7pm tuesday 9 july 2011 extraordinary general...

© 2006 Sydney City Bonsai Club | www.sydneycitybonsai.org.au | [email protected] 1

NEXT CLUB MEETINGS Green Square Community Church 182 Victoria Street (Cnr Collins Street) Beaconsfield

7pm Tuesday 14 June 2011 Group discussion of members trees brought in for feedback

7pm Tuesday 9 July 2011 Repotting Maples and other deciduous trees

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sydneycitybonsai.org.au PO Box 486

Summerhill NSW 2130

COMMITTEE Patron Dorothy Koreshoff President Sue (acting President) Vice President Sue Secretary Tani Treasurer Chris Public Officer Max Newsletter Editor Tony Librarian Damian Catering Philip Committee Philip, Gary, Jennie, Hector

MEMBERSHIP Full Membership $30.00 Concession $20.00 Family $45.00 Pensioner $20.00

Welcome to the March Newsletter

June Meeting Extraordinary General Meeting. Group Discussion of trees brought in by club members; so bring in any trees you would like some help with (wiring and training still possible for many species at this time of year) ________________________________________________________

Extraordinary General Meeting ________________________________________________________

Election of new committee; the positions that will be vacated by existing committee members resigning are:

President, Vice President, Secretary, Public Officer & Librarian.

If we cannot fill these positions then it is unlikely the club can continue to operate.

PLEASE PLAN TO ATTEND THIS IMPORTANT MEETING ________________________________________________________

In this month’s newsletter: Buying a bonsai article page 2

When you make the wrong styling decisions pages 3, 4 & 5

Newspaper article from Canberra Times page 6

Events Calendar page 6


BUYING A BONSAI

Whenever I am at a bonsai nursery I check out their 'bonsai' as well as their stock plants to see if there is anything of interest. One day there was.

November 2009: a cute little Afro style Saotome Azalea. The $20 price tag gave me a pot for a raffle and a trunk worth working with. I reckoned there

was at least two to three years development needed to move this 'pretensai' to a real mini bonsai. The beauty is the nice trunk and one

interesting branch and the fact that I save several years’ trunk growth by buying it at this stage.

Day One styling done. There is a lot of growth and development necessary but the lovely little trunk is worth the work. The bar branching has been

noted but will be left for another year to see how the tree develops.

August 2010. There is grace and charm but not a lot of foliage and the

bar branching is more obvious. Bar branching is not as important an issue on minis as it is on larger trees but I still find it very

bothersome but at this stage I am not ready to remove it.

February 2011: The bar branching went and I wired the top right branch down to fill the space. There is still growth needed to fill out the back. I find that saotomes grow beautifully but the ones I have worked

with tend to get one area where growth is incredibly slow.

It may take an additional year to get the entire tree looking balanced but as you can see, the time and work is definitely worth it. The tree has a pleasing nebari - not great but sufficient to give some ground

interest.

I could display this tree now but by December 2012 when the back 'bald spot' fills out this should be a very sweet and pleasing mini. I am

now working to get a special pot made for it and I think the $20 investment and the 3 years development has produced a nice mini

bonsai - a big change from 'the bonsai' it was.


WHEN YOU MAKE THE WRONG STYLING DECISION by Lee

The more you work with bonsai the better you can forecast their forward growth and work your styling aims to coincide. You can’t work outside of what the tree can be expected to do but even working within those limits your original idea can prove wrong. It depends on the species you are working with as to how many alteration options you have. With a black pine that is very specific in its growth you might end up with a bad tree where redemption might be impossible or simply take more time than you want to give. With other species that are more willing shoot back on old wood you can have a bigger range of options.

In July 2009 I received a collected olive from SA. It was very interesting and the first thing to do was grow roots. Olives store food in their trunks and given the right conditions; warmth, time and just sufficient moisture, they will start to send out new shoots which indicates that roots are developing. In January 2010 styling started. There were two possibilities for the front and after a lot of consultation and ideas, the ‘best’ side was chosen and the branch selection started accordingly.

