Club News - June 2023
Gordon Deeg – Pine Decandling
June 16 @ 7:00 pm - 9:30 pm
Over the years Gordon Deeg has done many presentations for Kusamura. They are always informative. He is a member of Kusamura, Sei Boku (San Mateo) and Bay Area Satsuki Aikokai. He’s also a key player at the Bonsai Garden at Lake Merritt.
June is a busy month for bonsai so Gordon will discuss / demonstrate how to care for Black and Red Pines. First, he’ll discuss and demonstrate how to de-candle a black pine so you get more and smaller branches. Then he will give feedback on black or red pines that members bring to the meeting. If you have a pine that you think is ready to de-candle but aren’t sure, or just want some advice, bring it along.
Remember, de-candling is only performed on very healthy black and red pines that are in Development Phase - that is the trunk and primary branches are grown to the size you want and now you’re focusing on developing fine branching. For an introduction to this topic see Black Pine Basics.
In the Intermediate Workshop a few days later, June 24, we invite you to bring in black or red pines to work on those. Because this is also a great time to work on redwoods feel free to bring those in as well.
Monthly Tasks
This month: June 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.
Recycle your Aluminum and Copper Wire
If you wish to donate your wire to the club, please bring it to the June and July meetings. Ren You will collect the wire and have it weighed and sold at a recycle center. Copper wire is valued at a higher price, so please separate the copper wire into a different container than the aluminum. In the past we have had to accept a lower price for our wire because not everyone separated the copper wire from the aluminum. You can bring your wire in shopping bags, buckets, or boxes; just remember to keep the types of wire in separate containers. Thank you to Ren who has done this for the club for over 10 years. It feels good every few years to clean out our old unusable wire.
Beginners Workshop - Sunday, June 18
For advice on trees, access to a wide range of bonsai tools, and a fun and informative time come to the home of Richard and Barbara Phillips for our monthly Beginners Workshop. We have made several changes to the format and no longer have a morning and afternoon session, so please RSVP with when you think you will be arriving so we can plan. Rita Curbow and Jenn Tan will be assisting. To sign up for the workshop, or for more details, contact Richard.
Attendees are encouraged to check the Timing Work Schedule included in this newsletter to decide what trees can be worked on that day. Even if you don’t have a tree to work on, you can learn by observing others at work or assisting someone with their tree. The best way to learn bonsai is by doing it alongside someone with experience.
Intermediate Workshop – Saturday, June 24
In this workshop we will be putting into practice what we learned from Gordon Deeg’s presentation on June 16 – Black Pine Decandling. Experienced members of the club will advise how to improve your trees.
This is also a good time to work on redwood or Azalea bonsai so bring those if you don’t have pines.
Location, Time and Cost
We will be meeting in the rear parking lot of St Mark’s Episcopal Church – our usual location for monthly meetings. Please be there at 12:45 PM ready to setup tables and get to work soon afterwards. We will start cleaning up at 3:45 PM.
To help offset the cost of renting this facility we are asking everyone who attends to donate by using the Donate with PayPal button on the event page.
Kusamura’s Bonsai Day at Filoli - May 20
There was a good crowd at Filoli on Saturday May 20 as Kusamura held a mini bonsai show and demonstration. The day started with some wind and chill in the air but the enthusiasm for bonsai rose above it.
Club members Michael Greenstein, Lynne O’Dell, Steve Iwaki, Charlene Fischer, and Rita Curbow showed a total of eight bonsai. Species featured were Bougainvillea, Satsuki azalea, Canyon Live Oak, Grape, Pomegranate, Shimpaku juniper, Plum, and Serissa japonica ’snow rose.’ Visitors really enjoyed seeing the fruit on the plum and pomegranate bonsai which were both heavily loaded. And the flowers on the bougainvillea, Satsuki azalea, and Serissa japonica ’snow rose’ were spectacular. The evergreen bonsai were placed to balance the show of flowers and fruiting trees.
Additional demonstrations throughout the day included club members creating shohin size bonsai using plant material provided by Filoli. Participants at various times included Idris Anderson, Lakshmi Myneni, Valerie Monroe, Rita Curbow and Lynne O’Dell.
In addition to our bonsai display, Barbara Phillips provided a Kusamono display that definitely grabbed the public’s attention. Many if not all of the Kusamono were created using pots that Barbara created. JC Zhang added to the fun by creating Kokedama (moss balls) which were sold to the public with proceeds going to Kusamura.
Hal Jerman and Dave Curbow sold bonsai pots throughout the event for Kusamura. Some of the bonsai pots were from the collection of Barbara Shahinian and Sandy Planting. And Filoli sold a number of their shohin size bonsai in the Gift Shop.
Club members Henk and Susan Harkema, Lakshmi Myneni, Manshu Verma, Maryann Hinden, and Andy Mayhew helped man the show tables throughout the day and answered questions from the visiting public.
As the Club organizer for this event I would like to thank everyone who volunteered that day or participated in some fashion to make this event a success. That includes Catherine Iwaki who provided photos from the many she took throughout the day. It was a really fun event and I enjoyed getting to put faces to some of the new names in our club membership. And this past week the club has had a number of people join the club after seeing us at Filoli.
Lastly, thank you to Filoli for their Corporate Partnership and providing this opportunity for Kusamura. All the Filoli staff were very helpful during setup and throughout the day.
May Intermediate Workshop - May 27
We enjoyed some warm sunshine and a cool breeze at this month’s intermediate workshop, and the St. Mark’s church parking lot turned out to be a perfect spot with dappled shade, plenty of tables, and importantly access to extension cords and electricity. Attendees included Rita and Dave Curbow, Michael Greenstein, Hal Jerman, Idris Anderson, Lynne O’Dell, Maryann Hinden, Jenn Tan, Ajit Narayanan, Katherine Glassey, and Andy Mayhew, and everyone brought a variety of trees to work on.
