pots I'd used it in, and those test trees are the first things to be getting a repot this year. Root growth on them seems to have been negligible at best, completely static on one. There's been no obvious *harm* done to the trees, but I don't see that a few years in that medium would do anything good for the tree's health. Still trying to find a new local source for sphagnum moss, with Golden Bonsai not in business at the moment, and if I have to I'll order some online as well. I'm constantly surprised by what my local nurseries do and do not carry. Sphagnum moss seems like a basic nursery product to me, considering it's varied uses, but I guess that's just me. I'll be starting several projects that involve the first steps in fixing some poor nebari on at least two trees, and I'd been hoping to start an airlayer on a crab apple out in the yard. We'll see what happens.

All in all, today's a beautiful day. I'd intended on finishing up the species sheets for at least the Olive for KoB, but it might be a day to head down to the Bayard Cutting Arboretem, at least while I've got the sun.

Species Classroom at KoB

2008-03-06T23:43:00.004-05:00

Chalk dust and homework?

Thank goodness not!

I've taken up the job of working on (and maybe ten years from now completing) the Species Care sheets for the Knowledge of Bonsai Forums. For those of you familiar with my website, the sheets at KoB will be more extensive, touching on the history, expanded anatomy, and interesting tidbits about individual species, as well as care, cultivation and specific techniques. The first two, Ginkgo and Bouganvillea have finally hit the public forum. Sheets for Olive and Flowering Cherry are currently in the works. More forthcoming, with a goal(personal goal) of one written each week. I'm looking foreward to this project, and hopefully you'll join me :)

KoB Species Classroom

Favorite Blogs

2008-03-05T21:09:00.004-05:00

Though I'm sure that of the (small) number of people who read my blog are familiar with many of those Bonsai blogs I personally read and check on a regular basis, I've decided to share them on a more permant basis anyway. So my favorite bonsai blogs will now be featured on the sidebar to the right (unless I muck with the layout again. The green wasn't doing it for me). I'm sure more will be added as I find/am directed toward others, or as some of those I love begin update more frequently.

A girl can dream, right?

Golden Bonsai, an online fundraiser?

2008-02-29T13:20:00.003-05:00

Rich is having a rough time of it. I feel really bad for him honestly. I can't even imagine what he's going through the right now.

The fundraiser didn't go as well as he'd hoped, and insurance is covering even less than was originally thought. What does this mean for Golden Bonsai? Unless something seriously changes, it means nothing. As in potentially no Golden Bonsai. We spoke today, and after hearing that Hilary Clinton manages to raise some hidiously large amount of money through only online fundraising, he's asked me to look into it for him. My response? "Well, Hilary Clinton is Hilary Clinton, but I'll look for you."

Would an online fundraiser do any better for us? He knows that I have extensive contacts in the online bonsai community, but there is a big difference asking someone for their advice on a tree or an article, and asking them to send money to rebuild a nursery that they have never seen, and likely never will. How do you ask someone that? There are some things I am good at. I don't know if this is one of them, or where I stand on it really.

We'll be looking into the option, though how it would be implemented if we do it has yet to be seen. If anyone knows of any fundraising references, or anything of the like for on-line fundraising, drop me a line. I'm off to wandering around the net on the quest myself.

Hana osage naru

2008-02-28T11:07:00.004-05:00

On Mount Yoshino

Snoflakes scattering down

from cherry limbs-

one of those years

when blossoms come late.

Yoshinoyama

sakura ga eda ni

yuki chirite

hana osoge naru

toshi ni mo aru kana

Spring isn't actually late as it was the year Saigyo wrote this poem, but I am done with winter. It has never been a favorite season of mine (though making snowmen with Rowan is fun, it is really the only highlight). I am as sleepy as my trees thoughout this darker season, and I find myself continually turning toward the sun in hopes that it will be warming instead of merely bright.

News? No, this isn't news, merely a momentary musing as I wait for spring.

Here, however, is news.

The fundraiser for GB went well. Everyone who came had a good time, good laughs, and most walked away with some nice auction prizes, ranging from gift certificates, to handmade jewlery, from tools to trees. Even some of the bar patrons got in on the act, several of them walking out with bonsai trees of their own, instructions in their care, and contact info if they have further questions. All in all, it was a fun day.

I mentioned some exciting news in my last post. I have been invited to be an editor at the Knowledge of Bonsai, and the Art of Bonsai forums. This came as a bit of a surprise, though admittedly a very pleasant one. I have been enjoying the content, as well as the posters there for some time now, and am very excited about the chance to participate on a more in depth level.

Tomorrow's the day....

2008-02-23T23:35:00.003-05:00

The fundraiser for Golden Bonsai is tomorrow. We've got the auction stuff lined up, music, people, and whole shebang. The folks from Changing Times Pub have been really fantastic, really going out of their way to make this go as smoothly as possible for us, and I can't even begin to thank them enough. I'll have pictures up sometime after the event. I'm looking foreward to the event itself, but also to being able to move foreward with helping Rich rebuild GB. We'll be heading to Green Garden Nursery in Northport in the next week or two, and MidAtlantic when the time comes to start looking at rebuilding stock for the nursery- I'm looking foreward to both of those trips. My own funds and space limit the amount of trees I can bring home, so what could be more fun than helping someone pick out stock that I know will one day make a great tree, even if I don't have the space for it? It's the next best thing to being able to bring it all home myself.

I might have some other big news in bonsai pending, but I'm waiting to hear back before I get overly excited. Keep your fingers crossed!

So, where's my spring?

2008-02-13T16:28:00.004-05:00

For a week or so there, I thought we had it. Temps in the 40s and 50s, sunny days with a day or rain or two. Pleanstly warmer breezes and something fresh coming off the bay.

