Our November meeting was consumed by an all-day workshop featuring international bonsai superstar Marco Invernizzi. For the past few years Marco has toured Northern California in the fall, whipping bonsai into shape as he goes. Marco’s workshops have become one of the highlights of the year for many BSSF members, and this year members turned out to see Marco working on some very promising stock from many of the clubs most active members.

In bonsai, as in so many other things, refinement and beauty come only through hours of work and years of patience. Marco’s artistic vision for trees illustrates a can-do attitude that members need to carry through the entire year; properly timed and well executed work will make your trees start to emerge from their hazy outlines and become refined, sharp looking bonsai. Even the most experienced bonsai enthusiast will hesitate to work on their favorite trees, wondering if the timing of the work is right or if the tree will react they way they want. Overcoming these doubts and learning the proper timing and techniques is they way to make your trees look like they just came out of a workshop with Marco, even if they didn’t. In general the keys to success in bonsai are: potting your trees into a good free draining soil; watering and fertilizing to match the growth of the tree and the weather, and refining the growth of the trees as it matures to a usable form.

While a once per year workshop with a talented master like Marco will do worlds of good for a tree, it is probably a familiar feeling among workshop participants that they never get to work on as many trees as they would like with Marco. Pay close attention to the way that your teacher works and duplicate the techniques and timing so that all of your trees improve, not just the ones that you work on with the teacher. If you learn to wire a tree and harmonize the movement of the branches on a hornbeam apply that technique and experience to that zelcova that you have sitting on your bench. Working on trees using the techniques you have learned in workshop will increase your knowledge and improve the trees. While having a master around to tell you what to do is great, taking the plunge and imposing your own artistic vision on a tree will teach you just as much.

Tag: Marco Invenizzi