by Midge Goeth

Winter in Kentucky can be a quiet time for those of us interested in growing miniature trees. We put our deciduous and conifers to bed so they can undergo their dormant season out in the cold. The tropicals we bring in, maybe put them under lights, add a bit of humidity, and water when needed. That has been my routine for quite a few years. However, this year, that routine was altered just a bit. The evergreens and deciduous settled into their winter habitat, but my three tropicals hitched a ride in the back of my station wagon and are now keeping me company in Florida for the winter. And, boy, are they enjoying it!

I’m sure most of you have found a new friend with an interest in bonsai simply by mentioning your hobby to them. A contractor came to my house in Florida to look at some work I wanted done. He saw my plants on the patio and said he knew a woman in town who also had bonsai. He immediately called her on his cell phone and the contact was made. She is a member of the Sho Fu Bonsai Society of Sarasota and invited me to a lecture/demo by Ben Oki the next week. I was delighted to find new bonsai friends so quickly.

The event was to start at 7:30 in Sarasota with dinner before for those who wanted to have more one on one time with Ben. I declined that, but was pleased to have the opportunity to meet him and watch him work. I met my new friend, Miriam Berninger, at her house and drove to the meeting site in Sarasota. Without going into details, Ben, who was fiying in from Ft. Lauderdale, was delayed four hours.

The president of the club, knowing a couple hours earlier this was going to happen, brought a rather large Chinese elm for all of us to work on. This plant was in a 5 gallon container and had not been touched since being contained. It was an interesting study because it had one serious problem - a reverse taper of the trunk. And it was quite large. This was a pretty vocal group of people so there were many suggestions of what should be done about styling this plant.

Unknown to me, there was in the audience, a gentleman from New York who spends a couple winter months in Florida. His name is Hal Mahoney and he had agreed to style the tree after everyone had the opportunity to use their creativity. When he finished with some preliminary pruning and cutting while explaining what he was doing and why, I began to see that this plant had great possibilities. I had my doubts when I first saw it. The reverse taper was rather extreme.

Then I found out who Hal Mahoney was. He was on the board of Bonsai Clubs International for 8 years, and Vice President in 1994. He also served on the educational board of BCI. He has published about 45 articles on Bonsai and was a founder of the Eastern Suf. x and Mid Atlantic Bonsai Societies. He travels and talks about his areas of interest which are rock Penjing, saikei, and raft style.

Some tips that I learned from Hal are to use any exterior carpenters glue on cut wounds, after disinfecting with hydrogen peroxide. When asked what he uses for fertilizer, he said he was not the best person to ask that question because he uses Miracle Gro on everything full strength. He also said that to prevent branches from dying on the tip, leave a small amount of green leaf beyond where you cut the side branch off.

This was an informative meeting already and Ben had not even arrived yet. But when he did, he immediately started to work on the procumbens juniper. Someone unboxed the juniper, which had come with Ben in the cargo hold of the plane and had been donated by the Miami Tropical Bonsai Garden. The minute it was placed on the turntable, Ben opened his tools and went to work. No introduction, no hello, glad to be here, etc. But I can’t blame the guy. He had been in an airport or car all day and did not even get dinner.

Ben is very dif. cult to understand. Even though he has lived in this country quite a while, his English is very heavily accented. However, I learned a lot from his demonstration. As he began cutting away at a lot of the plant material, he said he was going to create a cascade. We all watched as something other than a cascade as we know it, began to take shape. Finally, one brave gentleman asked him where he was going with this design. Ben said it would be a 3 cascade! WOW!! Learn something new every day.

After all the cutting and pruning, he began wiring - wiring - wiring. And yes, three cascades!! He finally stood back, looked at the plant, then looked at us and said, ”This is best I could do with this plant material without cutting most of it away”. We all applauded and then the raffle tickets were on sale. I bought three chances for $10.00, and guess what? You all will have the pleasure of seeing Ben Oki’s three cascade juniper. Yep, I won the raf. e. I am going to ask for lots of help from all of you to continue the upkeep of this plant. Ben suggested it be potted in a square pot instead of the traditional tall cascade pot. Just finding a suitable pot will be a challenge for me.

Even though Ben said he does not have a favorite style or plant material, he does have a lot of junipers in his collection. Mostly California junipers, as well as some shimpaku (but, he said, they tend to get spider mite). He also likes black pine because they are easy to care for. Because he travels a great deal, his wife watches over his collection and does the watering. He said that is why he walks three steps behind her.

I will go to the regular monthly meeting of the Sho Fu Bonsai Society which is the first Thursday of each month. I believe they are having another demo in February and planning a collecting trip in March.

I truly enjoyed meeting some new bonsai friends, and look forward to developing more relationships. Sharing ideas about this wonderful art form is just as satisfying for me as actually doing it.