Matsu Bonsai blog

Final Meeting of the Matsu Bonsai Study Group Meeting - 2009

matsubonsai — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 21:14:00 -0500

This Saturday, November 7th from 10am until 5pm will be the next meeting of the Bonsai Study Group. For this meeting we'll be discussing care for Fall and Winter preparation. We'll also spend some time discussing fertilizer and wiring techniques. Work will primarily revolve around fall cut back, soji cleanup, and Winter preparation. If you run out of things to work you're free to work on some of mine. We'll break for lunch around noon, so bring a treat or join us for nearby fast food.

Items needed for this meeting:

Trees
Soil
Wire
Wire Cutters
Scissors
Concave cutters
Bent tip tweezers

As always, if you need to borrow a tool plenty will be available.

Please RSVP and do your best to be on time.

First Styling of a Western Juniper

matsubonsai — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 20:32:00 -0500

I have posted this tree before in How To Bend a Western Juniper. Now, several months later I was tasked to finish the job.

On October 31st I completed my 9th and final Bonsai Intensive with Boon Manakitivipart. For this Western Juniper (Juniperus occidentalis) we had initially bent the tree in May 2009. I finished styling and wiring the tree during my last Intensive.

Here's the tree before work started in May 2009, and again after work was completed at that time.

Well fed and ready for the next step. October 2009.

Giving this tree some style. October 2009.

Top view of the wired branches. October 2009.

All wired up and styled with a new planting angle. October 2009.

Me, Boon, and the newly styled tree. October 2009.

October - Busy Bonsai Month

matsubonsai — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 14:02:00 -0500

The end of October is an incredibly busy time of year for me. On Saturday, October 24th I'll be hosting another meeting of the Bonsai Study Group from 10am until 5pm, with a break for lunch. During this session we'll primarily work on Fall cleanup and preparation for Winter. That means cutting back some of the unneeded and unwanted growth and general thinning and arranging of branches. We'll also discuss the removal of the top layer of soil and replacing it with fresh soil and the purpose behind this activity.

On Sunday, October 25th I'll be heading up to Cincinnati for the last day of their annual fall show at the Krohn Conservatory. I've been attending this show for several years now and it's improved each and every year. The time and effort that this club spends teaching new and old members alike really shows, with their efforts with the Continuing Bonsai Education group and the Advanced Bonsai Study Group. This year I'll be donning a vest and answering some questions for a few hours Sunday morning.

Next week, October 28-31 I'll be in California for my 9th session of Boon's Bonsai Intensive. I'm really looking forward to this trip. By the way, if you haven't seen Boon's newly redone site I suggest you check it out.

Cooler Weather Coming Our Way

matsubonsai — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 14:29:00 -0500

October has arrived, and with it cooler weather. The shade cloth has been taken down and the trees are doing their final bit of growing for the year. With the cold and wet rainy growing season we had this year it's very important that Soji, Fall cleanup work is done before putting the trees away for Winter. Now is the time to plan the many chores of Fall. This includes cleaning and thinning pines and junipers, refreshing the top layer of soil, trimming back refined maples, and pulling weeds, etc.

This weekend is the Carolina Bonsai Expo at the North Carolina Arboretum. Unfortunately other duties prevent me from attending this year, but I'm looking forward to hearing good reports.

If you're not planning on attending the Carolina Bonsai Expo this weekend, how about a meeting of the Greater Louisville Bonsai Society? This will be a "Tree Maintenance" workshop. I've agreed to give a brief talk on preparing Japanese Black Pine for Winter. Some of the topics I plan to cover are the Fall cleanup work and storage requirements, with a follow up Bonsai Study Group meeting October 24th.

Shohin Bonsai - Big Deal About Small Trees

matsubonsai — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 18:33:00 -0500

This past weekend was the Shohin II Bonsai Symposium in Rochester, NY. This was another event hosted by Bill Valavanis and International Bonsai. Other obligations prevented me from attending, but I'm looking forward to seeing reports online.

Speaking of Shohin Bonsai, the American Shohin Bonsai Association is currently seeking new members. This relatively new organization has big plans for the future. A new website has recently come online and more features are expected soon. If you enjoy shohin bonsai then this is the organization for you.

What exactly is shohin bonsai? Shohin is a size classification of trees between 2" and 8" in height. Sometimes this requirement is extended for trees up to 10", but this is up the discretion of the judges.

Here's a quick list of size classifications. This by no means is definitive, but could be used as a guideline for most judged exhibits.