Then a couple days ago we dropped into a sudden freeze. With temps in the teens for two days, followed by snow and again by barely melting rain, I'm getting a little miffed. I realize it's not suposed to be warm weather yet, but that doesn't mean I appreciate someone teasing me with it!

I'm ready to start repotting, but the weather, she is not so prepared. I'm not trusting things just yet to keep from freezing on me again. I'll content myself with prowling impatiently around my benches.

Green Garden Nursery

2008-02-11T20:10:00.001-05:00

It's time, and over due for some other bonsai news.

For those of you on Long Island, head out into Northport. A little out of the way off Jericho Turnpike is a nursery called Green Garden Nursery. It's been there for 53 years (if I remember correctly), and I have to say, I was floored when I stepped on to the property. From the road, it doesn't look like much. But once you clear the driveway and the trees that block the (6) greenhouses from the road, the possibilities suddenly become endless. Edna (the long time owner and all around fantastic lady) has done a phenomenal job. I wish that I had more of a chance to speak with her. She was friendly, helpful, knowledgeable about her stock and bonsai in general.

I could have spent hours there, going over the stock both in the cold frames, the hot houses and on the rest of the grounds, but unfortunately, other time restraints allowed me little enough of a chance. The one reason I had gone there in particular, was the mention by Eric (of the Eastern Suffolk Bonsai Society) of an extensive selection of Kingsville boxwoods. These are one of my favorite species to work with, so that in and of itself was enough to get me out there.

The selection of the boxwoods, even if I didn't have time to look at much else, was amazing. Everything from a few year old cuttings, to fifty year old field grown stock, she had it all in abundance. I left there with a 30 year old tree, a beautiful twin trunk boxwood that has been so well cared for and grown with bonsai in mind it is going to be an utter joy to work with.

I have full intentions of returning, not only to continue going through the stock, but also to have a chance to speak with Edna more than the small amount I was able to.

For those interested, the address is:
16 Burr Rd
East Northport, NY 11731
(631) 499-4235

They're open 10-5 (at least), seven days a week. Definately give a stop by. I highly recommend it.

Golden Bonsai Fundraiser

2008-02-10T13:34:00.002-05:00

The fundraiser start rebuilding Golden Bonsai will be held on Sunday, the 24th of Febuary. It will be from 1-6 at Changing Times Pub, right next door to the nursery. There will be a 20 dollar recommended donation at the door, and those who choose to do that will also received a 20 dollars off a purchase of 100 dollars or more coupon for when the nursery re-opens. Food and soft drinks will be provided, and the pub will be offering those who wish happy hour pricing on other beverages. We'll be doing a 50/50 cash raffle, along with a chinese auction. Along with music, it'll be a good time all around with good people and company. Tell a friend, and join us for part or all of the afternoon!

Changing Times Pub
1247 Melville RdFarmingdale, NY 11735

Feel free to email me or contact me here with any questions you may have about the event.

Golden Bonsai

2008-01-20T19:31:00.001-05:00

Sometime between 2:00 pm and 4:00 pm today Golden Bonsai nursery caught fire. I got the call from Rich a bit ago, and it's gone. Some of the hot house survived, with a few of the trees, but otherwise everything is gone. The fire department is still trying to figure out where the fire started, at least they were as of half an hour or so ago.

I don't have the energy, or the ability right now to write up how I'm feeling. This is a huge blow, not only for those of us personally effected, but for the bonsai community on Long Island as a whole.

Feel free to drop a line to Rich here.... I will make sure he gets it. Any photographs or memories you have of the place, also feel free to share here. I just updated the GB website, so people will know.... now you guys know too.

I'll post as I have information here.

New domain!

2007-12-19T08:24:00.001-05:00

First my big news. Though it may not be very exciting to anyone but me! Kitsune Bonsai can now be located on the web at its own domain, www.kitsunebonsai.com. I've almost finished transfering all of the information from the old page over (I'm hoping to finish moving the galleries for special events and workshops there today), and have already begun adding new content that has been languishing away on my computer. On the old website, I'd been doing all of the work in raw HTML coding, and frankly, had gotten to a point where if I saw another [a href=], I was going to throw the computer out the window. The software I'm using with the new site however is extemely streamline and easy to use, and will ensure that I can work on the site from anywhere, even without an internet connection. It's been a beeze to do the redesign that had been beyond my own HTML coding know-how, and I'm very happy with how the new site looks- professional, simple, but still with personality. I can't really ask for more. Well, maybe to get off my rump and finish writing up the articles and species guides!

In other news, the Holiday Party was great. We had a better turn out than expected and everyone brought some great dishes to share. The Auction went well, with some really *great* pieces of stock up on the block. The Marco tree featured earlier in the blog was the only thing I really wanted to bring home with me, but it went for much more than I would have been able to pay for it, much to my chagrin (though it was worth every penny of the final going price!!!).

I've been officially elected as the Bonsai Society of Greater New York's Vice President for the '08 year, which is also pretty neat. I'd been asked about it months ago, and have been fairly certain it would be the cast, but now it's actually offical. We'll be having a board meeting sometime after the holidays to work out a class/workshop/meeting plan for the next year, and hopefully we'll be able to bring in some great speakers for the Society!

Hope the upcoming holidays are treating you all well, and you haven't lost your minds just yet! Happy Holidays everyone!

BSGNY Holiday Party

2007-12-06T08:15:00.000-05:00

The BSGNY Holiday party will be 8 pm at Farmingdale University, in the horticulture center. We'll be doing a potluck dinner and auction, featuring the trees done by our visiting artists over the last year (including the Marco Invernizzi tree posted in this blog in October!).

Door fee is $10 a person at the door. However you can waive that by bringing a covered dish to feed 10-12 people (one dish per couple). Children at free. Also feel free to bring items to donate to the auction! All proceeds go to the society to book visitors for the next years and purchase raw materials for club workshops. Non members are welcome to join us for the party, the same fee or covered dish fee apply.

