Club News - November 2022
Steve Iwaki – Styling a Maple
November 18 @ 7:00 pm – 9:30 pm
This is the time of year when you can do major pruning and wiring on maples. Steve Iwaki from Sei Boku Bonsai Kai will discuss styles appropriate for maples and then demonstrate how to take a somewhat “out-of-control” maple, prune and wire it to start its transformation.
Current president of Sei Boku, Steve has been practicing bonsai for over 30 years. Growing up in Los Angeles, he is the second-generation of his family to practice bonsai. Having inherited many of his prized trees from his father, he hopes to someday share this passion with his kids, passing these same trees forward to the next generation. While that might be a long-term dream, his current goal is to pass down what he’s learned from others and share his experiences and appreciation of this traditional art form. He enjoys teaching all the facets of bonsai, from the structural and technical side to the more esoteric aspects. He strongly believes that bonsai instills the attributes of commitment, patience, and a sense of accomplishment, and above all creates balance in your life.
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.
Beginners Workshop - Sunday, Nov 6
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. For more details, contact Richard.
Intermediate Workshop - Saturday, Nov 19 @ 12:30PM to 4PM
12:30pm to 4pm
Please see the Calendar Event for more details.
Potting Party - Sunday, Dec 10
Please mark your calendars for our first potting party which is scheduled for December 4. This will be held at the home of Gordon Deeg. More information will be provided via email prior to our party.
What is a potting party you might wonder? This is where we gather and work on trees that are intended to be sold at our show in April. So what do you do if you don’t yet know how to repot a bonsai tree? Do you come to a potting party if you are a beginner or inexperienced bonsai enthusiast? The answer is yes, of course! By sitting next to an experienced member, you can learn how to repot and ask for advice on good practice and techniques. Plus visiting other members as they repot also helps you see techniques that have worked for them. The trees you pot are taken home with you to “baby sit” (watering, feeding etc.) until we bring them all to the annual show in April for sale.
At potting parties, we work only on trees that will are intended to be sold. Although I have to admit that I have ended up buying my own donation tree after I worked on it and ended up liking it. We have some trees provided by the club and also ask our members to donate at least one tree of a value of at least $25. If you can donate more that is fantastic! Material for our potting parties is often found on the raffle table at our club meetings. Or you may purchase a suitable tree at a nursery and bring that as a donation. Many of us bring a tree from our collection that just doesn’t grab us anymore.
The potting parties are important because they provide the items we use for the very important fundraising component of our budget. New members who do not have trees to donate are welcome to consider a cash donation to the club.
In Memoriam
It is with a heavy heart that we report the sad loss of two of our long-time members - Jane Iki and Barbara Shahinian.
Jane Sumiko Iki
With sadness I have to report the passing of Jane Iki. She left us on the afternoon of October 3 with a gentle breeze coming through an open window overlooking her garden. Jane was my sister-in-law and I learned so much from her and treasured our time together.
Jane began her love for bonsai in the early 1970s when she joined the Peninsula Bonsai Club to help her father, Buichi Nakata, with his trees. The intrigue of this living art fulfilled both her artistic and gardening interests. Many times, she would purchase two trees, one for herself and one for her father so they could work and learn together on the same variety. Jane’s husband, Sam, helped with the larger trees, especially during the repotting and wiring season. Several years after she lost Sam, Jane became close friends with Lonnie McCormick and they shared their love through bonsai.
Although she enjoyed all the varieties of bonsai and their companion plantings, the Satsuki variety of azalea became one of her favorites. She loved to invite everyone over to sit under her massive maple to view her azaleas at their peak, in full bloom. In the 1990s, Jane joined the Kusamura Bonsai Club. During showtime, she would display her trees with their graceful styles similar to the sumi-e brush strokes she practiced.
Over the years Jane received advice at workshops with Yasuo Mitsuya, Harunobu Tokita, Tosh Saburomaru, Kathy Shaner, John and Sandy Planting, Marco Invernizzi, Gordon Deeg, and Jerry Carpenter among others. In 2021, she asked family members and friends to pick out trees they liked the best and then the remaining collection was offered to the club for their sale in August. She kept a small number of trees that gave her joy every day under the shady canopy of her big maple tree.
We miss her deeply.
