Newsletter January 2008

WELCOME
What great rain we have had! I think I only watered twice during the Christmas break which was a real bonus. I suppose it wasn’t so good for those on holidays though.

SUMMER
We are entering into perhaps the hottest part of the year. You may need to find some more protection from the sun for the next couple of months. Under a tree is not such a good idea as all trees excrete what is called lye. And will damage your bonsai. As well as this you are more likely to have more problems with insects. The best way to go is to erect some sort of shadecloth which is removable in winter. If you are choosing shadecloth go for the lowest % you can find, ie 50%. I use 30% but I think this may only be available commercially. This will help maintain moisture as well as keep the sun from burning foliage. (Really its no so much burning of foliage as it is the tree being unable to supply enough moisture to the leaves that is being lost through evaporation)
Now is probably not a good time to be repotting! There are some species that will tolerate all year round repotting such as figs, elms and junipers, but it is vital that the after care is at least 2 weeks of shade and misting. Obviously if you are doing these trees don’t take as many roots of as you would normally.

GRAFTING
In the latest issue of Bonsai Focus, (still some in stock) there is a fantastic article on grafting. The tee that is used in the article is a shohin (miniature) maple. The method that is used is fascinating. It uses the elongated branches of the tree to whip back and be grafted into places where you would like a branch. This is a very successful method of grafting. This method can be used on other varieties but trees such as maples really lend themselves to this. I have used other methods such as using the whip, and drilling a hole through the trunk and feeding the whip through and leaving it until it has grafted. Then the original branch behind the graft is removed. The time a graft takes to become attached varies from species to species. What is also important is the time of year that the graft is done. Obviously the best time is when the sap is flowing so as to ensure a quick healing at the wound site.

Another way to graft is to use a smaller tree of the same variety, only leave it in its original pot whilst the graft takes.

WIRING
After all this growth from the recent rains, be sure to check your trees which have been wired, to make sure the wire hasn’t begin to cut in. What is happening is that the branches are thickening up with the new growth, but the wire doesn’t expand. The end result can be nasty spiral scarring on your branches. On some trees this can be worse because they are softer. Trees such as azaleas, camellias, maples etc, mark very easy, and in the case of maples, very quickly (within 3 – 4 weeks!)

Obviously this is a problem if you are trying to grow the branch, but have to remove the wire every month or so, yet the branch has not set.

One of the ways around this is to use raphia. Raphia is a natural reed type product that is available in places like spotlight. It comes in strands and looks like flattened grass. What you do is soak the raphia for 30 minutes or so in cold water, then wrap the branch you intend wiring. You will need about 3 strands to make it thick enough to cover your branch. It is then wrapped around the branch quite tightly.

After doing this, wire the branch as normal. This should give you a bit more protection.
Another use for raphia is when you have a large branch you want to bend past a position that it would normally be capable of. By wrapping the branch with raphia, it is a lot less likely to break. Even if it does, it will probably hold the branch in position until it has healed. Sometimes you can bend the branch until you hear the crack and stop. This takes a bit of learning but it can be done.
BENDING
With bending, don’t think it all has to be done at the one go. You can bend a branch over an entire season. The best way to do this is, once having rapia’d the branch and wired it, connect a loop of wire past the point that you want bent, and fix it to a opposite side of the tree, something to gain leverage from. You are then able to twist the wire slowly, maybe a turn every second day, until you have the desired bend. Leave this for a full growing season. For older trees, you may need to leave them for 2 – 3 years.

Whilst talking about bending, I saw an interesting article the other day on it. Instead of just bending the branch with both hands, twist the branch first with both hands until you crack the cambium. Often a crack can be heard. (This is before applying raphia) What this does is instead of putting the pressure across the cambium, it puts it along the branch instead. It is like hundreds of strands slightly separating, but not actually breaking as a branch does straight across.

I hope you are able to understand what I mean! By the way, I take no responsibility for broken branches!! Take the time to learn and practice on branches that it doesn’t matter if you do break them.

Newsletter October 2006

Hows everybody enjoying all the new spring growth, don’t forget to increase your water and fertilizer! Make use of the growing conditions while you can.

Repotting
Don’t worry to much if you haven’t completed all your repotting yet. Many trees, such as azaleas, elms and junipers all can still be done as long as you are careful with their aftercare. Other trees such as figs prefer to be done a little later in the season, so these can be safely done in the coming weeks. Trees such as black pines are now best left until Autumn, and done with care, or leave until next spring.

The most important aspect of repotting is the after care. Make sure you place your tree somewhere it will be shaded, but not in a dark or drafty place. & days should do it and then move it back to it original place.