If you will be joining us, please e-mail me at hartman.heather@yahoo.com, or resond here. Let me know if you'll be bringing a dish, and if so, what. We also welcome last minute additions, but anyone who can let us know ahead of time is very helpful :) Also, if you need directions or have any other questions, feel free to drop me a line!

In other news, the Golden Bonsai Website is finally running again! I'll be updating that over the next few days. Rich will be opening a booth at the Attias Flea Market in Holbrook/Sayville (it's right on the town line and frankly, I have no idea where exactly it falls!), across from the Sunvet Mall. We'll be setting up later today. So if you can't stop by the shop in Farmingdale, drop in there. We can bring anything you might want to the booth given a day or two for you to pick up, so just let us know. I'll be there Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, but the booth will be open 7 days a week, 10-10. Stop by and see us :)

American's First National Bonsai Exhibition

2007-11-28T09:49:00.001-05:00

Yes, that's right. In October, 2008, the first National show for Bonsai will be held in Rochester New York. I feel as though I can hardly add anything at this point to what has already been said at the Knowledge of Bonsai about it.... The following is an exerpt from there:

"The bonsai community is on the threshold of a historic event of such importance that it will no doubt change the state of the art in this country and raise the level of bonsai to a height only imagined before.

The thought of a American National Show on the level of Kokufu Ten, Ginkgo, or the Crespi Cup has been hoped for by the serious artists and discussed by all for many years. Finally we have one and with William Valavanis at the helm, there is little doubt that it will be the high quality, professional, exhibition that the American bonsai community sorely needs."

Some links to KoB and the Bonsai Exhibition site:
http://knowledgeofbonsai.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=79&t=2508&p=10610#p10610
http://www.internationalbonsai.com/nbe08/

This really is a big bit of news for Bonsai in the States. While I was unable to make the shohin show in Rochester this past year, I'll be trying my all to make this show. I've got a year to plan, and so do you!

Site Updates, BSGNY news and more

2007-11-09T15:15:00.002-05:00

This past month has been a crazy time for me, and though I've been continuing with bonsai activities, there hasn't been the time or impetous to get the information up in this format. Life should slow down again for me- though it'll be speeding up for the rest of you as Christmas season grabs hold and shakes the crazies out.

Golden Bonsai website is down- thanks for your e-mails guys- due to technical issues. We'll be getting that sorted out as soon as possible!

Tonight is the monthly BSGNY meeting held at Farmingdale Campus at the Horticultural greenhouse. We will be doing a ficus workshop, so grab your tools and a pot and come on down. Free for members with a reasonable fee for non-member guests. You'll get to go home with a nice little tropical that you can work on over the winter while the rest of your trees take the deep sleep, and more knowledge on the species in general. Drop me a line here if you need directions or info, I'll be checking here and my e-mail all day.

Want a little info on ficus before coming down? Normally I'd link you, but with the site down I'll post it here directly.

Ficus Information and Care:
Ficus are amoung the most popular species for indoor bonsai. With over 800 different species of this tropical evergreen shrub, there are over a dozen species and nearly one hundred varieties that are suited to bonsai.

Also commonly known as Figs, these trees are not frost hardy, and should be brought inside when day or night temperatures drop below 60F (15C). Living outdoors in the summer months will benefit them greatly, but bring them in when the weather starts to turn colder. Though they will not die from temperatures below 60, it will lead to a deterioration of health, and is simply best avoided.

The Fig's popularity as indoor bonsai stem from their tolerance of normal indoor conditions in many homes: Low light and low humidity. This is not to say that they do not require better light and humidity to flourish inside. Supplying your ficus with a humidity tray and/or a grow light if you do not have good natural lighting will help the tree flourish during the colder part of the year.

Many figs tolerate hard pruning quite well, and though you can prune any time of year with these tropicals, in spring or during periods of strong growth are your best option. Figs will bleed a white, milky sap when pruned.

Though they are evergreen and tropical, ficus will go through a period of dormancy when brought inside. They will not lose their leaves, but new growth will slow or stop all together, especially due to the amount of light they will be getting in winter. Do not fertilize during this period unless strong growth is being exhibited. As they are always in leaf, fertilize with a heavy nitrogen mix, 10-10-10, 10-5-5, etc.

That's just the blurb from the website, and unfortunately, there is only so much space for information on the sidebar of each section for me to write in! That might be changing in the future with full species info in a whole reference section, though it would be a while in the making. For more information on Ficus, a great website is Jerry Meislik, aka, "The Bonsai Hunk" and one of the best sources of information on these trees that I know.

http://www.bonsaihunk.us/index.html

The holiday party for BSGNY is also coming up! Officer elections will be held, as well as a auction for some of the trees worked on over the last year! The works of some of our speakers such as Guy Guidry, Arthur Skolnik, David Benavente and Marco Invernizzi will all be up on the block, as well as anything else the members would like to donate. All proceeds go toward the club. The party will be held at the usual place (Farmingdale Horticultural Center on the school property), on December 14th. Feel free to contact for more information.

As Autumn

2007-10-12T15:50:00.001-04:00

This is our first real autumn day it seems. Though the weather started out nasty, it's beautiful, sunny, crisp and breezy now. My maples have just started tinging with fall colours, later than I expected, but then it's been unseasonably warm here on Long Island these last weeks. I spent much of this afternoon removing old wire and re-wiring where needed for the rest of the winter. There's still no sign of frost warning, and until then I'm letting the trees soak up what's left of the autumn sun in their usual spots on top of the bench and the tables. My pomegranate is suitably confused, and I've had to keep pinching out flowers to help it conserve energy it doesn't need to be wasting! It, along with several serissa will be wintering it over with Rich at Golden Bonsai in the greenhouse. A few smaller serissa cuttings and the Indigo will be staying here with me unless it proves to be an issue. I live in very small quarters, and don't even really have space for a small grow light (I can squeeze one it if just a little extra something is needed, but that's it!), and we shall see if they also need to head into the green house.