Barbara Boulware Shahinian
Our good friend and member, Barbara Shahinian passed away on October 5 and leaves behind many fond memories for those lucky enough to have known her. Barbara attended a monthly workshop at the home of John and Sandy Planting for some twenty-five years until they were no longer being held. Barbara was also a regular attendee and participant at the bi-annual Shohin Convention in Santa Nella, CA.
Barbara joined the Kusamura Bonsai Club in 1994 and had a spectacular collection of bonsai. Living in the hills of Los Altos, she had to build a shelter around her most vulnerable bonsai because the deer and smaller critters which she loved to watch also loved her bonsai too much.
Barbara was under spoken and although everyone was impressed with her bonsai in our shows, she frequently mentioned the humble beginnings of many. One tree she showed many times was given to her and came in a four-inch nursery liner and turned into the beautiful tree shown below.
Barbara was also known for her appreciation of fabulous bonsai pots and put some of her favorite trees in pots made by some of the best potters in the bonsai community.
Barbara’s other interests included Japanese brush painting and she regularly took classes in this art form along with Sandy Planting. The beautiful art work on the scrolls with her bonsai displays were painted by Barbara’s own hand. She also created her own holiday cards which many of us received over the years.
Another impressive aspect of Barbara is that she was ranked as a master in the senior international tournaments for singles tennis. Again Barbara was never the one to mention this when you talked to her but Charlene Fischer learned this fact via a mutual friend who said Barbara was fierce on the court and ranked at the highest level. Barbara’s brother said Barbara frequently found herself competing against ex-pros.
Barbara loved being outside in nature and hiked regularly with friends in the hills near her home in Los Altos. She also loved animals. Barbara and her husband Vaughn both practiced the sport of falconry in the California hills with their trained peregrine and goshawks for a number of years. Barbara also loved cats and some of us remember her two Maine Coon cats she had as pets as well as her fish tank of discus which feed their young from the side of their bodies. After giving up falconry Barbara allowed Kusamura to store the club supplies in the shed she had kept her birds in. The plus side of going to the shed was getting to see Barbara if she was home and not traveling for tennis. She was frequently flying off somewhere to compete.
Barbara had a Bachelor of Arts degree from Pomona College and a Master in Teaching from Stanford University. Barbara taught elementary school after college.
Barbara was preceded in death by her husband Vaughn Lee Shahinian who passed away in 1997. She is survived by her brother Chuck Baird and sister-in-law Judy Baird. Barbara would have been 90 in November.
Our hearts are heavy at this loss. She will be dearly missed.
Meeting Recap - Valerie Monroe - "Planning a Great Bonsai"
At the monthly club meeting on October 21,Valerie brought a number of procumbens nana junipers and two broadleaf evergreen trees to illustrate her presentation. Valerie fell in love with bonsai when she saw a Hillsborough Bonsai Society Show when she was in college, and then she attended the first World Bonsai Convention in 1989. After many years of learning and working with bonsai, right before Covid, Valerie along with a small group of Midori Bonsai Club members joined a monthly study group with Peter Tea as teacher. It was a paradigm shift for Valerie. She shared her newly acquired knowledge with our club.
The first question to ask is what kind of bonsai you like? Species? Size? Some people like looking at them, some like growing them, some maintaining them. It takes all kinds. Valerie prefers the aesthetic of the Japanese standard but is growing more and more interested in European style. In response to defining Ryan Neil’s American style bonsai, Valerie says, “I still don’t know what that is.” She also suggested we should look at the Chinese Penjing style and the Taiwanese “sumo” style. In any case, you should work on the kinds of trees and styles you like.
Kokufu-ten show books are excellent sources for exploring features of Japanese style. These trees illustrate the Japanese “rules” we have developed by deduction: right branch, left branch, back branch, apex; first branch beginning no more than one third up from the bottom. But trees themselves don’t always follow these rules and we end up frustrated. We moderns have made these rules more rigid than the Japanese ever intended them to be. Valerie pointed out round, bell, and triangular shapes from a Kokufu-ten book she brought and then she had us to consider how to grow into this style by continuing to prune the top which is apically dominant so that bottom branches get the sun and can grow. Instead of first branch, second branch, back branch, Peter Tea advises to start with the lowest branch that you want to keep and let the tree itself lead you to design as you consider all the Japanese values of proportion, shape, continuity, and harmony. Observe how trees grow, sending out branches to reach the sun.
