Club News - July 2021
Club Show Now Available
Normally at this time of year we'd be welcoming the public to our annual show at the Lucie Stern Community Center in Palo Alto. But as we all know this isn't a typical year so instead we'd like to welcome you to our show online.
Meeting - July 16 @ 7PM via Zoom
Eric Schrader - Coast Redwoods
Eric Schrader from Bonsai Society of San Francisco will be doing the demo at our July 16 club meeting.
Eric, co-founder of Bonsaify.com will present a program on Coast Redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens). He plans to discuss how to take young redwood from seed or cutting and make them into interesting forms. In addition, he will discuss how to develop trees that are collected from the wild and will review ongoing maintenance strategies that he uses on mature specimen redwoods.
A discussion of how coastal redwood techniques relate to dawn redwood and Sequoia redwood will surely ensue and Eric will attempt to impart wisdom gleaned from two decades of tinkering with trees.
Bio: Eric Schrader started bonsai in 2002 after attending a show from the Bonsai Society of San Francisco. Eric grew up in rural Mendocino County, and loved hiking among the oaks and redwoods. While studying with Boon Manakativipart for ten years, Eric developed a passion for starting bonsai trees from seed and cutting. In 2019 Eric and his wife Dory started Bonsaify to offer bonsai for everyone to experience and enjoy. Bonsaify is focused on connecting people to nature through informational and fun content, and on selling bonsai trees, containers, supplies, and related products through an online store. To keep up-to-date on Eric’s pursuits, please visit bonsaify.com and sign-up to receive the newsletter; follow Eric on Instagram (@ericschraderbonsai); and watch videos and subscribe to his YouTube channel!
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: July Tasks
More information at - 2021 Plant Sale and Plant Sale Catalog
Message from the President
by Charlene Fischer
I look forward to serving as President and have not served in this capacity since around 2008. We have activities to look forward to such as our August plant sale, physically visiting with each other, returning to live meetings as well as planning for 2022.
I am pleased to announce that Lynne O’Dell and Idris Anderson have volunteered to be co-show chairs and are already looking into venues for 2022. They teamed up with our Treasurer, Hal Jerman, and will be presenting their findings at our next board meeting. Stay tuned for more information on where we will have our show in 2022. Thank you to Lynne, Idris, and Hal for all your investigative work on this.
I also wish to thank Hal, Christine Weigen, Richard Murray, Lynne, Idris, Suresh “Mo” Mohan, Maryann Hinden and Dave Curbow for their time and thoughtful brainstorming to come up with the strategy for our August 21 plant sale and gathering. Everyone wanted to keep the process simple yet fun and productive.
August 21 Plant Sale
Kusamura is holding a plant sale on August 21 and the public is invited!
More info will be posted in a couple of weeks.
Recap of June Meeting
Bonsai extraordinaire Kathy Shaner worked on six bonsai covering a number of topics dealing with deciduous bonsai such as maples, stewartia and pomegranate. Kathy encourages us bonsai enthusiasts to always share our knowledge of bonsai so others can learn from us and vice-versa. She also reminded us to “work on our higher quality trees versus spending our time on lesser trees”.
Kathy first worked on a trident maple that had been growing vigorously and as a result the interior of the tree was being shaded too much. After thinning it some, Kathy focused on the roots of the tree which were grown over a rock and had quite an impressive trunk. But some of the roots weren’t closely adhered to the rock and therefore there was a “void” or empty space that needed filling in. Kathy addressed some of the problem by removing unsightly roots that really weren’t adding to the health of the tree. She then showed us how we could use a sacrificial long branch on the tree that was flexible enough so that the end of it could be inserted into the empty space between the rock and the tree trunk. Over time the branch would adhere to the rock and grow into the existing trunk thereby filling in the empty space. Eventually the undesirable portion of the branch would be removed. Note that this type of operation should only be done during a time of vigorous growth on the tree.
Kathy then worked on a “Bloodgood” Japanese maple which had become too broad and free flowing. Kathy removed sections with longer internodes and ended up removing around 75% of the foliage with impressive results.
Next Kathy worked on two stewartia bonsai. One was a grove of six trees which you don’t see that often. The other was a single trunk stewartia which had some flowers on it. The flowers look similar to a Camellia flower and I thought they were quite nice. Stewartia is known for their red bark on the trunk and are grown for their beautiful nebari in Japan. As bonsai, they do not like a lot of sun or heat. A moss covering works well to prevent them from drying out.
Kathy finished out her program working on a pomegranate in the root over rock style and another trident maple. A discussion about how to treat curly leaf on pomegranate and other trees ensued and it was noted that an organic fungicide such as Indoor Pharm Organic Insecticida Miticide and Fungicide with pure rosemary oil could be used to kill the microscopic mites that cause the curly leaf. This product has been available on amazon.com in the past, but is also available at Home Depot and from the Indoor Pharm company website.
The club thanks Kathy for a very enjoyable program and Gordon Deeg for his technical assistance for Kathy. In addition to some great bonsai advice, Kathy brought her wit and charm as Gordon and his wife Kamrin hosted Kathy’s demo and provided additional banter.
Special thanks is also extended to John Planting who swore all the newly elected Kusamura Officers and Board of Directors into office effective July 1