On the webside of things, work will be starting soon on the Bonsai Society of Greater New York's website. Yes, I'll be doing that as well. Will I ever get back to my own site? Not in the next month, I doubt it. I don't mind at all, in fact, I'm looking foreward to getting that updated. Rebecca, one of the other club members, will be helping me with the project, for which I am grateful. The site hasn't been updated in around a year, and sorely needs the tlc.

Tis the time of year for clearance at nursery's, and though I've severaly limited myself, due to funding, I did manage to snag an azalea that I can't wait to putter with, and an Andromeda. While the azalea will be nice, it's the Andromeda that I am excited about. I'll post more on this later, as it's time to get my son off of the bus!

Marco Invernizzi Demo

2007-10-06T19:07:00.002-04:00

Marco Invernizzi is an absolutely amazing individual. Not only owning to his apprenticeship in Japan under Kimura (sometimes known just as "The Magician"), but also a history in art both in training and through his family, Marco has an eye for bonsai that is clearly well trained and intuitive combined. A friendly, charming and most importantly, humorous man, he brought a new level of workmanship and knowledge, turning the evening into a fun and informative event.

For more Marco's webpage, please visit: http://www.marcoinvernizzi.com/
There is also a profile and interview with him hosted at the AoB forum. Art of Bonsai Profile: Marco Invernizzi

The stock was brought in by one of our members. Paul actually found this tree on a junk heap left over from landscapers, and rescued the tree, potting it and letting it recover. Now showing vigorous growth, it was clearly ready for its first styling. The tree is a Chamaecyparis obtusa, Hinoki Cypress, in an unknown dwarf variety.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v614/wingednothing/marco1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v614/wingednothing/marco2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v614/wingednothing/marco3.jpg

I admit now to having a difficult time photographing Marco. He simply didn't stop moving!After passing around two albums and sign up sheet for his mailing list, Marco dove right into the tree. He showed us some of the most desirable details, especially in the lower trunk, as well as pointing out some of the flaws that are inevitable in collected material. With great taper up until the top portions of the trunk, some wonderful natural shari and deadwood on one side of the nebari, and an unsightly grafting line that was visible from one side, we had a pretty clear idea of what the strengths and weaknesses of the tree were.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v614/wingednothing/marco4.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v614/wingednothing/marco5.jpg

There had been a dieback on the trunk due to the natural deadwood on the one side of the nebari. Several branches had died back and been removed. Though the bark still clung to the trunk, it was brittle and dead, ready for a shari up much of one side of the trunk. Marco let us know that as it would be a nearly necessary part of the end design, we would clear that section first, and then choose a front based on the different angles of that shari.

As he worked he talked about life lines on the tree, pointing out several that could become shari at some point in the tree's future if so desired.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v614/wingednothing/marco6.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v614/wingednothing/marco7.jpg

Only the roughest base of the shari was completed, just enough to give us a clear idea of the shape. Details could be decided later by the eventual owner (this tree will be raffled off at our Christmas event). There was a challenge in choosing a front, as both possible sides had pros and cons. One side, featuring more elegant, almost literati lines, was marred by the bulge and line of the graft and a poor removal of a dead branch, the scar remaining prominent and unworkable at the moment. The other side showed the shari and the deadwood nebari to better effect, making that view more dynamic rather than elegant. The first branch however was coming directly out from the front on this view, and would have to be dealt with.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v614/wingednothing/marco8.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v614/wingednothing/marco9.jpg

Though both sides were viable options, and after each member was given a chance to explain why they had a preference for each side, the side with the better view of the shari was chosen. The club was split right down the middle on preference, and Marco's deciding vote was cast due not to the positive aspect of the side, but due to the graft mark on the other side. There was nothing that could ever be done to mask that, short of radically extending the shari, and that was the deciding factor for the front.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v614/wingednothing/marco10.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v614/wingednothing/marco11.jpg

Though Marco would be removing a bit of foliage, he assured us that it would not be "too much" for the tree to handle. He still left enough foliage for the tree to flourish, and as we've had (and are slated to continue having) a very warm and mild autumn, there should be no risk to the tree. He stressed that he only touched what he was going to prune. Something he learned from Kimura was that trees "don't like to be touched." Touching of foliage, especially buds can slow their growth."Touch the tree as little as possible."

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v614/wingednothing/marco12.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v614/wingednothing/marco13.jpg

After the pruning and the addition of two small, but well placed jin, Marco started wiring. He always works in an order, finishing one job before starting on the next, rather than jumping around. As the shari and pruning had been finished, he moved on to moving the position of the front "eye poker" branch. Rather than anchoring the wire to a higher branch, he wired the branch and then secured the guy wire that would pull the branch back to the wire already at the base of the branch, eliminating any unsightly wires hanging all over the tree.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v614/wingednothing/marco14.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v614/wingednothing/marco15.jpg

Marco wired each and every branch. Every last single branch. This was the longest portion (for obvious reasons) and he opened it up to questions. Few were about the tree itself, rather focusing on his training with Kimura (difficult but eye opening), his favorite material to work on (Larch), his time in Japan, among others. When we did talk about wiring, he showed us how to keep it not too tight, but tight enough, as well as some other little tips and tricks especially for wiring small branches. When the whole thing was finished, when viewed from the top you could see just how well spread out all of the branches were, how much work and detail he had put into separating the foliage pads. Due to some of the larger bends he'd put into the branches, he'd also been very careful to make certain that all of the foliage was facing up. Cypress (and most other trees for later matter) are sensitive to light on the underside of leaves, and having the bottom of the leaves facing up is a recipe for leaf burn.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v614/wingednothing/marco16.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v614/wingednothing/marco17.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v614/wingednothing/marco18.jpg