When we grow our trees, we should be ever mindful that they need sun, water, feeding, good soil, appropriate repotting intervals, pruning. If we repot too often, roots don’t have time to develop; not often enough, the tree slows down. The old school would develop a tree from seeds or cuttings to saikei then to bonsai. Other sources include nursery stock, collection from urban or wild environments, or buy a tree from another collector that is already in pre-bonsai or bonsai stage. Master bonsai artist, Kimura insisted that a tree must be healthy before major work, especially carving. The tree should be bushy, have runners, and new growth should be hardened off.
Whether you have a pre-bonsai or bonsai, work on making and maintaining that gentle round triangular shape which is not only aesthetically pleasing but also practical, so that lower parts of the plant remain exposed to the light. The first major cut back of a tree should establish its structure. Choices here are decisive, making or breaking the design. To alter the trunk shape, cut back and/or graft. Then cut back and build to develop a tighter shape which should essentially be triangular, allowing all levels and interior access to light and giving strength to buds that can be developed. We thin to reduce density, then allow to grow and thicken.
So, what are we doing, or trying to do here? Building a bonsai of course, by chasing the running car, heading it off, then letting it run again, so that we create and thicken a branch, which begins to have a shape of its own. To maintain a bonsai we cut back, thin only when necessary for light, wire only the branches that need shape or movement. We need to consider when to work on and when to slow down.
Other notes and advice (as Valerie referred to the trees she brought):
Starting Bonsai
- The distinction between bonsai and pre-bonsai: when the tree is ready to be worked, that is, healthy with dense foliage. Once you have all the proportions right you can begin to develop the tree; this is also probably the point at which a tree transitions from pre-bonsai to bonsai.
- The trunk is the most important part of the tree, so look for that first when you purchase or as you are developing.
- The first cut back is a make-or-break moment for your tree. Make the big cut; you can waste your life waiting for bud-back but a cut will force them.
- Develop the lower branch or branches first. Severely cut back upper portions while the lower ones develop, which is the opposite of what a tree naturally does. But the lower branches then can thicken and pads can develop before being shaded out by upper branches.
- Grow out a sacrifice branch to thicken the branch or trunk; let it run.
- The roots of a tree in a five-gallon pot cannot just be cut down for the tree to go in a shallow pot; must work the roots down gradually over many repottings.
Techniques of Cutting
- Instead of chasing the car, the new way is to manage growth and encourage back budding, maybe for many years, before ever wiring or attempting to style. Wire puts stress on a tree. Why wire if you are going to grow out to develop thickness and then cut back to new buds?
- “What the old Japanese paradigm is and what Peter Tea recommends are the same; what we got by looking at the pictures is a bunch of ‘rules’ that they do not do in Japan…I think Peter Tea is doing what they do in Japan.”
- Don’t necessarily clean out all your crotches; that’s where new buds are developing that you may want to use.
Cutting Back vs. Thinning Out
- You want to focus on cut back; cut to strong buds, building density and structure, making two out of one, four out of two, eight out of four, sixteen out of eight. Always try to have two buds at each cut. Cutback divides energy in half and weakens your tree and so must be accompanied with fertilizer to keep it strong. By repeatedly cutting back at the top of the tree, you weaken it, but that is good because the top is the strongest area of growth. The only way to keep your bonsai small is to cut back. Contrast with thinning which reduces density and strengthens the tree. Reducing five weak branches to two or three will make the tree explode with more energy into fewer branches.
- Trees are strengthened by thinning and weakened by cutting back. Wrap your head around that. Think about where you want the strength in your tree to go.
- You won’t have leggy, budless trees if you make cuts rather than thinning.
- Cutting back to maintain shape means you don’t have to restyle a tree every three years.
- Instead of trying to keep and build on every branch you get, you may need to let grow and then do severe, even shockingly severe, cut-backs.
- Develop flat pads so that sun can reach all the buds. Remove weak growth and down-growing branches. But we make a mistake by cutting up-growing branches because they can help thicken a branch, and then you can cut it off.
- New attitude toward jin: what’s the point in having one if foliage is going to cover it up?
General Tips
- American Bonsai Club website has a calendar of what you can or ought to be doing with your tree at any particular time.
