Club News - August 2018
Garden Tour and Picnic - August 11
No August Meeting
As is usual at this time of year our club takes a break from formal meetings and instead visit the gardens of a few of our club members to see their trees and have a picnic.
Next month we'll be back to our regular meeting schedule when we'll have Tanuki demo with Jerry Carpenter and David Muir
What is a Tanuki?
The short answer is that a tanuki is the marriage of old wood, such as a dead trunk, with newer live material to create something that looks old. Many people consider these to be phony or fake, but if you've been in the bonsai hobby for a while you're bound to wind up with at least one tree that's died. This is a way to partially resurrect such trees.
The tanuki shown below was created by grafting a shimpaku juniper whip onto a piece of dead wood. After several years of growth and stying it was good enough to include at our show.
For more of an introduction see Creating A Tanuki Bonsai by the Bonsai Learning Center.
Monthly Tasks
Each month there are a number of tasks you need to do to your bonsai – from repotting, to fertilizing to spraying for pests. We have put together a checklist, customized for the San Francisco Bay Area to help you. This checklist is adapted from earlier work by Mitsuo Umehara.
This month: August Tasks
Recap of Our July Meeting
At our July meeting Kathy Shaner talked first about how we often bring home a tree that’s a bit overgrown and then leave it in our yard until we know what we want to do with it. Over time such trees will become more leggy, shaggy, etc. Instead, she recommended immediately pruning the tree to force new growth. She sometimes does this pruing in the nursery parking lot!
At our July meeting Kathy Shaner did another fabulous job, this time demonstrating how to style a Hornbeam as a bunjin. Attendance included lots of members and lots of visitors who turned out to see Kathy in action. One visitor told me it was the best bonsai demonstration she had ever seen.
Although most bunjin that we see are pines or junipers, Kathy said deciduous trees can make wonderful bunjin. For her demo she used a Hornbeam that was about 24” tall, with gnarled roots, gentle curves, lots of short foliage along most of the trunk. It also had some “character” thru its old scars near the bottom of the trunk.
Kathy began by reminding us to imagine the location and conditions where the tree lives – and how that would shape its growth. She talked about showing the tree’s age and the trauma it has endured and how to use that to end up with something elegant.
Often the first task we do is look at the nebari (roots) and branches and decide where the front of the tree is. Kathy didn’t want to rush that process. Instead, she started by shortening branches that were clearly too long or removing those that were in the wrong place – no matter where the front would be. Starting at the bottom, she worked her way up the tree getting to know the tree in the process. She reminded us that if we’ve shortened or removed a lot of branches in an area that we should leave one branch to use up some of the energy in that area. That prevents other branches from getting too thick, and that sacrificial branch can be removed later.
To make a good bunjin, branches are shorter than on other styles. But they shouldn’t just be stubs and they should have some movement. Kathy showed us that there were several alternatives for the final shape of the tree’s top. Kathy involved the audience in deciding what to do at the top of the tree by voting to either “bring the top branch upward” or “flatten it out and bring it down and let it grow in a downward direction”.
For Hornbeams you stay on top of leaf development by removing everything past the third leaf on branch tips. This will also encourage growth closer to the trunk and create shorter internodes. Of course you don't want to let the remaining leaves get too thick either. She recommended keeping the internodes short and not let the tree grow too fast.
As in all of Kathy’s demos, she took time to share techniques. Here are a few of those.
Bending Branches Without Wire - Young deciduous branches that haven’t yet hardened can be bent into soft curves using only your hands, and repetition. For example to make a branch curve downward, place three fingers on top of the branch and create a gentle arch. Use your thumb underneath to curve the branch up into your fingers. Learn to feel the movement in the branch vs. looking at your fingers. Looking at your fingers will increase the likelihood that you will over bend and break the branch.
Use Sharp Tools – Tools that aren’t sharp will create jagged cuts which are more difficult to heal and will be very visible when you remove a branch from the trunk of a tree. Sharp tools make cleaner cuts that heal over cleaner.
Hornbeams are more difficult to get to heal over. It’s important to avoid large wounds. Instead of a knob cutter use a flat root cutter and then meticulously round off the edge of the original cut. Sometimes you can just use the root cutter to roll over the wound and remove some of the knobbiness.
Jins Should be Rough - You don't want a jin to look too smooth. Use a root cutter to gently nibble away small bites at a time. This creates more interesting detail and exposes scars where smaller branches used to be. Using a Dremel would carve / sand those away. To begin, bite into the branch with the root cutter along the direction of the grain. The cutter should remain in place if you remove your hand. If it doesn't you haven't bitten deep enough. Now slowly rock the cutter back and forth along the grain to cause the branch to break away. Start first at the top surface of the branch because the top would erode away sooner than the bottom or sides. You can also grab the wood with the root cutter and pull the wood following the grain and slowly peel away some of the wood. Keep any knobs remaining behind from branches that have died back. They give the jin character and shows age in the tree. Like everything, practice is important so experiment using dead branches you find in your yard.
Preserving Dead Wood – Historically bonsai jin and shari have been treated with Lime Sulfur to preserve the exposed wood. Unfortunately, it has to be reapplied over time and the wood looks unnaturally white. For many years Kathy has recommended using other treatment such as Minwax Wood Hardener or PC-Petrifier. Both of these products are clear and don’t change the color of the wood. Tonight Kathy talked about how to use Minwax wood stains when you want to add color to dead wood.
Kathy does NOT shake up the can. She lets the pigments settle to the bottom of the can. Then using a thin bamboo skewer like used for cooking, she dips the blunt end into the can and picks up color from the bottom. Then she can paint very small amounts onto the wood. Clearly this will need a lot of practice first before tackling your best tree! Note, Kathy didn’t say whether she uses oil based or water based stain or any topcoat. Remove Moss - Kathy used a thin bottle-brush to remove the moss from the roots and lower trunk to get a better view.