In summer 2011 the tree was growing but things were not right. Despite an interesting trunk the apical branch was not thickening, the horizontal branches were just not ‘doing it’ and then I noted that the back had been quietly developing a lot more character than the front and the tree was in for a change. Two of the reasons the original front was chosen were the two major scars at the back and the leader was on the front side of the scar. So the tree now had a better back trunk with serious styling problems but a trunk that was worth the effort on a species that constantly sends out new shoots.

Current front:

Header not well shaped but in the right position and can be modified with strong wire.

Good lower right branching starting ramification

Interesting double trunk, very close - you can still see between the two at this stage

Upper left branch well positioned

Back branch needs to be wired and moved but overall okay.

Trunk is interesting but very boring when compared to the back.


WHEN YOU MAKE THE WRONG STYLING DECISION continued

Back as the Front

Trunk wonderfully lumpy, bumpy and textured – far greater feeling of age and character.

Growth obscures the separation between the trunk and the major branch and it gives the trunk more solidity and taper.

Right branching has two branches too close together so that part of the olive will get reverse taper [this is normal in olives and more acceptable than in other species – you can’t chip an elephant because it has wrinkles – but better to minimize it].

Removing the branch above and behind the first right branch will eliminate the back branch but it will also take visual weight from the top of the tree, improve the taper and the tree shoots like crazy so a new shoot will develop in a needed area. With olives this is pretty much a dead cert and there is already a shoot ideally located [if I don’t knock it off in the wiring].

The apex has a large scar at the base of it and it is leaning away from the viewer. That’s a big double no-no.

But the scar can be lightly carved to simulate natural damage and subsequent regrowth so that can become a positive.

Top of trunk lightly carved to simulate natural damage Back as the Front continued

The tree can be planted at a more forward angle to bring the apex up. It is impossible to move the apical base but the top can be wired forward and foliage can be grown across to minimize the obviousness of this. This is one of those olives that sets branches quickly and like concrete. Before they are much thicker than a matchstick they are all but impossible to change.

Now it is waiting game while the back shoot develops and keeping the other branch development under control so foliage pads can be created and the shortened apex can grow structure to develop its foliage pads.

I have had mixed success with my olives until last year when I started applying a good dusting of dolomite lime twice a year and continually heaped blood and bone on the soil surface.


WHEN YOU MAKE THE WRONG STYLING DECISION continued

Olives are heavy feeders and the growth problems I have been experiencing in a number of my 14 olives all but disappeared with this heavy feeding regime. The leaves have not increased in size but definitely in quantity. It means more pruning but that is hardly a drawback to get a better styled tree more quickly. When the Blood and Bone goes black or cakes I remove it and apply more. I don’t get the white residue around the bases that indicates over feeding in other species. When you water olives always watch for ants because they indicate scale. I dose the soil with Ant Fix and check the tree very closely wiping off any scale I find. If it is a big infestation I would spray with Ecco Oil or Pest Oil, never White Oil as this is too strong and can suffocate the tree. Olives like water and respond well to moist soil. They don’t like sitting in water so good drainage is essential but several of my thirstier trees are usually watered twice a day. Keep in mind I work mainly with shohin [up to 30 cm tall] so my pots are small. The styling readjustment will mean the tree will take one or two years longer before it can be considered a pleasingly styled bonsai but better to lose that time to get a better tree than stick with mediocre styling. We have to be flexible when the tree develops in ways we didn’t foresee and constantly modify the styling to improve the tree.

Side showing backward angle on apical branch

Not bonsai but a different kind of training

Tree at the Limpopo River – South Africa


ARTICLE FROM THE CANBERRA TIMES & EVENTS CALENDAR

,

Date Event Details

18 to 21 May 2012 The 25th AABC National Bonsai Convention

Will be held at Rydges Hotel, Bell City, Melbourne. Bonsai Northwest Inc is the host club. Demonstrators – Boon Manakitivipart from America – Don DeLuca and Glen Bebb from Australia. All the Convention information can be obtained from our website:

www.bonsainorthwest.com.au

7pm tuesday 9 july 2011 extraordinary general...

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