April General Meeting Notes

Tim Kong was the chairman for an evening of Juniper styling at our April General Meeting, the Iron Bonsai Challenge. Five teams of trained-professional bonsai artist transformed some old gnarled bushes into some old gnarled bonsai. This un-biased reporter happened to be in on the action and can say with authority that the results of my team’s efforts were by far the superior bonsai. There was to be an official tally and winner but the chairman was too tired so he cut the program short.

As with the workshop that Jim Gremel did for us in March, this program serves to demonstrate the power and effectiveness of wiring as a training tool for bonsai. With material that is older and more well established wiring is a little more difficult than with young whips. The tree that I was working with took three pieces of #8 copper to position the major branches. I followed that up with some 12 and 14 and a couple pieces of 20 to move smaller branches around. For those teams that were less willing to use wire the results were more sparse looking; wiring of material allows you to utilize more of the existing branch structure by moving it into good positions, the alternative is to remove the existing branch and wait for a new one to hopefully grow in the position that you desire, something that can take a very long time.

Many of the teams added Jin and Shari to their trees, something that is quite useful and attractive for Junipers. Rather than flush cutting a branch off, the branch is cut off some way out from the trunk. Then, using pliers, the wood is reduced so that the cut mark doesn’t show but rather a natural, broken look is lent to the wood. The treatment can be continued onto the trunk with some care; over the course of a few years the lifeline of the tree will swell around these wounds and form an attractive rollover, which is a sign of age and perserverence in trees. The newly created deadwood should be treated with Lime Sulfur once it was dried out. Wiring of the jin after initial shaping can be used to move them into positions that complement the design of the foliage.

Tim Asked each team to discuss the future vision for their tree after wiring and styling was complete. In general the teams agreed that Junipers look best in medium to dark brown pots, occasionally with some redish color added. The style of pot varied with the style of the tree. Tim instructed that repotting of the demonstration trees should be done in two or more stages and that the first repot shouldn’t happen until at least this November so that the trees have a chance to recover from initial styling. After the first repotting the tree may be placed in a container of intermediate size between the five-gallon nursery can and the final bonsai pot. This allows for less drastic root reduction and also gives the tree more room to grow during the intervening year before it goes into a final pot.

Fertilization of the trees is an important aspect of care and should not be overlooked. By the end of the summer, given proper light, water and fertilizer, each of the demonstration trees should be starting to once again resemble a bush. Lush growth over the coming growing season will allow the trees to be refined further over the winter or in the spring.San Jose Juniper has been used by BSSF club members for many years and is a forgiving and viable material for the long term. In some cases, however, people have decided to graft shimpaku foliage onto San Jose juniper to make a tree with finer foliage (and less prickly foliage.) This is the case for our logo tree which along with many other junipers was grafted by Mas Ishi of southern California. Either route you take, it is wonderful material and next month Gary Tom will be on hand to discuss his experiences over the last thirty years with it. Gary has many San Jose juniper that he has had for many years; they will serve to illustrate to attending members the future for their raffle prizes.

Show and Tell:

Tags: Demonstrations, Junipers