Shohin 2" - 8"
Kifu 8" - 12"
Chuhin 12" - 18"
Ogata 18" - 48"

* Size classifications reproduced from BIB 10 program

Bonsai Study Group - September Meeting

matsubonsai — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 06:48:00 -0500

This Saturday, September 12th from 10am until 5pm will be the next meeting of the Bonsai Study Group. For this meeting we'll be discussing care for late summer and early fall. We'll also spend some time discussing fertilizer and wiring techniques. Work will primarily revolve around junipers and pines, other than Japanese Black Pine, such as Scots, Ponderosa, 5-needle pine, etc. Black Pine will be worked in late October and November If you run out of things to work you're free to work on some of mine. We'll break for lunch around noon, so bring a treat or join us for nearby fast food.

Please do your best to be on time.

Southeastern Regional Bonsai Show - July 25-26 2009

matsubonsai — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 20:23:00 -0500

On Saturday, July 25th I took a trip down to the Nashville Bonsai Society hosted the Southeastern Regional Bonsai Show at Cheekwood Gardens. Part of the Maxwell House family, Leslie Cheek and Mabel Wood built their house on a 100 acre property just west of Nashville. If you ever have the opportunity to visit I highly recommend it. The house has been converted to an art museum and the grounds a botanical garden. And, if you happen to be there in July you just might get the chance to see the Southeastern Regional Bonsai Show, hosted by the Nashville Bonsai Society.

August Study Group Cancelled

matsubonsai — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 18:47:00 -0500

The August meeting of the Bonsai Study Group has been cancelled. Instead of the August 8th meeting of the Bonsai Study Group I will instead be traveling to Arkansas to study with Akio Kondo.

Mr. Kondo is a Kokufu award winning bonsai artist from Japan. Akio was Kihachiro Kamiya's first apprentice and is Boon Manakitivipart's senior from Kihachi-En, where they both studied. My friend, John Kirby is hosting Akio for part of his trip, so this will be a great time working on trees with good friends.

For more information about the Bonsai Study Group and future dates please visit this link:
http://www.matsubonsai.com/blog/page/Bonsai-Study-Group.aspx

July Study Group Reminder

matsubonsai — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 14:24:00 -0500

This Saturday, July 11th from 10am until 5pm will be the next meeting of the Bonsai Study Group. This time we'll be working on wiring Japanese Black Pine, junipers, azaleas, and various deciduous trees. As always, bring plenty to keep you busy for the whole day. If you run out of things to work you're free to work on some of mine. We'll break for lunch around noon, so bring a treat or join us for nearby fast food.

Please do your best to be on time.

Bonsai Study Group - 2 More Chances

matsubonsai — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 08:16:00 -0500

Two more chances to attend the Bonsai Study Group this weekend. This Saturday and Sunday, June 27 and 28th, from 10am until 5pm we will meet at my home in Shepherdsville, KY to work on trees. This meeting we will continue our focus on Satsuki Azaleas and Japanese Black Pine (黒松 kuromatsu). We started earlier in the month with the larger trees and will be concluding work on chuhin and shohin bonsai. This helps keep the growth in scale with the bonsai. Larger bonsai are worked on first, giving them a chance to put on new growth earlier in the season, and smaller later which keeps it's growth more in scale. The longer the growing season the larger the growth. That's something to keep in mind as we continue our work.

It's also a great time to work on tropicals. I have a buttonwood that one lucky attendee will be wiring and styling. Also, some maples and junipers need some attention as well.

As always, bring plenty to work on to keep you busy for the entire day. If you run out of stuff to work on I will be happy to have you work on some of my trees. If you need driving directions, please let me know.

We will break for lunch, so bring your own or plan on joining us out at a local fast food restaurant.

And finally, do your best to be on time.

For more information about the Bonsai Study Group please visit this link: http://www.matsubonsai.com/blog/page/Bonsai-Study-Group.aspx

June and Satsuki Azalea Bonsai

matsubonsai — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 06:15:00 -0500

It's June again and that means plenty of work to do. At the last meeting of the Bonsai Study Group I spent a full day on this Satsuki Azalea. The shoots were taken down to two and the leaves taken to 3 on top and weaker areas and 2 towards the base and stronger areas.

I posted the photos below at the Bonsai Study Group forum and received an interesting video critique by johng. If you haven't already done so, visit the Bonsai Study Group forum, create an account and start contributing to the community.

The first picture shows the tree as I received it in 2006 and the second after work was complete last Saturday. There were quite a few flaws that were removed at that time and I've spent the last few years correcting them and growing out replacement branches. I've almost gotten it to where I want it. However, johng has offered a new direction that I'm considering in the next 2-3 years. That's the great thing about bonsai, they're never finished and can always be remade into something different/better.

