Crataegus Bonsai

In April of 2009 Bonsai Focus editor Farrand Bloch flew me down to California for a photo shoot at Boon Manakitivipart’s place. Boon was very generous in supplying the tree.  I had a couple hours to study it, and then the cameras came out. Here are a few photos from that day (but for the full article be sure to see the magazine, BF 1/2010):

My study group in Seattle went out on a field trip to collect native accent plants. These photos document our adventure into the wilds:

The excellent Peter Chapman,  demonstrating the saw technique that  we’ve been working so hard to  perfect…

The fierce Peter and the indomitable Elsa Durham in saw kumite…

The intrepid Grant Rauzi with a licorice fern, deftly separated from a log with a saw…

The total take of accents,  including licorice fern,  coral berry, and red  huckleberry…

Potted: Licorice fern growing on a rotted piece of wood, with moss temporarily attached with raffia.

And another licorice fern  found growing on rotting  log, planted in a pot with  kanuma.

Wiring aficionado Joyce Tsuji with a black pine in the second Seattle study group, with our koi expert Dick Benbow, engaged in the first styling of an Englemann spruce…

And the noble students  Ruth Chaus and John Muth, determinedly  applying copper to their  conifers…

Happy accent plant hunting everyone,

Michael

In Japan, the New Year is ushered nicely into place with a grand three day cleaning fest, in the first three days of January. This is quite a bit more involved than the usual house cleaning, it is more like a very early spring cleaning where you get way into the closets, the cupboards… and if you’re in a bonsai nursery, it’s lifting and cleaning underneath everything that has not seen light for a while. Basically, it’s exhausting.

In tribute to this, I did a day and a half (small place, I figured I could get away with half the time…) of tidying and cleaning. 

Otherwise, Crataegus Bonsai is getting it’s first greenhouse. A rather simple hoop style house but with some added features that inevitably have added work. It’s been raining canines and felines, and the site I chose to put the greenhouse has a slight slope. So I’m slipping around out there with a fair amount of air and ground time included in the construction day. A big mud pie. Five pounds of mud on each boot, at least. Waving metal sticks in the air while trying to stay upright, I had some sympathy for those in the battle of Agincourt. Only, I doubt the French had the benefit of a shower afterwards.

Happy New Year, everyone, and best wishes for the new decade—-

Michael

Winter is an excellent time to make careful lists of the year’s bonsai blunders, stapling them to our New Year’s resolutions with a similar intent to forget all about them when things begin growing again. More productively, it is a good time to look for good or more appropriate pots for your trees. To dream of accent plants to assemble. To wonder about stands… and then to call up one of our wonderful stand makers and order what you’re wondering about. 

Buy wire. Organize and sift soil. Remember what worked. Make notes. If you don’t have a bonsai yearbook, there’s a stocking stuffer for you. If you don’t snowboard, start. You can create a lot of shari on a slope in just a few hours. Otherwise stay home, turn up the heat, and make notes.

Given last weeks’ wintery blast, it might be a good time to buy new woolen hats and mittens too…

Michael

We’re having a week of overnight freezes here in Portland, Oregon following a few days of bright sun and drying winds. The pots are—for once—drying out. 

One of the most dangerous things about freezing weather for bonsai is dry soil. Pots breaking is truly a secondary concern. Bad root damage can occur if there is not water in the pot to insulate the roots when it freezes. Otherwise you get a double whammy—freeze dried roots. 

So get out your hoses…or spot water with a can…and protect those roots. If you have frequent freezing in winter storage, then watering should be more frequent than you might think. Freezing has one other side effect…it dries out the soil. 

In Japan, Mr. Suzuki would have us try to thaw out the bonsai each winter day a bit, so that we could water them. This is a bit contrary to what we hear in the west. But it makes sense. 

Stay warm…

Michael

Thanks to Roger, Ram, Gary and John for their company and good humor and hard work at the fall Seasonal this past week! Notice the new french doors on the studio… we’re finally completely enclosed and warm…

Returning to the puzzling quiz of Oct. 2nd— ‘You see a bonsai that appears to have moist soil, but the growing shoots are drooping. What’s going on? How do you correct it?’

Ed Imholt got the first question right… Read his response—

‘Maybe the tree was from a hotter climate and the upper part of the soil dried out daily which did not allow for roots to form in the upper part. With no roots in the upper part of the soil then it would remain moist where as the soil in the lower portion of the soil would dry out quicker. First glance at the top of the soil would show you that the tree does not need water, but the lower portion of the soil is dry and cause the shoots to wilt.’

As for the correction, placing shredded spagnum moss on the surface of the soil will prevent it from drying too rapidly in hot climates, and allow surface roots to colonize that zone of the pot. This tree was in fact relocated to Portland, Oregon from a hotter drier climate, and in Portland roots will soon grow in that upper zone without much encouragement.

Thanks for all your comments!

Michael

I collected this tree with a car jack. 

It was growing out of a boulder the size of a Volkswagen mini-bus in Arizona near where I lived in 2002. The deadwood was locked into the rock crack, which had me scratching my head for months. On collection day, I looked back down at the car, and thought, ‘Hmmm…’

Another almost dumb idea was born. But the jack worked. And I just got around to styling the ‘jacked’ tree last year. The second photo is how it looks this year. 

This species of juniper, Juniperus monosperma, is not often used for bonsai, growing as multiple-trunked shrubs with little movement in the arid Southwestern states. But the foliage is fine and delicate and looks good on a tree this scale. Tree is about 20″ high.

Following a day and half of non-stop hammering, my students Tim Early and Ed Imholt helped me (no, I was not standing around watching…) put up the vapor barrier, the siding and a couple of windows. Thanks guys! It’s still lacking a few windows and the door, but at least we’ve got a dry interior. Here are a few photos of our weekend:
 Tim Early working on the  siding—

 And below, Ed Imholt on  the ladder–

Still needs a bit of trim…

A one-question quiz for everyone—

You see a bonsai that appears to have moist soil, but the growing shoots are drooping. 

What’s going on? How do you correct it?

We’ll take a look at the answers in two weeks!

Best,

Michael