by Lee Squires

I hope you all can attend our Annual Garden Tour on Saturday, June 12th. We’ll be visiting John Callaway’s & Jack Patton’s collections. It should be a fun, interesting and educational event. Please see other pertinent information elsewhere in this newsletter.

Thanks to all that helped make our Art in the Arbor participation a success. We sold all but two of the trees that we had for sale, sold many raffle tickets for the Crepe Myrtle bonsai and signed up a few for the beginner’s workshop which will be held on May 22nd, 10:00 at the Bon Air Library. Please try to attend so you can assist participants with their trees. Earl Ekman may be calling soon and ask for your help. A special thank you to Earl Ekman who headed up the Art the Arbor event. Earl, also, is basically in charge of the beginner’s workshop. Thanks Earl, you‘re the energizer bunny of the GLBS. “Old guys rule”, or something like that ! You da man!

by George Buehler

As I write this, what I think is the best time of year for bonsai has just passed. My azaleas have just finished blooming and this was one of the best in a number of years. With the cool and damp weather we had, the blooms lasted a lot longer than in past years. There is nothing, in my opinion, better than seeing a tree completely covered with blooms. So many in fact that on some, the green leaves were not visible. The only down side is that I have spent a lot of time removing the spent blooms – but overall, it is worth it.

This month we have a couple of interesting articles. The first presented on page XX by Mike Hansen reports on his efforts to reduce the pH of the water he uses for his bonsai. I talked to Mike a couple years ago about this problem and he stated he spent a considerable amount of time, money and efforts reducing the pH [for those who don’t know, pH is a measure of acidity or alkalinity – the lower the number the more acidic, the higher the more basic. Most plants prefer a pH of between approximately 6 and 7.5]. He finalized on using sulfuric acid to reduce his water, but this procedure is not suitable for the normal bonsai artist, due to the potential hazardous nature of the acid. As one of our more skilled bonsai artist, Dave Bogan, states bonsai have to ‘live with’ the quality of water he has. He can modify the soil to give a more acidic nature but if the tree can’t live with the quality of water he has, he just doesn’t try to grow that species.

by Ross Clark

The Sabi Bonsai Kai (roughly translated as the society for old and elegant bonsai) was organized for the sole purpose of conducting an annual display of distinguished bonsai from the mid-south region. The society is constituted of friends, students and associates of Warren Hill, sensei at Tree-Haven School of Bonsai, in Greeneville, Tennessee.

The first exhibit by Sabi Bonsai Kai took place on May 22-23, in the civic center in central Asheville, North Carolina. The group plans to make it an annual event, in the same place, on the same weekend each year (the weekend before Memorial Day). I was fortunate to be able to visit the inaugural exhibit.

by Mike Hansen

Taken from LCBS May 2010 Newsletter

(Original article written in 1987, updated in 1988 and in 1999)

It is with some reluctance that I write this article because so much has already been said and written about pH. In some respects it's a little like the old cliché, "Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it." I have been talking about soil pH since I moved to Austin, TX, and for the past thirteen years, I have been trying to do something about it. Now, at the urging of a friend, I am writing about it.

To understand the significance of pH and its relationship to plants, it helps to understand what pH is. pH is a unit of measure that indicates the relative acidity or alkalinity of a substance. pH is measured on a scale of 0 to 14 with 0 being very acid, 14 being very alkaline and 7 as neutral (distilled water). The measurement along the pH scale is logarithmic which means that the each value along the scale is 10 times more concentrated than the previous value. For example, if we are comparing three samples of water one with a pH of 6, another with a pH of 5 and the third with a pH of 4, the sample with a pH of 5 is 10 times more concentrated than the sample with a pH of 6 and the sample with a pH of 4 is 10 times stronger than the pH 5 sample and 100 times stronger than the pH 6 sample. The same relationship holds true on the alkaline side of the scale.

by Lee Squires

The Bjorn Event

We had a great demo, dinner, and workshop with Bjorn Bjorholm on April 9th & 10th. I hope as many of you all could attend as wanted to and sorry if you had to miss it for whatever reason. Bjorn is a talented young bonsai artist with a specialty in wiring, design and redesign of tired old plants. Maybe we can have him back in the future for a PowerPoint presentation of his Japan experiences.

Scale?

Many pine growers are bothered by pine needle scale. I’m sure you all have seen it, as it resembles white paint flecks on the needles of, mainly, Mugho Pine. I fight it off and on since I do have a few Mughos. Timing a spray is difficult because the crawler, larval stage, is only out from underneath the protective white shell for a 5-7 day migration cycle to other parts of your tree. Last year I found a fairly new product that is easy to use and effective on scale, spider mites and other piercing/sucking insect pests. It is Bonide Systemic Granules, with Di-Syston as the active ingredient. It can be applied directly to potted bonsai and other plants in the ground. I use from one to four tablespoons per pot, depending on pot size. Just sprinkle it on the soil surface and water it in. Don’t let your dog drink the dripping drainage water!!!  I had an infestation last Fall and applied some in October. This Spring around 2/3 of the colony was brown and the white ones were starting to dry up. I reapplied it to all of my pines this year as a precaution. It takes five days to dissolve and be absorbed by the root system and transported into the leaf and branch tissue of the plant. It acts systemically and as the insect sucks plant juices it gets a cocktail of D-Syston, a deadly concoction more potent than tequila shots! Bunton’s and other garden centers may carry it, and it costs $22.00 for a four lb. container.

by George Buehler

Spring is here, the tulips are blooming and the azaleas are showing their colors. All of my trees are out, and the wiring, pruning and plucking are in progress. I checked the moss bed and it is beginning to 'green-up'.  A little acid water added to it and it should be ready to put on some of the trees. I have a penjing planting with a lot of moss on it. Every spring, I fight the birds who want to use the moss as part of their nests. The birds really make a mess of the planting trying to get to the moss; and, even with bird netting, they tear it apart. I keep trying to keep them away from it, but the birds win.

Now why did I tell you this? I have two Hinoki in my stand area, each sits between two stands. As I was examining one, there was some of the missing moss from the penjing and the beginning of a robin nest. Well, I reclaimed my moss and removed the nest. The next day I went out to the bonsai area and the moss on the penjing was completely destroyed.  I looked into the Hinoki, where a second nest was built and almost ready. So, being the Grinch I am, the nest was once again removed. Two times in one season had to tell the bird she wasn't wanted and to look for some better place. Well, that was wrong. The following day, I looked into the Hinoki and there was another nest. This time there was one robin egg in it. I can't believe she built it so quickly!