This tree was repotted in February. Some are still teaching the outdated practice of repotting after flower removal. This is overly stressful on the tree as much of the energy was spent making flowers. You will get much better results if you practice repotting in late winter or early spring and then thin to two shoots, two leaves in June.

Here's the link to my Satsuki thread containing the video critique and a possible option for the future of this tree:

http://bonsaistudygroup.com/satsuki-azalea-discussion/june-satsuki-work/

New Bonsai Forum

matsubonsai — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 18:54:00 -0500

I'm very pleased to announce the debut of a new bonsai forum. Bonsai Study Group is an online forum dedicated to the advancement of bonsai trees and individuals as they work together to share their progress as a community. Testing has been underway for the past few weeks, and new members are now free to sign-up. There are already a number of very informative posts online and I suspect even more will soon follow.

Others are encouraged to share in announcing the new forum, but the administrators have asked that we be respectful of other forums. That means no announcement posts or signature lines on other forums, as this may be seen by some as disrespectful. Feel free to post an announcement on a personal blog and share the news via email or personal message, as you see fit.

I'm very excited about this new forum and look forward to seeing it grow.

http://bonsaistudygroup.com

Bonsai Study Group - 2 Chances to Attend

matsubonsai — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 07:48:00 -0500

We will be having two meetings of the Study Group this weekend. For this round of meetings we will primarily be focusing on Japanese Black Pine Pinus thunbergii (黒松 kuromatsu) and Satsuki Azaleas. Now is the perfect time of year to perform very specific tasks to improve your bonsai, particularly these two species. We can learn a lot about bonsai and tree care in general from studying the growth habits of pines and azaleas. One is apical dominant, the other basal dominant.

For Japanese Black Pine we will be working on decandling and needle pulling. It's all about energy balance and working towards a specific goal. Timing is everything, and that's what we'll be discussing.

Satsuki Azaleas may still be in flower, but now is the time to remove the flowers and trim back to 2 shoots, 2 leaves. Being basal dominant means that the top may not be as strong, so we'll leave 3 leaves towards the top and in weaker areas.

We can learn a lot by working with these two great species. Energy balance is key in all bonsai. Thinning and branch placement is a lesson well learned, and couldn't be easier with Japanese Black Pine and Satsuki Azaleas.

If you have something else you would prefer to work on, please feel free to bring those. It's a great time of year to work on tropicals, Japanese Maples, Trident Maples, Junipers, and just about anything else. Be sure to bring plenty to work on to keep you busy for the full day.

If you're lacking material to work on I would be happy to have you work on one of my own trees. There's plenty to do and I could use the help.

We'll break for lunch around noon, so either bring a lunch or plan on joining us at a local fast food restaraunt.

June 13th - Saturday 10am - 5pm
June 14th - Sunday 10am - 5pm

Please, do your best to be on time.

How To Bend a Western Juniper

matsubonsai — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 06:13:00 -0500

Another great part of Boon's Bonsai Intensive is doing major work that you might not otherwise have the opportunity to do. This Western Juniper Juniperus occidentalis was the subject of a major bending lesson this time.

This great tree had a number of possibilities. The first exercise was for the students to pick a front. There were two good fronts on the tree, but one in particular that Boon wanted to use.

With the front chosen and an end goal in mind it was time to get to work. It's important to start with a healthy well fed tree. A channel was carved out of the trunk so that bending would be easier. Large gauge aluminum wire was then placed inside the new opening and raffia was applied. Then, large annealed copper wire was applied to the trunk, twice. This will be enough the support the major bending that was about to occur.

In Japan, the master does the bending while the apprentice(s) tighten the guy wires. Knowing how far to bend is something that is learned with years of experience. The apprentices learn by example here.

The final picture is a little off center from the new front. Maybe I can convince Jeremiah to share some of the photos he took during the bending session.

Bonsai Intensive - Satsuki Azalea

matsubonsai — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 07:36:00 -0500

The last weekend in May was still a bit early for most azalea work, but for some of the larger trees or those still in development it was just perfect.

Here's a large Satsuki Azalea that I worked on. The spent flowers were removed and shoots paired down to two. Azaleas are basal dominant so three leaves were left on each shoot near the top of the tree and only two left nearer the bottom. Some of the branches are still being grown out, so more leaves were left on these as well. After the work was done the topsoil was replaced with fresh soil. The tree was well watered. Then milled New Zealand Sphagnum moss was applied to help keep in moisture.