Club News - June 2018

Meeting - June 15 @ 7PM

Gordon Deeg - What is Saikei?

If you were at our Annual Show demo on Sunday you should be able to answer that question. For the most part, Saikei concentrates on the evocation of a natural living landscape, rather than on the character of individual trees as emphasized in bonsai.

Bonsai may use stones as the base of trees in the root-over-rock style (Sekijoju) and growing-in-a-rock (Ishizuke) styles, but does not form landscapes from mixed stones and soil. For Saikei, the shape of the ground is very important. For bonsai, the ground is generally level.

At our June meeting, Gordon Deeg will explore with us further the possibilities of adding stones with our miniature trees resulting in an approximation of a natural landscape. Saikei literally translates as “planted landscape".

Gordon Deeg is a familiar name to bonsai enthusiasts all over California and further afield as most of you know. For those still getting to know Gordon, we are very lucky to have him as a contributing member of our club. Over the years he has donned many hats, filling positions, leading and teaching across clubs, organizations, conventions and seminars. Gordon is a former Chairman of the Bonsai Garden at Lake Merritt (BGLM). Currently, he is the Garden Master and a bonsai teacher at BGLM.

Gordon has spent time in Japan studying under Mr. Yasuo Mitsuya and is entrusted as the primary caretaker of Kathy Shaner's personal bonsai collection. In addition to all this, Gordon cares for one of the most impressive bonsai gardens – his own which includes an eclectic collection of varieties and those really hard-to-find species.

Gordon is always eager to share his bonsai experiences and knowledge. Join us this month as he takes us further into the art of Saikei. Members are encouraged to bring examples of Saikei for Show and Tell as well as their own questions and experiences to share.

Club News

"Introduction to Bonsai" Class in May Was a Hit

The club thanks Richard and Barbara Phillips for hosting and teaching this class which attracted seven enthusiastic participants. Kusamura will continue to offer these Intro classes/workshops on a quarterly basis with a comprehensive Beginners Class to be offered in early 2019.

Officers and Board Members Elected for the 2021 – 2022 Term

The following officers and board of directors were nominated and elected at our May 18th club meeting. Everyone will be sworn in at our June meeting with terms effective July 1.

Special thanks to everyone who served as Officer or Board of Director this past year, everyone coming on board, and to Richard Phillips, Diane Churchill and Chris Weigen who were the Nominating Committee. 

• Lynne O’Dell — President
• Richard Phillips — Vice President
• Hal Jerman — Treasurer
• Idris Anderson — Recording Secretary
• Chris Weigen — Corresponding Secretary
• Christoff Dressel — Board of Directors (continuing term) 
• John Mekisich — Board of Directors (continuing term)
• Sean Morris — Board of Directors (continuing term)
• Andrew Lipson — Board of Directors (new term)
• Barbara Phillips — Board of Directors (new term)
• Tom Romer — Board of Directors (new term)

They’ll be sworn in at our June meeting with terms effective July 1. I know everyone will agree that the club will continue to be in good hands going forward.

July 14 Beginner Workshop - Juniper Cascade

Kusamura Bonsai Club is offering a workshop on styling a Procumbens juniper in the cascade style. This is a great opportunity for novice bonsai artists to begin learning the fundamental skills of analyzing a “raw” plant, choosing a front and main branches, pruning to “find the bonsai within”, and wiring to set the branches into the appropriate style. After the styling, we will learn how to correctly pot the tree into a bonsai container. We are in the process of developing a comprehensive program of training for beginners and this workshop will give a hands-on taste of what future classes will include. There are a limited number of junipers available, so sign up early if you want to be sure to have a place in the workshop.

Instructors: Richard Phillips and Lynne O’Dell
Location: YMCA Community Room, 550 Bell Street, East Palo Alto
Time: July 14, 9AM -1PM
Cost: $25-$30 to cover plant material, pot, soil, wire and partial site rental

Bring what tools you have but everything else will be provided. Contact Richard Phillips to sign up.

August Garden Tour – Saturday Afternoon, August 11

n August of each year the club takes a break and hosts a Bonsai Garden Tour instead of a regular meeting. The main attraction is a chance to see the collections of other members. At the last location we have a club potluck. This year you have the opportunity to visit the three collections of trees. 

SAVE THE DATE! More details will be provided in our July newsletter.

Recap of Our May Meeting

We had a nice turnout and Michael Greenstein and Ryan Nichols did a great job helping members and visitors with bonsai they bought at our April show. They started out by saying that they would be asking each participant the questions "Why did you buy it?", "What do you want to do with it?", and "How do you want it to look?". This allowed everyone to think about this before it was their turn to get some assistance.

Everyone who brought in a tree got some assistance. Diane Churchill brought in an Itoigawa juniper. This allowed Michael and Ryan to discuss mature versus juvenile foliage on junipers. Because Diane’s tree is a mature Itoigawa juniper, Ryan said it should not be generating juvenile foliage. If a juniper doesn’t get enough sunlight, it will generate juvenile foliage but San Jose junipers with immature or juvenile foliage is normal. Prune a California juniper hard and it will come back with needles. Ryan also pointed out that the sap is flowing in junipers right now so we shouldn’t prune our junipers until the start of summer or mid June.

David Cooper brought in a trident maple and was interested in trying to get exposed roots over a rock. The trunk of David’s tree was too old to start this process and it was recommended that David pot his tree deeper in the soil to get rid of the exposed roots that may eventually fuse together. We were reminded that to thicken up a trunk it’s always faster to put it in the ground or pot it in a larger pot. David could also just let the branches grow as much as six feet high to get everything to thicken up.

Ivan brought in a juniper he bought at our show and it was suggested that he style it as a Bunjin (Japanese term) orLliterati (name used by Chinese scholars). Junipers need about six hours of full sun and its best to fertilize them with organics because if you fertilize too much with a non-organic it will cause them to generate juvenile growth.

Sean Morris brought in a trident maple that he bought three years ago. Sean’s tree was at the stage where he needs to focus on the transition from massive tree trunk to branches. Because it has a massive secondary trunk, it was suggested that Sean air layer it and make a really nice Shohin out of that trunk and by doing that the main trunk would look so much more powerful. This led to a discussion about major cuts on trees. Ryan said that in the horticultural world, they use to put a sealant on a big cut to prevent infection but today we know that by sealing it we trap the bacteria. In the bonsai community, we put cut paste on the entire wound and around the wound to prevent it from drying out and that causes it to heal faster.

Barbara Kindall brought in a forty year old grape that had a great stump that she wanted to draw attention to. Barbara should use an epoxy wood hardener to harden the wood in order to preserve it long term. It was a very artistic stump. She could also thicken up the foliage if she put it in an 18” box and let the branches grow six feet and get to a half-inch in diameter. Leaves on grapes don’t downsize. Thickened branches will turn brown in color and survive the winter. Green branches normally don’t and you must then prune that off.

Shar brought in a juniper that was potted in very fine and compacted soil. This means that the water is probably not soaking in as needed. It this situation you can soak the tree in a container of water and/or poke holes in the soil using a chopstick to cause the water to soak into the soil when watering.

Shar and Ivan and others were visitors and we hope to see them back. It was a really fun meeting. We elected new Officers and Board of Directors for the new fiscal year and everyone was still talking about how our annual show was such a success. The club thanks Michael and Ryan for doing such a nice job with the program. And thanks to John Planting for bringing in his Mickey Mouse tree for Show and Tell. Everyone wants one now!

Newsletter Editor: Rita Curbow