- Fertilizer: Valerie is currently using Osmocote Plus. Peter Tea’s website has a schedule for how and when to apply. Used to use Apex. Has used organic fertilizers too but wildlife eats them.
- Fungicides: some recommend that you should perhaps cycle them. Cleary’s granules (also a spray)—working well for Valerie. Mancozeb is a spray. Coppersulfate also good but dangerous for your health if you aren’t careful.
- Miticides for spidermites: Oil or soaps, but do not use oils on junipers. Or a miticide spray which can be amazingly effective but super expensive. Floramite (amazing) or Avid
- Insecticide: Merit granule
Valerie near the end of her presentation made comments and recommendations for Dave’s prostrata juniper: Bend executed by Dave is amazing. She recommended thinking about jinning the lower branch and working just with the top, a kind of wild bunjin. Another crossing branch going down could be allowed to relax and come back up. Cutting back on top could produce more buds and make it dense and round. Watch extensions. Wonderful framework already. The wild bunjin-like shape could lend itself to a round pot.
This presentation was packed with Valerie’s experience, old and new learning. She shared generously so much knowledge and technique.
Intermediate Workshop Recap – Junipers with Michael Greenstein
After some negotiation, the club was able to hold our October intermediate workshop in the back lot of the Buddhist Temple in Palo Alto. Seven members, Rita and Dave Curbow, Charlene Fischer, Katherine Glassey, Judy Karp, and David and Austin Knick brought a variety of bonsai in need of advice. Michael Greenstein gave all of us excellent ideas and he showed off his new mini chain saw, useful for those large branches and starting deadwood. Hal Jerman provided a selection of tools from John Planting’s collection which were offered for sale. Three members, Jenn Tan, Gabriel Lobo, and Galina Ilchenco observed the afternoon and helped other members work on some much-needed clean-up work on their bonsai. We will have another intermediate workshop on November 19 back at St. Marks and then will skip December
Club Project - Sewing Backdrops for Pacific Bonsai Expo
Seven members of Kusamura assisted Eric Schrader in getting the fabric sewn for the backdrops for the upcoming Pacific Bonsai Expo. Katherine Glassey was masterful at the sewing machine as Charlene Fischer, Lynne O'Dell, Marsha Mekisich, Rita Curbow, and Idris Anderson pinned and managed the fabric on the backend with Hal Jerman and Eric Schrader rolling the finished backdrop up for transport to the show in November.
The first backdrop took a while as we tested and refined the process. In between lots of laughs and a delicious lunch we were able to finish four backdrops and look forward to seeing them in place at the Expo. Thank you to the team for pulling this off and making it such fun as well. The resulting backdrops were a total of over a hundred yards in length. High fives to all!
The GSBF Bonsai Rendezvous @ Santa Nella
Do you want a small, medium, or large bonsai tree? Or, do you want a pre-bonsai tree? Perhaps you need some pots? How about some tools? Maybe you need some instruction on trimming and wiring? Whatever bonsai thing you wanted to have, it was available at the Rendezvous held in the Hotel Mission Del Oro. It was a downright gorgeous hotel set in the middle of nowhere, approximately halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles. I was told many times that the hotel used to be shabby and run down. It has now been completely reconstructed and refurbished in the mission style. The rooms were a lot fancier than your typical motel. It was a classy place with beautiful gardens. About ten Kusamura members attended.
It even had a wedding garden. In fact, we saw three bridal parties. One bride wore traditional white. Another wore a lavender dress with hoops that made the dress about six feet wide. The best dress was more beautiful and larger than anything Hollywood has ever fashioned. It was bright red velvet with contrasting white ruffles. When the bride stood on the top of the pavilion with her back to the bridal party, the dress cascaded down ten stairs.
[Editor’s Note: these were actually Quinceañera celebrations, where girls celebrate turning fifteen (quince) and officially becoming young adults.]
The schedule said the vendor room would open to the public at 9am Saturday morning. Just in case the room opened sooner, I got up early to perhaps avoid any crowds rushing through the doors. As it turned out, the general public was allowed into the room the same time as were the vendors. As a result, there was no big crowd rush to start the day. People made selections in a slow and relaxed manner. I found an olive tree that interested me. It had a trunk the size and look of an elephant’s foot, but it had nice branching. Gordon Deeg suggested a different front that showed much more character on the trunk. His input was the difference. However, the vendor didn’t take credit cards. She wouldn’t even take a check. It was cash only. That was a problem. It would have taken most of the little cash we brought. Eventually we relented and paid cash. We told the dealer we would have bought another of her plants if she took a credit card. I suspect she will change her rules soon.
