For the third leg in our trinity of Juniper programs Gary Tom treated attending members of the May general meeting to a discussion of his thirty years of experience in growing junipers in San Francisco. Gary is a long-time club member and has dedicated much of his yard to the developement of Juniper bonsai from nursery stock.

Gary’s talk centered on his experiences through the years: At age thirteen he started by reading the venerable and ever-useful Sunset garden books “Bonsai.” He started with plants in 2-inch containers. Fourteen years later when he finally got a yard of his own Gary had long since graduated to larger nursery stock and was using 5, 10 and 15-gallon material as a starting point for his juniper bonsai.

Early in his career Gary lamented that much of what we now are taught was never mentioned. The soil used was what is now called “black death”- supersoil, or any soil that is based mostly on peat moss. This soil, once dry, would not allow water to penetrate into the interior of the pot. As a result the plants suffered and were only able to grow roots in the outer sections where water penetrated. Addition barriers to success included teachers who spoke only broken english and an abundance of formulas for soil and opinions about fertilizing. Gary was admonished more than once for “rampant growth” after he realized that he wanted to do more fertilization than was typically recommended by his teachers. Many of Gary’s classroom experiences also lacked theory; his teachers would tell him what to do, but never explain why.

What Gary now terms “Force Feeding” is one of the key ingredients in his formula for bonsai success. Gary emphasized that, although he has been working with junipers for 30 years, the refinement and success that he has had can now be accomplished in a much shorter time thanks to better soil, better fertilization and better styling techniques than he had available when he started. Gary recommended that people feed trees with organic fertilizer (such as bone and blood meal), osmacote and Liquid fertilizer (at half strength every two weeks.) This will result in lush growth which he emphasized should be pinched constantly on junipers to get them to bud back and to develop “clouds within clouds” in the foliage. Pinching is used to thin overly thick foliage as well, which will allow light to penetrate to the interior of the tree.

Gary shared a few other tips specifically relating to junipers: never make a flush cut, leave a jin instead and if you don’t want it, break it off later. Leaving jin will make the “water line” (the live, expanding part of the tree) start to swell around it, giving the trunk much more character. Junipers need at least 6 hours of direct sun per day, with the more sun the better. Junipers are his preferred plant because they look good all year in San Francisco, as opposed to trees such as Japanese Maple which only look good for a month or two right after leaves emerge in the spring. He recommended 30-70% Akadama in the soil, with the rest being horticultural pumice. Akadama contains silica which is beneficial to roots.
“I believe in practicing bonsai in the classical sense.” Gary mentioned. To this end he encouraged others to widen their exploration of the world of Bonsai by travelling to Japan which he indicated can be reasonable, with meals and airfare at lower costs than is generally perceived.

“The Bonsai lifestyle is a wonderful way to pass the years. It is a continual learning process and there is always work to be done.”

“After thirty years the trees are starting to look really nice, and I look in the mirror and think I’m just getting old.”