I was pleased to see no "instant bonsai" in this demo. The tree still clearly has a long way to go, but the groundwork has been laid for a truly beautiful bonsai at some point in the future. Between good stock and a great artist, this Hinoki Cypress, often considered one of the more difficult types of trees to work with and keep beautiful, will make a stunning addition to one of our member's collections this Christmas. Marco went over with us all some of things that could be done in the future with this tree, different options, some work that will need to be done, but enough that the next owner will have a strong hand in the continued shaping of this tree.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v614/wingednothing/marco19.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v614/wingednothing/marco20.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v614/wingednothing/marco21.jpg

We offer sincere thanks to Marco Invernezzi who took the time to work with our club on this piece. It was a learning experience for the club, and one we won't soon forget.Thank you Marco. Your friends in Bonsai. -The Bonsai Society of Greater New York

Marco Invernizzi

2007-10-03T18:24:00.001-04:00

On this friday, Marco Invernizzi will be visiting us at the Bonsai Society of Greater New York. He will be doing a demo at Farmingdale University, and I think this is easily the most I've looked foreward to a bonsai event ever. Check out his website to see some examples of his magnificent trees.

http://www.marcoinvernizzi.com/

If you will be in the area, feel free to contact me for more details on this event.

In other news, most of the work on the Golden Bonsai site is complete. There is still content to be added, but the chunk of it is done. I am hoping that we'll be able to get in touch with the BSGNY old webmaster soon, and then work can begin on the society website as well.

My own bonsai work is winding down for the autumn. Serissa and Miniature Pomegrante will be coming inside soon. The colours are starting to change on the maples and the pomegrante. The zelkova show no sign yet of the coming winter, but that won't last for long. There is still some time before the first real freezes and the tree's move to either beneath the bonsai benches or into the shed as needed. The False Indigo has shown the greatest change, already experiencing a die back of foliage just from the cooler evenings. It has come inside, and will remain as the more I read, the more I think it doesn't require a period of dormancy at all.

Thank you all who have continued reading this blog, I realize that updates the last two weeks have been few and far between. More pictures will be posted as I start on the fall pruning and a light bit of jin and shari work on a juniper. Until then, I hope this developing autumn finds you in as good of spirits as it finds me.

Correction

2007-09-27T20:12:00.002-04:00

I misunderstood over the phone. This weekend's event is the

Hofstra Flower and Garden show at Hostra University. For more details, check here:
http://www.hofstra.edu/Community/flwsho/index.html

The website for Golden Bonsai Nursery is up and going. A lot more time will be spent on it, but I personally think it's looking great thus far. Come check it out, and better yet, come visit the shop! :)
http://www.goldenbonsai.com

Golden Bonsai

2007-09-26T08:53:00.003-04:00

Rich Perricone and I will be at Golden Bonsai in Farmingdale today from about 10:30 to 3:00. We'll be photographing most of the store and I'll be finishing his website for him.... that primary distraction that has kept me from updates to my site and this blog. Between that, work, and company from out of town for the last few days, the trees have been getting their daily care and no serious work done, so no fun updates there. If you're free, stop by the shop today and say hello, browse, make suggestions on the website *as* I'm coding it, or just generally hang out. Over the summer it was often difficult to work out appointments at the shop, but it should be easier as the summer season winds down.

Golden Bonsai is located at:
1242 Melville rd.
Farmingdale, NY 11735

Some other news. The BSGNY will be at the Hostra Show at Farmingdale University this weekend. I'll be getting more info today on booth and times, and I'll update that here. Definately stop on in, we'll look foreward to seeing you!

Also the winners of the Progressive Styling Contest at the Knowledge of Bonsai forum, http://www.knowledgeofbonsai.org/forum/viewforum.php?f=88&sid=5fed5b26e14917722e7fd424cd8a328a have been announced. Some of the work was fantastic, the stock sometimes presented some real challenges, and even those trees that didn't have that extra something, seeing the progression on works like these is one of my favorite things about bonsai on the internet. I invite you to check out the winners and the other entrants alike, each one has something different to offer.

Karamoto Bonsai Art by Hans Van Meer

2007-09-21T09:15:00.001-04:00

I happened to stumble across Hans Van Meer's bonsai website today. I'm still moving through the bonsai stories he has posted, and I have to say that these progressions are wonderful, detailed and extremely helpful. Even if it's just to look at his gallery, this is a site I would recommend you at least stop by, or even better, take the time to read everything there....

http://www.karamotto.org/

Hope you enjoy it as much as I am!

Website Updates: Links and Gallery

2007-09-20T20:57:00.001-04:00

Links section is up, and my most frequented sites are on there. More to come. The Gallery is also officially up, though as yet, the Indigo progression already seen here is posted. Other progressions, works in progress, special events and more will follow. New nurseries have been added to the nursery database. If you know of any bonsai nurseries in your area that I don't have on that list, *please* let me know. Email me or drop me a message here. I would like to see a very comprehensive list of nurseries around the US, and as I find more, I will continue to add them.

Website updates: Glossary and Japanese Terminology

2007-09-19T14:56:00.001-04:00

I love days off. I hadn't realized what time it was, or how long I'd just spent coding HTML.... until my stomache started to growl at me!

Some new sections on the website. An ever expanding glossary of common (and some not so common) bonsai and horticultural terms that are not only useful, but in many ways essential to understanding the craft of bonsai. Also added is a rather extensive glossary of japanese bonsai phrases and terms. A more expanded section for tree varieties will include the english, latin and japanese names for many of our frequently used bonsai stock. I encourage you to check it out, and enjoy using some new japanese phrases peppered into your day! :)

Also, visitors to the website will be a complete make over of the main page. In the interest of time, I had used a basic page builder initially, but finally got to the coding myself today. Yes, that navigation bar on the top of the site will show up on every page, to make moving through the website easier.