Of special note was a juniper that Idris and Hal worked on to steam treat and bend deadwood while protecting the living portions of the tree. Hal has previously showcased how a tile and grout steam cleaner can be used to rehydrate wood and introduce bends that will stay once the wood has dried and hardened again. The work was interesting and to watch and resulted in impressive movement in the wood itself. It will be fun to see how this tree develops and the design is elevated from this neat technique.
In Appreciation
I have thoroughly enjoyed serving as President these past two years. During my tenure we have grown as a club and I am impressed by the enthusiasm, generosity, kindness, and creativity of the membership. My husband recently asked me if I will continue as an active member of Kusamura and I responded “Kusamura is like family to me. I’ve formed friendships that will last forever; so yes, I will always be in this family.”
I could not have done my job without the support of Dave Curbow as Vice President. Dave has completely coordinated all of our monthly program topics and speakers. He just knew when I needed some assistance either by creating a survey of members’ interests, organizing online registration processes, researching storage facilities in the area, visiting interesting gardens we could tour, documenting sources of materials and tools, establishing intermediate/advanced workshops, and just generally keeping it easy for me to be president.
Michael Greenstein and Lynne O’Dell are your next round of leadership and we could not have wished for a more perfect team to advance our enjoyment of bonsai. I look forward to the new ideas they will bring forth.
Kusamura Loses a Lifetime Member
Haviland Thompson, known affectionally as “Hap” joined Kusamura Bonsai in 1987 and was a Lifetime Member when she passed away on March 30 at the age of 103. Born in 1920 in Berkeley, she graduated with a BSc in Chemistry with Honors. Soon after graduation she married Paul Thompson, another graduate in chemistry. Hap was the first woman to graduate from Berkeley in Chemistry. When World War II came along there was a demand for chemists and she eagerly made use of her degree.
After the war, in 1955 Paul was posted to Vishkapatnam, India to build a refinery for Chevron Oil. Hap and their two children went too and in 1959 the family moved to Mumbai and Hap studied at the Ravi Shankar School of Music. If that name is familiar it’s because George Harrison of The Beatles studied with him in 1966.
Hap also studied painting at Jamshatji Jeejeebhoy School of Art, the oldest art institute in India, and won several awards for her work. When the family returned to the United States in 1965 they lived a few miles north of Manhattan and Hap exhibited paintings in several Manhattan galleries.
Hap and Paul retired to Menlo Park in 1985. Two years later she joined Kusamura. For fifteen years or so a number of us took a monthly bonsai workshop with Hap at the Planting’s home. Those times are fondly remembered as Hap always had great trees, a quick wit and was a joy to work with. At club shows she often worked at the front desk welcoming visitors.
Hap was very active within the bonsai community and was a regular weekly docent at the Bonsai Garden Lake Merritt in Oakland for many years. She was also a member of the California Shohin Society. Today Hap’s bonsai are considered a Legacy tree by Kusamura members who now own them.
Hap and Paul were also very active volunteers at Filoli Historic House and Garden in Woodside. Hap designed the benches that are still being used in the garden today as well as a very large ornate pergola used for special events including Filoli entry(s) in the San Francisco Flower and Garden Show. Hap would design it and Paul would build it.
When not doing bonsai or volunteering at Filoli she and Paul typically spent their time traveling at least two months each year. Their trip from Islamabad to Beijing coincided with the Tiananmen Square protests. In 2004 Hap decided to return to India to visit old friends. While there she decided she’d like to visit the Angkor Wat temple complex in Cambodia. Friends tried to persuade her not to - saying that looters and militia might not appreciate an American woman dropping in. But she told them, “I’m 84 years old. I might not wake up tomorrow. I’m not going to be afraid.” (or something similar). She had a wonderful trip and loved telling about her adventures afterwards.
In 2005 Hap sold off most of her trees, stands, tools, etc. because her eyesight was deteriorating. But she was still mentally sharp until the end and she enjoyed keeping up with what was going on in the club. During Covid she took up writing about her travels during her life to the delight of her family and friends.
For her 102nd birthday Hap's son Roger brought her to Filoli where Rita and I surprised her with a tour of the bonsai and some of the grounds. Still sharp in late July 2022 she wrote in an email to us -
It brightens the day to be remembered. You should travel while you are both ambulatory. I went to Angkor Wat when I was 84. You can too.
Recommended Videos - Three of the Rising Stars Competitors who will appear at Bonsai Rendezvous
I’m looking forward already to the GSBF Rendezvous in Santa Nella, October 2023. Here are three videos from three of the six in the Joshua Roth sponsored Rising Stars Competition to be held on Saturday of the convention. Thought you might like a good preview of what they do and how they do it.
Juniper Design
At Baikoen Bonsai Club March meeting, Marcus styles a juniper.
Mike Pistello's Bonsai Collection
Our friend Eric Schrader interviews Mike as he gives us a tour of his collection. (You can see more of Mike’s work on Instagram: mvpbonsai)
Styling a Large Sierra Juniper
Great to listen in on their discussion of design as they work on a Sierra juniper. Eric wants to keep it large instead of compressing it.
Sam Tan with Eric Schrader | Bonsaify
18 minutes, August 2, 2022
Video Link
Sam's Slender Sierra Styling
Sam and Eric continue their design discussions, this time with a tall Sierra. Sam takes the lead. (You can see more of Sam’s work on Instagram: samtanbonsai).
9 minutes, November 30, 2022
Video Link
Newsletter Editor: Jenn Tan