April General Meeting
Cotoneasters are ideal candidates for small bonsai. Their stems are packed with small leaves and back-bud over the entire trunk. As an added bonus, they produce hundreds of small flowers in the spring that lead to bright red berries the rest of the year. For our April General Meeting, Eric Schrader led members with a workshop/program devoted to using cotoneasters as bonsai. Eric supplied the club with several one gallon cotoneasters of different varieties with compact leaves and variegated foliage. At the beginning of the meeting, Eric demonstrated the basic technique of transforming a cotoneaster shrub to a shohin bonsai using larger material. Eric reduced the long straight branches of the shrub back to the trunk. Because cotoneasters back-bud readily, they can be cut-back drastically to a desirable form. New buds will be selected for proper placement of branches in the future. Cotoneasters typically grow long straight branches. So, as the new branches elongate, aluminum wire will be used to add movement to each branch. The material Eric worked with was reduced to a single one inch trunk with a graceful curve and only a few inches tall. In three or four years, the trunk will heal and new branches will grow to fill the canopy of the tree. For now, the new tree will be left in its larger pot to promote rapid growth of the tree. Once Eric explained the basic pruning techniques, club members went to work transforming their own cotoneasters. Newly trimmed trees should be kept in partial shade for the first week, and then exposed to bright sunlight. Remember to water your trees approximately every other day. However, in strong sunlight and dry winds, trees may dry sooner.
Quite a few new members filed the seats for our first meeting since the Cow Palace Show. We hope they enjoy their new trees and attend one of our Beginner Workshops that will be announced soon.

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