Hope everyone's enjoying the beautiful weather (It's gorgeous where I am!) and having a great day in general!

Pond and Garden walk

2007-09-19T09:12:00.001-04:00

I do yard work and light landscaping for a friend of the family's. Every year she has a pond viewing tour, or, more accurately, there is one for the Long Island area and her house is one of the stops. The last two weeks before the event had been spent really getting down and dirty to get everything ready. The last two days before I spent eight hours just cleaning twigs and tiny weeds from the stone area around her koi pond. She requested that I bring a couple of my trees down so that she could display them during the tour. Now, I haven't shown any of my trees.... ever. I've never participated in anything (other than the internet) where I put my trees on display for other people can see and study them. So while I was a little nervous about it, I also didn't feel like I could pass this up... sort of like baby steps into eventually showing my trees. I brought over two, the Indigo that I've posted on previously, and a Juniper that as yet has not made an appearance here that I brought home after this years club auction this past August.

Thought I'd share some of the photos here, mostly of the koi pond, and not a great one of the trees, but eh. I'd originally had the trees shown in seperate places, but apparently the morning of she moved them both to the same table because she liked the way it looked. As it wasn't an official bonsai display, and it was *her* yard, I didn't have the heart to tell her I'd seperated them for viewing purposes. Whatever makes Mrs. Cheslak happy, makes me happy!

Jin and Shari Demo at Golden Bonsai

2007-09-17T20:04:00.001-04:00

For those who aren’t familiar, Rich Perricone is the owner of Farmingdale’s Golden Bonsai. He is also the President of the Bonsai Society of Greater New York, and we were fortunate enough to have him give the club a demonstration on Jin and Shari techniques. Originally slated to be held at the Farmingdale University’s green houses across the street, we changed venues just before start over to the Golden Bonsai greenhouse. After a short scurry to get some better lighting going, we were ready to begin. Though it was already dark out, many of the club members had the chance to wander around the nursery and see some of Rich’s fantastic stock before we got started.

Before the demo, he showed us several new pieces he’d acquired, including a fantastic, if a little shabby, juniper raft, garden grown for fifty years. Also several boxwoods, including a slightly unconventional boxwood literati. The largest of the boxwoods, field grown for the last fifty years as well, was truly astounding. The smallest was a cutting from that largest boxwood’s mother plant, and approximately the size this one was when it was planted out fifty years ago.

Three door prizes, donated by a member of the club who unfortunately couldn’t be there that evening, were also given out. A spruce bonsai found a new home with one of the newest members of the society, here on her first visit, and two jades were also given out.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v614/wingednothing/boxwood50yr.jpg
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v614/wingednothing/boxwoods.jpg http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v614/wingednothing/juniperraft50yr.jpg

After showing us several of his own previous work with Jin and Shari, and sharing the pedigree of one of his pieces (the Juniper shown below. The whole story I am sorry to say I didn’t write down… darn my memory, next time I’m there I’ll ask him about it again and write it down this time!), Rich showed us our two trees from which the club could chose from. Once finished, the tree would become part of the club’s collection. Two “Hollywood” junipers, both collected early this past spring, had come far enough to be able to be worked on. Though not as common as Shimpaku or Chinese junipers in bonsai, Hollywood junipers have some great features that make them perfect for the art. They have the soft, scale foliage, rather than the sharp needle foliage of some other varieties. Easily pinched, forgiving species, the red undertone to the bark is particularly appealing.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v614/wingednothing/juniperexpo.jpg
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v614/wingednothing/demo1whichtree.jpg

We decided on the smaller of the two trees, though neither is small by any stretch of the imagination! While the first tree had great qualities, the sheer expanse of non-living trunk on the second tree made it particularly suited to the demo, with more work possible on it in a shorter span of time (i.e. the evening!).

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v614/wingednothing/demo2notthisone.jpg
The tree we didn't pick....

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v614/wingednothing/demo3chosingafont.jpg
The tree we did pick!

While Rich chose a front, he talked about various events in the natural world that could cause a jin or a shari to occur on a tree in the wild. Different techniques and end results can be used to simulate and evoke a lightening strike or insect damage. As he turned to us, asking what style of deadwood we would like to see presented in this tree, the mixed calls of, “Lightening! Carpenter Ants! An avalanche!” quickly decided our course of action.

“Alright, an insect infested tree that was hit by lightening, after an avalanche.”

So much for simplicity!

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v614/wingednothing/demo4chosingafront.jpg

While much of the presentation would be focused around power tools and their uses in bonsai jin and shari techniques, there’s nothing that quite beats the more basic tools. Of all of the tools I expected Rich to pull out, a linoleum cutter was certainly not on the list. It was, however, one of the first tools to hit the tree (after a brief introduction to his dremel and a careful outline of the living vein that would remain.). I have to admit, that there was nothing more suited to the initial removal of the bark on this section of the trunk. As the living branches and foliage had only been removed a few days ago, the wood was still mostly green and, with the exception of a few rough spots, very easy to remove by hand. Had the wood gotten a chance to completely die off, we would have been more likely to see the power tools in action much sooner.

