by George Buehler 

When I sat down to write the ramblings this month, I had to decide what I could write about. As I usually do at this time of year, I started thinking about the successes and failures I had during the year. I guess my biggest failure this year was the loss of a nearly finished Stewartia that I had been working on for a number of years. I have written about this type tree in the past since it is such an unusual tree. The best property of this species is its appearance at this time of year when the leaves fall and the bright organish trunk is fully visible. Unfortunately, this species is a ‘lime hater’ and I constantly had to add a mild dose of MirAcid to adjust the pH of the water. I knew I was fighting an uphill battle trying to grow one in Louisville. The quality of the water we have just isn’t suitable for it. Once it started going downhill, there wasn’t much I could do to keep it going – even with the help of Donna Micheal, UK extension agent. Of course this led me to starting a series of experiments looking at the water quality in terms of pH. Hopefully, I will have enough information collected to write an article next this year.

My mind then moved to the meetings the club held this year and about the lack of attendance at these meetings. I have talked to John and several other club members about what we could do to get our members to attend the meetings. We have wrestled with this for quite some time. Well surprisingly enough, I received Dave Bogan’s November newsletter and it had the following information on this subject.

Club Workshops – by Dave Bogan

Workshops always seem to be a topic of discussion among most clubs and club members. Members complain or suggest there are not enough workshops but when it comes time to attend, no one attends. Why is this? Having been president of a Bonsai club for many years, I saw and heard this many times. Trying to set up workshops was probably the hardest event ever. I always struggled with who to have as a teacher and what degree of skill would be required. Even I was guilty of not participating as much as I should have. In my club, I always wanted to have workshops with “masters” in which we could work on nice trees and learn a lot. To start with, very few members actually had nice material to work on. I attended some in which members actually brought trees that were only a couple years old or maybe trees from the local nursery that had absolutely no potential for becoming nice Bonsai. Herein, I think lies one of the biggest problems with workshop attendance— the material used or more correctly the cost of material used. If you really want to have nice trees, you must start with nice trees. Of course, there are two problems with this. First off, nice trees are becoming very very hard to obtain and secondly, the cost is going up dramatically. When I first started in Bonsai, you could buy or find some very nice trees in the $30 to $50. range. Today, the same trees run a couple hundred dollars. So, if you find a tree and it costs you $200,. add to that the cost of a good workshop, and you have a starter tree running you around $300. So, you must make some tuff decisions. If you are going to practice Bonsai you need to step up and use good material. Ask yourself, is it better to have 50 OK trees or 10 nice trees? I honestly think ultimately you will be happier with a few nice trees.

Next was the issue as to what skill level was required. After all these years, I have come to the opinion that most workshops taught by “masters” should be at the very least intermediate level and preferably at the advanced level. Beginners should be taught at club level by club members. Beginners are too intimidated by masters, and honestly it would be a waste of the master’s time. I am not saying  beginners couldn’t learn a few things but, they typically are not at the point where they understand half of what is being taught.

This is where clubs have problems. Club presidents are challenged to insure all meetings are interesting and serve the club members equally. The real confusion comes when a club has a master workshop and no one signs up or only a few sign up to where the workshop is not financially practical. So, they revert back to having beginner ( & cheaper) workshops. Now many of the older or more experienced members feal the club is not serving their needs. It will always be a huge challenge and there is only one way to solve it.

The members need to speak out and more importantly, be proactive in participating. If you truly belong to a Bonsai club or group, you’re there to learn—Be Active, attend meetings. Quit playing with the little $2.00 trees. Step up, buy a nice tree. Challenge yourself to become better. Attend every workshop available and expand your knowledge of Bonsai. Who knows, someday you might be asked to lead a workshop or become club president.”

As usual, Dave has put together some thoughtful ideas. Hopefully, our new officers will think about what Dave has written and perhaps come up with some new ideas to increase the attendance at our meetings.

Before the rush of the holiday season starts, why don’t you take a look at your bonsai supplies? Do you have enough wire, soil or pots for next spring’s transplanting season? I will start sifting my soil components next month to remove all the fines. However before I do that, I always spread out the components on some plastic on the basement floor to let them dry out. When the material is dry, the dust generally comes off easier. A negative is that as the dry components are sifted, there will be dust in the air. Therefore dust protection is necessary. I also size the dry material because I don’t have to worry about it clumping together when it is dry.

