2011, Issue 2

February, 2011

of Greater Clearwater and the surrounding areas

澄んだ水盆栽会

Sundamizu Bonsai Kai

This month we‘re going to have an open workshop so everyone has time to work on their trees.

If you have something you‘d like to work on or get input, please bring it. If you would prefer to

just watch or help some of your club friends, please feel free to do that as well.

For all who took the beginner‘s class, we will have everything you need to pot up your new trees.

We‘ll also be on hand to answer any questions or issues you may have experienced in the last

month.

As usual, we‘ll go to lunch afterwards at Johnny‘s Italian. Everyone is welcome!

February 12th meeting — Open Workshop This month 1

Last month 1

Tree of the month 2/6

Landscape experi-

mentation

2

Featured Article 3/6

Mid-Winter Con-

ference 4-5

Library 7

Events 7

Info & Contacts 8

Inside this issue:

January Workshop—so many new friends! What if you threw an open

beginner‘s workshop and eve-

ryone came! That‘s exactly

what happened and it was a

―blast‖.

We had 18 new friends join

us at the January meeting.

Everyone got to style at least

one tree, some brought their

own while others selected

from trees available at the

workshop.

Thanks to Bob Apholz,

Marian Borchers, Dave Col-

lom, Gary Longfellow, Clif

Pottberg and Lois Powell

working with the new stu-

dents to make their first ex-

perience enjoyable.

(Although some folks already

had some bonsai knowledge

and could help all of us!)

Take a look at all the happy

faces. I‘m sure we‘ll get to

know all of them soon.

That almighty and somewhat terrify-ing first cut.

Bonsai basics before the real fun began

Dave giving out a few tips

Envisioning her tree

Happy, Happy!

Checking out the bonsai mate-rial and selecting their tree

Gary brought one of his trees. Good opportunity for others to learn about maintaining a tree.

Photos courtesy of

Robert Apholz

Welcome New Members

● Sandra Ailio

● Mark Frank

● Andrea Holybee

native methods. Looking forward to

sharing this with everyone at some

time. I challenge everyone to come

up with the landscape of their dreams

and recreate it. It is a lot of

fun. What do you think about doing

the floating landscape from the Ava-

tar movie?

See Dave for more information if you

want to do your own mountains.

limestone which were pushed up-

wards due to tetonic plates colliding

over millions of years ago then the

softer rock being washed away over

the centuries leaving behind unusual

rock formations covered in vegeta-

tion. Rivers run through and around

these giants and in a couple of

months I will be on one of them see-

ing it all up close and personal.

I have come across some simple

ways to create artificial rocks and am

continuing to experiment with alter-

My recent experiments creating a

miniature landscape in preparation

for the recent Mid-Winter Confer-

ence were inspired by Guilin China

which is one of the most beautiful

places on Earth. Tall projections of

2011, Issue 2 Page 2

Dave’s mountains of Guilin China come to life

Landscape Experimentation—A ―pre-amble‖ by Dave Collom

Mountains of Guilin China

Raw Materials Forming the “mountains”

The Japanese Flowering Apricot, which the Japanese call Ume and the botanical name for which is

Prunus mume, is one of the most prized species for bonsai.

The flowers are beautiful and sweetly fragrant and will scent a whole garden easily.

The leaves are daintily shaped, only a little over 1‖ long, and the bark becomes very rough, almost

corky with age.

It‘s hardy for us, too, being able to take temperatures as low as 0 to -10⁰ F. It flowers very early,

though, and late freezes will wipe out the bloom and also cause dieback of the branches potentially.

Therefore some protection in the early spring (when it flowers and beyond) should be given it; usually light covering will be sufficient in

our area.

One of the most important aspects of Ume for bonsai, however, is that it is one of the Prunus family members least likely to lose a branch

during pruning. The branches of most others have a tendency to die when chopped hard; Ume does not.

Ume also fruits and the ―plums‖ (not really apricots) are tasty, although not as sweet as many other members of the family. As a result they

are often pickled, and are a delicacy called umeboshi.

In general, you can treat the pruning and care of Ume much like any deciduous tree and it is (for a flowering tree) fairly easy to train. Alter-

Examples of Ume

blossoms

Tree of the month—The sweet and beautiful Ume by Clif Pottberg

2011, Issue 2 Page 3

Part 3 of the many traditions of miniature landscapes, bringing us up to the present by Clif Pottberg

The largest difference between the Japanese tradition of bonsai and tokonoma display, and both China‘s penjing and Vietnam‘s Thieu canh

and hon non bo, is the Japanese emphasis primarily on the look of the real tree, usually in the wild. Of this, the Japanese masters have been

supreme.