I was able to assist Rich during parts of the demonstration, though this is the only picture I have of me doing anything. A very clear indicator of how fresh the wood was remained on my hands for the rest of the night in the form of a lovely sticky sap. If I didn’t *like* the smell of juniper, this would have been a problem.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v614/wingednothing/demo5manualcarving.jpg
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v614/wingednothing/demo6helping.jpg
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v614/wingednothing/demo7helping2.jpg

Rich used the power tools to remove the remainder of the bark where it had dried out too much to be easy to remove by hand.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v614/wingednothing/demo8manonthemove.jpg
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v614/wingednothing/demo9powertools.jpg

A high powered butane torch was implemented to burn off the “fuzzy” burs of wood left behind. As wood is a very poor conductor of heat, and the foliage that the tree did have was far enough away, there was little issue with using the open flame (small though it was) on the wood we were working on. If there had been a living vein next to the area we were working on, considerably more care would need to be taken.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v614/wingednothing/demo10useofheat.jpg

I have no pictures of the next step, as I was helping Rich. We used raffia to cover the living branch, what was to be our second trunk. Using wet raffia on a branch this size required one more hand than any of us possess. The dampness of the raffia helped protect the bark from cracking as we’d be bending the branch just far enough away from the main trunk to keep it out of harms way when Rich *really* went to town with the dremel. Several windings of wire, a branch bender and another club member later (I just didn’t have the strength to hold down the pot as the branch was being bent!), we were ready to start again.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v614/wingednothing/demo11needsahand.jpg
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v614/wingednothing/demo12morepowertools.jpg

At this point several of the society members got a chance for some hands and up close experience with how the tree was coming along.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v614/wingednothing/demo14clubmembersgethandson.jpg
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v614/wingednothing/demo15clubmembersgethandson.jpg

Rich became a wood chipping fanatic at this point, the sawdust flying everywhere like juniper scented snow. The bulk of the carving occurred at this point, and the appearance of those details previously mentioned (“So wait, carpenter ants *and* lightening, right?”) really started to emerge. Rich took a break with the dremel to show us the uses of larger jin pliers when dealing with the stumps of branches that had been removed prior to cutting. By crushing the ends of the stumps (anywhere from an inch to four inches long) and pulling down on the slivers and pieces, a realistic look of where a branch had been broken off by outside forces was created (avalanche anyone?).

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v614/wingednothing/demo16woodchipseverywhere.jpg
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v614/wingednothing/demo17gettingmedivalonthetree.jpg
Our “mid way” point.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v614/wingednothing/demo18midway.jpg
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v614/wingednothing/demo19midway.jpg
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v614/wingednothing/demo20midway.jpg

The demonstration was halted at this point due to a small incident with the dremel, and though by the time this was sorted out, it was extremely late and much of the club had left, Rich finished the demonstration to the extent he’d intended to that evening.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v614/wingednothing/demo21postinjury.jpg

While there is still refinement to be done on the carvings, mostly to erase the hand of man from the final design, the dead wood at least looks much like it will look when completed. The lines will be made a little softer, to show the passing of time, some of the furrows and dead veins will be deepened, and lime sulphur will be applied to whiten and protect (at least to an extent) the deadwood as it is. The live branch, now to be our second trunk, will also need some refining and much more work, including improved ramifications and a sympathetic curve with the dead trunk, the piece is well on its way.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v614/wingednothing/demo22finishedforthenight.jpg
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v614/wingednothing/demo23finishedforthenight.jpg
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v614/wingednothing/demo24finishedforthenight.jpg

Friday's Jin and Shari

2007-09-17T08:25:00.000-04:00

I know a couple people are waiting for pictures and a blow by blow of the evening with the BSGNY (and yes Kelly, your comment finally went through, I had to change the settings).

The post will be up tonight, as I didn't realize that I had taken nearly a hundred pictures throughout the evening that I need to sort through. There hasn't been a chance yet to sit down and go through them, not only to see which ones I'm keeping, but which will be getting posted here as well. Keep your eyes on this spot for the workshop though! Expect it later this evening! :)

Website Updates

2007-09-14T17:28:00.001-04:00

Yes, things are finally moving and shaking there. At the moment, only one new area has been added: a listing of various bonsai nurseries across the United States. This will be an ever evolving section, and if you know any nurseries in your area, or are a nursery owner, feel free to drop me a line to have your location added to the list. The few that I was familiar with in Australia are also on that list, and as I come across more, in these countries and in others, they will also be added to this list.

Several articles have been written, but I am hesitating in uploading them until I have more. Perhaps I should have waited to put the website up until all of the content I eventually want there is complete. It's a work in progress, and likely always will be. Hopefully no length of time will go by without new information finding its way onto the site!

The new blog and BSGNY update

2007-09-13T18:46:00.000-04:00

After only a few days on my geocities blog, I decided that it was simply not going to cut it for my purposes. I transfered the only two posts of substance (excluding the post in regards to issues posting photos, and the two about the move itself), and already I am very happy with the html options and the fact that when I code something here, it works, rather than spontaneously changing my coding for no clear or obvious reason.

Welcome to the new blog to the readers who are joining me here from the old one, and thanks for making the move with me! Hello to any new readers who find me in this method, and hopefully I'll live up to my own expectations, as well as yours as for content and items of interest about bonsai on this blog.

Now, onto bonsai news:

My local society, The Bonsai Society of Greater New York , will be holding it's monthly meeting tomorrow night at Farmingdale University. The society President, Rich Perricone, also the owner of Golden Bonsai (formerly Juisan Bonsai, right around the corner from the University in Farmingdale), will be bringing two large "Hollywood" Junipers to the meeting. We'll be chosing one of the trees for him to do a jin and shari demonstration on, and the tree will be donated to the club. He'll be bringing all of his carving tools, and after the demonstration will be available to work on trees brought in. Styling a tree after wiring will be featured. If you are in the area and interested in joining the society or just sitting in on a meeting, drop me a line. We'll be bringing trees of our own to work on, and the night promises to be fun. I will be taking pictures and posting information in the days following the demonstration, so keep your eyes open. I'll be bringing a juniper of my own as well, and post some of the progression images after. The tree already has jin incorporated into the design, but as I'd intended to extend it and add a shari element, the timing on this workshop is perfect.