Thinking about planning ahead - it may sound strange, but the best time of year to evaluate the design of your deciduous trees is coming up. In the summer, when the deciduous trees are in full leaf, it is hard to determine if the branch structure is good. However, when the tree has lost all its leaves, you can see the good and bad points of the tree.

Examine your tree and look for the branches or branchlets that are pointing down. Although we want to have some branches bending down to indicate an old tree, a decision needs to be made whether these branches need to be removed or shortened. The smaller branchlets growing down definitely need to be removed, while the larger down pointing branches may need to be shortened to help develop ramification.

Look for limbs which, when the tree is in full leaf, may be shaded by higher branches. Should those higher limbs be removed or can they be bent to allow more sunlight to get to the lower branches? Remember that it is easy to cut off a branch, but adding a branch back is quite difficult. Therefore, before you cut off the branch (rather than bend it), make sure that you really want to remove it.

Look for any limbs that are growing inward (toward the trunk). It is probably a good idea to remove these. But, once again, before I cut off the limb, I look at the overall shape of the tree and consider the open space versus the filled-in space – when the tree is in full leaf. Will cutting off the inward growing limb open up the overall tree to allow more sun to get to other foliage? However, usually the direction of growth is always out away from the trunk – toward the sun.

As you are examining the tree or doing maintenance pruning, watch out for the vegetative buds. These are generally very small at this time of year (late November). If you are doing this in January or February, they may be easier to see. These buds are very delicate and will come off easily.  If you are trying to develop a certain section of the tree, you may want to remove the larger vegetative buds and leave the smaller, weaker buds. If the stronger buds are removed, stronger growth is promoted in the weaker buds. These smaller buds generally produce smaller leaves, which is what we are after in our bonsai.

If you are working on a flowering tree, a second problem arises. These trees produce their flower buds in the late summer. Therefore, there are both vegetative buds and flower buds. The vegetative buds are normally much smaller than the flower buds and can be distinguished by size. In a lot of cases, you will find a larger flower bud surrounded by the vegetative buds. When these trees are wired, careful attention needs to be given to both these bud types to prevent accidentally knocking them off.

If you do trim off branches, make sure the tool you use is sharp and the wound is cleanly cut so that it will heal properly.  Don’t try to remove a branch with a shear when it really needs to be removed with a concave cutter. This will result in a jagged wound, and the scar will probably never heal over properly. Try to preserve the uninodal border of the branch. This is a little thick ring around the branch next to the trunk. If this is left, the wound will heal quicker.

When I remove a branch at the trunk, I cut the branch leaving a small nub on the trunk. This allows the branch left to die back naturally. Later, when the nub needs to be removed, the resulting wound heals up quicker with a less noticeable scar on the trunk. You may also find that when using this method, the uninodal border will swell so that it is much more visible.

If I cut a branch to shorten it, I use a grafting knife to slightly round the end. This way the branch end hardens off and heals quicker. Most of the time, I also cut the branch slightly longer than where I actually want the branch to end since some types of trees have a natural die back when a branch is “hurt”  by cutting.

2008 seemed to just be starting and now it is almost over. For the newsletter, this is the last issue this year. I will be travelling starting mid Nov and won’t be home until right before Christmas. During that time, I hope to write a couple articles for this newsletter and for perhaps the ABS journal. I find that writing on something that hasn’t been written on in the past is getting harder and harder. I guess that is why we call this the information age – almost any subject can be found on the internet these days. Anyway, I will be missing the Christmas party and won’t be able to wish you “Seasons Greetings” in person. I know it seems early but I hope you all have a great holiday season, the jolly fat man brings you all the bonsai related stuff you wish for, and that your bonsai have a beneficial ‘winter’s nap.

One last thought, don’t forget that I will readily accept articles if you want to submit any. It doesn’t have to be extremely long – any size will do. My only requirements are that it be ‘something bonsai’ and that you understand that we may have to do some minor editing. If we have to do any major editing – which we haven’t had to do yet – we will get your approval. If you have some ideas on what you would like me to write on, PLEASE let me know.