Actually, the time in which the Japanese have been pumping out masterpieces has been historically only a short time. At their first couple

of forays into the international scene with bonsai display, the trees were, to say the least, amateurish. Clearly, they, like the western world

after World War 2, had found a passion, but without enough educated teachers, they foundered. The horticultural writers at the time of the

Columbian Exposition in 1892, writing about Japan‘s bonsai exhibit, and marveling at the miniaturization of real trees, remarked at the

possibility of having a whole forest on a balcony, but added ―but who would want to? They‘re ugly!‖ And indeed many of them were.

This really isn‘t too surprising, for prior to about 1865 and the ending of the ruling Shogunate and the beginning of the Meiji rule, there was

little middle class in Japan and so no one practiced the art. Beginning then, bonsai and many of the ancient cultural practices from China

grew quickly,

By the time of Japanese bonsai books published in the 1930s there had been remarkable progress. Most of the trees shown then were of a

quality which would even today be thought show-worthy, but they weren‘t of the quality that is seen today, as evidenced in the book Dwarf

Trees (Bonsai) by Shinobu Nozaki, the first English language book on the subject and published in 1940. An equivalent change could be

seen in this country by the 60s and 70s, and the quality of work was then about where Japan had been in the 40s.

The picture quality is regrettable (they were taken of a mimeographed copy of the book) but are hopefully useful in getting the sense of the

styling value of bonsai at the time.

By the time of the 80s and 90s the capacity to precisely replicate the look of the beautiful real tree was unquestioned. As a result, new

directions were sought in the art.

One of them was the creation of marvelous works of art defined by their large and often remarkably complex driftwooded trunks. Spear-

headed by ―the magician‖, Masahiko Kimura, this school took the strengths of the trunk‘s attractiveness, wedded increasing understanding

of techniques to manipulate even very old, very massive pieces of living wood for the artist‘s purposes, to create brilliant sculpted living

works of art.

These were very different forms of bonsai, however, for in the effort to sculpt the trunk, the foliage styling to fit with the tree‘s environ-

mental background was often almost entirely overlooked. That is to say, while detailed to a fare-thee-well, and very like the top to a real

tree, the tops were often never brought into line with the trunks stylistically. Small, perfect and robust looking foliage masses (often like a

formal upright) sat upon ancient, perhaps very slanting, trunks carved by harsh environments. They were two unrelated compositions, of-

ten looking like two unrelated trees.

Another new direction was the reintroduction of interest in the total landscape (called ―bonkei‖ in the Japanese tradition) which had lan-

guished since the 30s by the fascination with the growing capacity to precisely detail the individual tree.

One of those who did the best work was Saburo Kato, one of two founders of the rebuilt Omiya Village (along with Kyuzo Murata). Al-

though he did very fine individual bonsai and rock plantings, his total landscapes were superb. One of them is unliftable, at about eight

Bonsai pictures taken from Shinobu Nozaki’s

book Dwarf Trees (Bonsai)

Two of Masahiko Kimura’s

masterpiece sculptures

2011, Issue 2 Page 4

Just wanted to share my thoughts from

the perspective of someone brand new to

Bonsai. I loved the miniature landscape

mid-winter conference, period. I thought

the instructors were fantastic and be-

tween the four principal stylists there was

almost 160 years of experience! This

group is one which I want to continue

with as I like the balance between lecture

time, observing the artists creating and

then allowing and teaching us to create.

Bonsai in itself is totally awe inspiring

with those gnarly looking old trees in

midget sizes. This conference took that to

another level with adding those beautiful

trees in a landscape setting, literally

weaving the trees inside and around

rocks. Then applying mosses and various

groundcovers (so called spinach) to cre-

ate an incredibly realistic landscape in

miniature. For those advanced Bonsai

artists who show their creations, there

were lectures on classical presentations,

additions of artful Japanese embellish-

ments called Tokonoma. Also a very

inspiring lecture about how artists use

techniques to direct the viewers eye

where they would like it with correct

placement of all these miniature plants.

Mid-Winter Conference by Mark Frank

Dave Collom gave a talk

about hon non bo type of

landscape at Guilin China

and how it inspired him to

create his own miniature

landscape

Saturday afternoon was a ―3 ring circus‖ demonstration creating miniature landscapes. In fact, it was really ―4-ring‖ as Dave Col-

lom also created a miniature landscape using his inspiration from Guilin China

Observing the circus

People from all over the southeast

including the Carolinas, Georgia and

of course, Florida

Linda Pottberg tells us about

understory plants used in

landscapes

There were several ―lectures‖ to prepare us to create our own miniature landscapes. These were very interactive sessions with par-

ticipants asking questions and offering ideas and experiences of their own. That really made it even more valuable.