The twenty member Modesto Bonsai Club put on a terrific exhibition. Just six guys contributed all the trees for the exhibition and one talented sensei worked on many of them. I had a long conversation with him and the club’s president about collecting in the wild. They knew of 4-wheel drive trails that brought them right up to some collection areas. It looked like several of their specimens weighed a couple hundred pounds.
There were several silent auctions. I found a tree that I liked, but I was told that it was to be in the live auction later unless the silent auction got bids as high as the “buy it now” price. That price was too high, so I passed. I returned later to check what was happening. The “buy it now price" was now reached, but the auctioneer changed the rules and said the silent auction would continue and would close at 6:30pm. Just to be sure, I returned at 5:45pm. Now the auctioneer said the silent auction for that plant would close at 6pm. The rules were changed so frequently that not even the staff knew what was happening. I chatted with the auctioneer for a bit and found that if I added $1 to the bid, the plant was mine. I added the $1 and came home with the plant. Strangely, the vendor who required me to pay cash-only was using my cash to make a last second silent auction purchase.
One of the demonstrations was the trimming and wiring of a large collected California Sierra juniper. It had been styled a few years before but had since grown considerably. I got a front row seat and could see the demonstrator trimming and wiring and could hear his explanations. I asked many questions and he answered all of them. He even discussed the difference between the “old style” and the "new style” that is now more popular in Japan. As we were exiting the hotel, the auction for this demonstration tree was just finishing. It was the only tree in the live auction. It sold for $3,000.00.
We had so much fun that we’ll return next year for sure.
Recommended Videos and a Podcast
Developing Maple Bonsai Trees
This is an excellent short video by master bonsai artist (and one of the judges of Pacific Bonsai Expo) who created the National Bonsai Exhibition held biannually in Rochester New York. He demonstrates what to do with young maples at various stages of development to develop taper, movement, and branching. When he begins with a large maple, he does drastic pruning. When he begins with seedlings or small maples, he grows them rapidly. He discusses successive trunk chops and demonstrates cutback and wiring. He distinguishes between techniques for developing trees and techniques for maintaining trees. He also discusses three kinds of pruning: drastic, seasonal, and thinning out. He also describes grafting and defoliation. As he moves through various trees in his impressive garden, we see the fruits of his labors over many decades.
Improving Starter Trident Maple Bonsai
Creating Bonsai from Garden Material
Two short videos of Corin making pruning decisions on two young maples and on a more mature maple. The first is remarkable for his deft little judicious cuts to “tidy up” the starter maples. The second demonstrates his pruning and selecting of branches of a newly dug garden maple, which he also repots. There are so many alive and dead branches on this large tree, which he sorts out and thins, with large pruners and even a small chain saw. Throughout both of these videos, Corin’s explanations are a pleasure to listen to and so easy to follow. He is, by the way, the son of Harry Tomlinson, a well-honored English bonsai master. Corin continues his father’s work at Greenwood Bonsai in Nottingham, England.
Hints and Tricks for Growing Strong Maple Bonsai
Peter Chan | Herons Bonsai
31 minutes January 13, 2021
Video Link
Projects with Young Maples
Peter Chan | Herons Bonsai
27 minutes December 5, 2021
Video Link
Classic Peter Chan! You gotta love him. His favorite species is maples so we must include two of his many videos on maples here. The first one focuses on developing large trunks, by making big trunk chops. As always, he wanders through his vast collection of trees in development, works quickly, cuts trunk after trunk, and admonishes us “to bite the bullet and take a decision.” The second video includes a tour through maples in vibrant fall color. And then he focuses on what he does with small maples and saplings. His non-stop chatter is always a pleasure to listen to. His methods proudly unorthodox, he scoffs at the bonsai “purest.” But his love for bonsai trees invariably comes through strongly, and his trees flourish. There are many more videos on maples on his youtube channel. He releases a new video every Sunday.
Newsletter Editor: Jenn Tan