Crataegus Bonsai

◊ Crataegus  Bonsai Seasonal ◊

Sessions run for three consecutive days, $585, lunches and dinners included. Lodging is at a nearby hotel or bed and breakfast. Participants are asked to bring a basic set of tools, but trees, wire, soil, etc. are all provided.

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The 2012 dates are:

• Winter Seasonal: Repotting  (February 27-29 or March 21-23)
• Spring Seasonal: New growth management   (May 28-30)
• Summer Seasonal: Juniper, Deciduous  (July 18-20)
• Fall Seasonal: Wiring/fall work  (November 12-14)

The Crataegus Bonsai Seasonal is designed for those who are not from the Portland area and who would be willing to travel to learn bonsai. This program is similar to how an apprentice learns in Japan: By working on our teacher’s trees, we study at a higher level. Now in its third year, the Seasonal was created out of requests of students from around the country who were interested in coming to Portland to study. It’s been an awful lot of fun and I hope you join us!

Engelmann spruce

In the Seasonals we won’t just be styling trees. We’ll also cover horticulture, refinement of old bonsai, display, and a lot in between.

In past Seasonals, we’ve covered the refinement of established bonsai such as Pine, Spruce, Japanese Maple, Winter Hazel, Juniper and Chojubai Quince.

Designing new bonsai is featured in all Seasonals. These range from older collected yamadori conifers like Rocky Mountain Juniper, Limber Pine, Engelmann Spruce, Mountain Hemlock, and Ponderosa Pine, to growing and developing deciduous trees like Japanese Maple, Chojubai Quince, and Stewartia.

Winter Seasonals focus on repotting, while species appropriate visualization and styling, advanced wiring and bending, accent plants, and the study of display are featured throughout the year. Attention is paid to the interests of advanced students to help them create a personal bonsai yard that reflects their growing artistic sensibility.

Ram Lukas rewiring a Western juniper (featured in Bonsai Focus) during the Fall 2009 Seasonal

There are four Seasonals a year to cover each of the main periods of bonsai activity, in focused sessions of three days each. Sessions are limited to four students. Although it is recommended that new students start with a Winter Seasonal to acquire new repotting techniques, any initiation time is fine.

Days start before 9 am and usually end in the early evening, although it is sometimes later with the more involved work days. Theory study is from handouts and visual study from books and videos. The majority of time, however, is spent hands-on on the bonsai benches or on workstations in the newly built five-sided studio.

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“Michael’s Seasonals are excellent!  One of Michael’s many strengths is his ability to dissolve bonsai myths and misinformation students have acquired elsewhere. Michael’s hospitality is wonderful and the food is great. If you want to have fun, seriously learn bonsai and improve your techniques and your own trees, I highly recommend the Seasonals.”

—John Denny

Please send an email or call if you have an interest in this program:

crataegus001@yahoo.com             503-277-8072

Thank you!

Michael Hagedorn

A visit to the world-famous Portland Japanese Garden caps any trip to the Rose City!