The landscape: with painted moss

2011, Issue 2 Page 5

Placing tree up through hole in

stone; holding in place with

muck

Steve adds muck and then glue to

allow wiring

Adding moss and then trees

The landscape: a

multislab

mounded grove

Rodney‘s vision of islands

and a specific view

Variety of trees gives

the piece interest

The landscape: a mountain

forest raft

Adding moss and finishing

―touches‖ One tree wired to look like several

Mike begins with one mountain

Mike Rogers is a top stylist and teacher in Florida. His nursery name is Mike Rogers Bonsai, located in Deland, Fl.

Rodney Clemons is a nationally known teacher from Atlanta, Georgia

Steve Pilacik owns Matsu-Momiji, a full service bonsai nursery and teaching establishment in North Carolina. He has

also published a book “The Japanese Black Pine” which covers one of his specialties.

One tree wired to look

like several

Mike begins with one

mountain

The start

The landscape: an island

vignette Working in a ―dark cave‖ to get

everything in and wired

Taking off a lot of roots

but only after removing

many branches to bal-

ance the energy

2011, Issue 2 Page 6

environments. Many of these were superb.

They borrowed from other traditions of the

miniature, too. Their platforms were un-

adorned flat slabs of concrete much like the

Vietnamese Thieu Canh, and rather simi-

larly simple like the marble slab pots of the

Chinese penjing. The effort was to not

have the container part of the display but,

like the other traditions, minimize its visi-

bility and reduce it to merely the display

platform.

Also, like the Vietnamese, they often used

water, often water which was made to flow

as in the real landscape, by a (hidden) flow-

ing pump.

And like Kawamoto‘s work, or the Chinese

and Vietnamese, the trees were less realis-

tic in detail.

And unlike the Japanese, his platforms

were mere platforms, a flat rectangular slab

of concrete, designed to fade out from the

picture, not to enhance it, much like the

Vietnamese, and similar to the Chinese

with their simplistic marble pots which

were also little more than slabs.

Although Dr. Snyder thought of his micro-

environments as ways to teach his students

how to create ecologically correct land-

scapes, and in that sense more (or less) than

feet in length, planted on an artificially

created slab, and consisting of Yeddo

spruce and foreground plantings of dwarf

azaleas.

Tokichi Kawamoto was another developer

of many landscapes. He was the father of

Toshio Kawamoto, who furthered his fa-

ther‘s work and dubbed them by a new

name: Saikei.

Sadly, saikei was never accepted by the

mainstream Japanese Bonsai Groups, for

Kawamoto primarily used largely little

trained Tansu cryptomeria which naturally

takes the form of a tall conifer without

much pruning. Thus they looked like coni-

fers at a distance without the detailing and

precision of shape that the bonsai masters

felt was necessary to include them in the

definition of bonsai.

He quickly changed his words to explain

that his saikei were in effect pre-bonsai, not

meant to be judged in the same way.

Regardless, they were, by any yardstick,

fine landscapes.

Unheralded for some time, and across the

pond, another creator of mini landscapes,

began to work in the 1960s. He was Dr.

Leon Snyder, who taught his students ecol-

ogy by having them learn to make mini

landscapes which he termed micro-

mere works of art, some today believe they

are the best depictions of miniature land-

scapes that have been created in the past.

Today a new effort is being born to blend

various of the ancient traditions, and build

on the works of the past. Unused previ-

ously is a vast encyclopedia of examples of

great landscape depictions from which we

can build: the landscape painters of many

periods, traditions and countries.

Studying painted landscapes provides us

with a vast wealth of art of real landscape

depictions to draw upon. Particularly, one

of the missing pieces of much of the art

done heretofore is any emphasis placed on

the composition: the creation of a holistic

picture which fits together completely, with

a defined eye path through the whole pic-

ture. In other words, the art of the art of

composition.

Combining the art of the art with the dis-

covered ways to create realism, and other

freedoms of form provided by some of the

other traditions, gives us huge new areas of

exploration and study. In the realization

that we are playing with a distinctive (and

unique) medium of expression, but part of

the stream of study of all art, we will be

able to delimit and expand the study of the

miniature landscape significantly.

Part 3 of the many traditions of miniature landscapes, bringing us up to the present by Clif Pottberg

nate leaves – and thus buds - are perhaps eas-

ier to make decisions about for pruning than

opposite leaves.

It‘s not particularly fussy about soil condi-

tions, but prefers moist but not wet feet, and

likes sun or only partial shade.

It takes to wiring, but also clip and grow

methods of training. There are a number of

very old examples of Ume bonsai for it‘s quite

long lived, and can continue to be refined,

even when there is deadwood or parts of the

tree die back as may happen with any bonsai

in great age. This adds to the look of age, so

some growers deliberately create deadwood,

or split trunks on their bonsai, which is a typi-

cal look for an ancient fruit tree.