Also of interest, Marco Invernizzi, an Italian bonsai artist that I am personally extremely excited to see in action, will be visiting our club sometime in October. Though the details have not been hashed out yet, I will keep updated. Marco Invernizzi studied bonsai with Salvatore Liporaci in Italy and Masahiko Kimura in Japan. The Art of Bonsai Forum has a profile with a great little interview and more information on Mr. Invernizzi. I encourage you to check it out.

False Indigo, Progression

2007-09-13T18:21:00.001-04:00

(Originally posted 9/12/07)

I purchased this plant, Indigofera pseudotinctoria, better known as a False Indigo, this past spring at a local nursery. The species information I came across on the web after my purchase, as the nursery staff couldn't figure out what this unlabeled pot was either. I took a risk with it, but as the only one of it's kind at the nursery and a price was was willing to pay for an experiemtnt, it was worth it. I wasn't originally looking at the plant as potential bonsai stock. In fact, the thought didn't even cross my mind until I noticed the out of this world nebari and interesting lower trunk. This species is primarily a mass of runners that can spread to six feet in diameter and die back in the winter. A hardy perennial, they are considered more of a creeping ground cover than as a shrub. While I took no images of the nebari and lower trunk initially (I knew I would be able to get better images once I cleaned it up), I did take a quick snap shot of the plant in its nursery container before I laid a hand, or tool, on it.

My initial assumption when I plopped it on the table to start the first styling was that this tree would simply *have* to be a cascade. All of the runners seemed to lend itself toward that and little else. But as the trimming started and I got a better look at the lower trunk, I realized just how unnecessary all of the hanging branches were to what, to me, would become the focal point of the tree. Rather than a larger size cascade, this would become something far smaller and focus on the roots, rather than the flowers and the foliage that initially attracted me to the plant. Armed with the knowledge that this would back bud like crazy, possibly even onto the woody trunk, I pruned heavily, leaving very little of the original left.

My apologies for the quality of the next image. My digital camera is so old the company no longer supports it, and sometimes the image that I need (or think I need) simply doesn't come out. I'm still working on learning how to make up for what the camera itself lacks, and hopefully will come through in the subsequent photos.

I let it grow out after that and had planned to leave it alone for the rest of the season.... until I saw just how prolific a grower this plant actually was. Within two weeks it was back out to almost half the size it had originally been. After that I started regular pruning to encourage ramification, pinching off new growth after it had reached three to four new sets of leaves at first, though now I'm at the point for this season where new growth gets one to two leave sets before I'm snipping them. I didn't want to pinch too agressively over the first season, as I was still unsure of the growth habits.... obviously not a problem here.

Root pruning was less aggressive than the top pruning had been. Being a tropical, I was less concerned about repotting a little late in the season. We'd had a very mild summer with a week and a half forcast of overcast and rain, so I took the opportunity, hoping to slow down some of the top growth with a reduction in the roots. Though the plant was potted into a gallon nursery pot, the roots took up barely half of that. Due to the dense, peaty soil, the bottom third of what there was had already started to rot. It turned out to be good timing, as I had considered leaving it in the nursery container until the following year. The plant likes it's feet wet, but that was just silly... It took some work to get the clay out of the upper parts of the root system that I wanted to be exposed, but well worth the effort. The "bark" on the tree and roots is very delicate, and with the discovery of a slime mold growing on some of the areas I wanted exposed as well, a soft bristled tooth brush was used to remove it.

I am unhappy with the pot choice, though at this point I have had mixed reviews on it. Regardless of the few people who actually like the heavier pot, it will not be staying. At the moment I am still keeping my eye out for something better suited for a repot in spring and a further reduction of the root system.

The first image is the front view that I have chosen, though the second image's "back" view is also, I think, acceptable. I prefer the first image as a front, but again, have had mixed opinions on that. The final height of the tree is five inches (12.7 centimeters) from the soil to the tip of the tallest flower..... four and a half inches (11.4 centimeters) to the top of the foliage.
The growth has indeed slowed down since the repot, and I'm not out there almost every day pinching back, though it's still happy and continuously flowering.

I have reservations on the longevity of this particular tree. The die back issues, the sheer oomph with which it bursts forth with growth just even in the single season it has been in my care.... the fact that what I had originally thought would take two years to achieve has come around in a single season astoundes me. The growth habits of this plant are so prolific, that it simply may not be suited, long term, to a bonsai pot. Even if I decide that it is unsuited for a bonsai next spring however, simply working on this little tree has been the highlight of my season this year. It will have been worth the time and effort, even if the tree proves more ephemeral than I had initially anticipated. I hope to get many years of enjoyment from it nonetheless, but we shall see.

First Post

2007-09-13T18:19:00.000-04:00

(Originally posted 9/11/07)

I've been debating between simply launching into bonsai news and info in this blog with no precursor, or if I ought to actually do an introduction. Yeah, you're stuck with an intro. I swear to keep it short.
My name is Heather, and I've been involved with bonsai, off and on, for over ten years now. I live in the USA, on Long Island (New York, and no, not the city. There are suburbs too, I promise). I am a single mother of a wonderful five year old little boy who's favorite part of my trees is getting to help water them and helping me pick out pre-bonsai (he's pretty sure I don't know what I'm doing and that his eyes is obviously better than mine. On occasion, he's right.). Some of my other hobbies include writing (fiction primarily), reading, science fiction and fantasy, camping, horse-back riding, arts and crafts of numerous varieties (current projects include knitting, painting minatures, and bead work). I'll be returning to school this January to complete my degree in dietary science, a return that is too long in the coming.
See? I told you I'd keep it short. This blog will be primarily focused on bonsai. News. Works in progress. Updates to the website. Local events. Feel free to leave comments, questions, or just say hello. It's a journey that I've finally decided to share with other people.

See you on the road.
-Heather