Our June program was about working on smaller sized trees or ?shohin? as it is commonly referred to. Technically speaking that would be a bonsai with a height of eight inches or less from soil surface to apex, in a pot with a maximum length of ten inches.

Lonnie McCormick, who is a member of the local shohin group, brought along three starter trees and a wealth of experience to share with our group.

The trees, two junipers Lonnie started from cuttings and a black pine grown from seed had been carefully nurtured and trained to become small bonsai. While Lonnie believes that this method of starting your own stock is the better way to produce shohin bonsai he also recommends working down larger material by cutting back and reducing larger root balls over time. In either course he cautions that shohin can not be created in one sitting.

Lonnie started by reducing a small San Jose juniper, presently in a four inch liner, he had grown for two to three years from a cutting. He determined that the tree should be a bunjin style shohin. First he reduced the foliage mass to about 1/3 of the tree in keeping with the spare look of bunjin style. He then placed raffia on the trunk to hold the bark tightly to the cambium layer and using copper wire proceeded to put extreme movement into the trunk.

We all took note of the ease of this styling on a small flexible trunk. From this stage Lonnie prescribed rest and, sun and feeding for the small tree and that wire and raffia could be removed in a year or so. However the tree could be repotted in September into an appropriate round pot.

Next up was a small black pine which Lonnie had grown from seed. He recommended Bonsai Today issue #22 for a good article on working with seedlings. His own method involves stratifying or chilling the seeds, after soaking them between wet paper towels, in the refrigerator for 24 hours. Then he places them in the sun careful not to let them dry out. As the seeds sprout and the tiny trunk turns purple he pulls them out of incubation, cuts off any roots which have formed, dips them in root tone and places them upright in a fine sifted sand. He then places them in filtered light and gently waters them. When these cutting develop new roots he pots them individually. The advantages of working with these just starting trees comes from being able to direct the dispersion of roots around the trunk and the early shaping of the trunk, two critical areas in any bonsai which are at best problematic in most established trees. Lonnie’s black pine was a four year old which had many long spindly branches several of which he reduced back. He left two branches uncut, removing needles along the length while leaving the tips to grow out, as sacrifice branches. These then are allowed to grow longer for the benefit of the tree?s development. Cutting all the branches back would weaken the tree and slow growth. The sacrifice branches will be cut back or ?sacrificed? after they have done their job of increasing the thickness of the trunk.

Finally on a shimpaku juniper weak or dying secondary branches are removed with scissors to to force dormant buds closer in to the trunk. The tips on the primary branches should be left on and allowed to run. After the growing season ends cut back to a new tip and let that run.

In styling roots on established trees the larger ones should be removed and replaced by smaller more to scale roots. Shimpaku cuttings can be grown easily by removing bark from the branch, dipping in root tone placing in a pot of well draining mix with a plastic bag supported by a simple wire armature over the pot to keep moisture in. Place the pot in bright area but no direct sun. The cuttings should root in a year or more.

The Bay Area Shohin Club meets at the San Mateo Garden Center on the third Sunday of each month starting at 1:30pm. At the meetings members work on trees, assist one another and socialize. If you would like to attend Lonnie suggest bringing something for a shared pot luck and money to buy raffle tickets which pays the rent on the space. Bay Area Shohin puts on a bonsai show the first weekend in October at the San Mateo Garden Center.

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