Tree of the month: The Sweet and Beautiful Ume

Glacier Lake by Toshio Kawamoto

Ume at the Osaka Tenmangu Shrine

A multilevel planting by Dr. Leon Snyder

Bierstadt – The Morteratsch Glacier

2011, Issue 2 Page 7

Sundamizu Library If you have any books, magazines, CD/

DVD or other formats, please consider

donating them to the Sundamizu Kai Li-

brary.

In addition to the above, we have the

following books and magazines:

Ortho‘s All About Bonsai ( general

info. )

Florida Bonsai Summer 2009

(topics: BSF Convention, Defolia-

tion, Lysiloma Bonsai)

―Florida Bonsai‖ issues:

Nov. ‗97

Feb ‗98 (Articles on various species)

May ‗98 (Shohin Slash Pines)

Nov ‗2000 (Bald Cypress branching)

Feb ‗01 (Rosemary bonsai, Bunjin

Basics)

Feb ‗03 & Aug ‗03

May ‗04 & Aug ‗04

Feb ‗05 (Hornbeam; Buttonwood)

May ‗05

Feb ‗06 (Junipers, Carving)

May ‗06 (Junipers)

Aug ‗06 (Saikei, Junipers)

Nov ‗06 (Elm Bonsai)

Feb ‗07; Summer ‗07 (Calliandra,

Banyan Style)

Summer ‗08 (Tropical Mimosa)

―Bonsai, Miniature Potted Trees‖ by

Kyuzo Murata

Bonsai: Its Art, Science, History and

Philosophy by Deborah R. Koreshoff

If you‘d like to borrow any of these

books, contact Dave at: davecol-

lom@gmail.com

February 12: Club Meeting—followup open workshop

March 2—May 15: Epcot Flower & Garden Festival

March 12: Club Meeting

March 19-20: Hatsume Fair at the Morikami, Morikami Museum & Japa-

nese Gardens, Delray Beach, FL; info: morikami@pbc.gov

April 2-3: Spring festival: Azaleas; Bonsai at Pasiminan, Dade City, Fl

April 9: Club Meeting

April 9-10: USF Botanical Gardens Annual Spring Plant Festival, Tampa, Fl

April 23: Tri-cities show hosted by Pensacola Bonsai Society, The Garden

Center, 1850 North 9th Ave, Pensacola, FL

April 30-May 1: Green Thumb Festival, St. Petersburg, FL

May 14: Club Meeting

June 11: Club Meeting

June 10-12: BSF Convention, Orlando Florida

Schedule of events

If you’re travelling (especially overseas) and want to see

where bonsai events may be occurring, www.bonsai-bci.com

may be a good place to start!

April 15-17: Mid-Atlantic Bonsai 28th Annual Spring Festival, Grantville,

PA; info: midatlanticbonsai.freeservers.com

June 3-5: Shohin Bonsai Seminar, Rochester, NY; info:

www.internationalbonsai.com

June 16-19: Bonsai in the BlueGrass,ABS/BCI Symposium; Fern Valley

Hotel and Convention Center, Louisville, KY; info: bonsaiintheblue-

grass.com

Out of state events

If you haven’t paid your annual dues yet, please do so

this month.

The dues are $24.00 for individuals or $36.00 for a fam-

ily. That’s only $2.00 per month, a real value for so

much fun!

Please pay at the next meeting or send a check to

Esther Searfoss (our new Treasurer) at 920 Jerry Smith

Rd, Dover, Florida 33527-5807

Annual Membership Dues

澄んだ水盆栽会

Sundamizu Bonsai Kai

of Greater Clearwater and the surrounding areas

2011, Issue 2 Page 8

Sundamizu Bonsai Kai means Clear Water Bonsai Club

(Pronounced soon‖da mi‘ zu) Lois Powell: 727-742-3301

Clif Pottberg: 352-424-6000

lopowell@yahoo.com

clifton@pottberg.com

Meets 2nd Saturday of each Month, 10am

Moccasin Lake Nature Park

2750 Park Trail Lane, Clearwater

Directions to Moccasin Lake Nature Park

From Southbound US 19 or McMullen Booth Rd (CR 611):

turn west on SR 590 for 0.8 mi

turn left on Calamondin Ln for 0.3 mi

turn right on Edenwood St for 364 ft

turn left onto Beachwood Ave for 0.2 mi

turn right at Park Trail Lane

From Northbound US 19:

turn east on Drew St for 407 ft

turn left on Fairwood Ave/Park Place Blvd for 0.6mi

turn left at Park Trail Lane

Proceed to the back of the parking lot. This is closest to the

classroom. If you have large material/plants you are bringing,

we will open the gate for dropoff and then you can return to lot

to park.

Annual Membership is $24 per individual or $36 per family

and includes:

● Monthly meetings

● New friends

● Lots of fun