When repotting make sure you don’t leave any air pockets around the roots as this can lead to root rot. This is best achieved by using a chopstick and gently working the soil so it is compacted around the rootball. Be gentle with this so as not to damage the tiny roots. Also the word compacting can be a little misleading. You don’t want the soil packed in so tight that the water has trouble penetrating the soil. The worst thing you can do is water your tree in and then push it down hard with your hands, this will pack the soil to tightly and cause problems.

Always use good soil! Don’t scrimp on soil and try and use some old stuff from a previous tree. You will transfer disease, and use soil that is denuded of needed nutrients for you growing tree. Remember your tree is in “grow mode” so it will be needing the best it can get! As mentioned before I am now having my own mix made commercially and am selling it at the nursery. It is specifically designed to promote good root growth, which will obviously promote good leaf growth! Remember, don’t try and save a dollar on a tree that is worth $100!!

Some trees will need to be repotted twice a year such as privets. It is therefore best to do these early in spring, and then again in say march. Often these trees will fill their pots with new roots very quickly.

Pests
Yep their back! Unfortunately, as we experience all this new growth, so are all the little bugs. There are various methods of keeping them under control, but the best is prevention.
Although I have hundreds of trees, I still water by hand. Sprinkler systems are fine but you will learn a lot more about your trees by hand watering. In one day you will notice a whilting, or chewing insects or yellowing etc. By being so prompt in dealing with the problem, you may avert a massive infestation. Keep your eyes open, as soon as you notice something different, find the cause.

Something to watch for is when you tree seems to be very loose in the pot, and is looking sickly. Often the cause of this is the “curl grub” These are little white grubs the size of half your little finger. These guys love to eat roots, and will be merrily munching away with you wondering what is going on. When in doubt with the health of your tree, always check the roots.
Many people fail to keep an eye on what is going on under the soil, “out of sight, out of mind”.
If you suspect a problem, check the roots, smell the soil, does it smell like its rotting? Maybe your drain holes are blocked, and water is slowly rotting the roots. Roots need oxygen to operate!

Your mix should be free draining allowing fresh air to be drawn down into the soil as you water.
Keep the area that you have your trees in nice and clean. Keep any surrounding trees free from pests also.

Tree selection.
Its important to understand when you are selecting a tree to shape as a bonsai, that often you are not looking at the entire tree. More often than not the tree has been grown to its current size just to increase the trunk thickness. Don’t try and work out how you could shape the whole tree as it is. Start at the base of the trunk and imagine a tree with good taper using maybe only one third of the tree! You may throw the rest away. Try and resist the instant bonsai pressure and begin to plan for the future, you will be surprised how fast time goes. I have recently cut of the whole top of a juniper and kept only the bottom branch, and turned it into a lovely cascade. By doing this you have a nice strong looking tree, with heaps of wow factor. If you are keen to do something like this, let me know next time you are at the nursery, and I will show you some trees that I keep my eyes on! This is a great way to expand your artistic ability and talents!

I recently purchased some small junipers, but they were larger than I needed so I am selling these for 4 for $28. (they are usually $12 each!) Let Corey know if you want these as they are only being offered to the recipients of the newsletter.

Hope this finds you and your trees all well,
Chris

Newsletter June 2007

Well the cold snap had to come, now all we want is some good rain, they are getting heaps down south, hopefully it will arrive here shortly.

In life all things have seasons, let your trees have a good rest, don’t try and push new growth to early.

Remember to apply liquid potash to all your flowering and fruiting trees every 2 to 3 weeks for a great spring look!

Watering.
I know I speak on watering frequently but it is a vital area to healthy growth.
As the days and nights become cooler, your trees will need less water because of 2 reasons:
Because the temperatures are lower, there is less transpiration in progress (Water leaving the plant through the leaves) and Less to no root growth, which is the conduit for moisture.
If we are to ignore these factors, are trees will become constantly wet, and therefore be exposed to root rot etc. Remember trees in pots are different to those growing in the ground. Tees in the ground have areas of excess water run-off, and are therefore not so much under threat.
Allow your tree to nearly dry out before rewatering. It is having its well earned rest!

Winter.
Now is a good time to clean out all the areas where your Bonsai are displayed. You will have a lot less to do, so now is a good time for some tidying up.

Reconsider where you have your trees, have they been getting enough light, are they in an awkward position, are they displayed to their best advantage?

Maybe now is the time to build or extend your racks, design bit of a Japanese garden around them, and create a bit of “ambience”

Another thing that you can do in winter is take advantage of the sparseness of growth on your deciduous trees, and reshape and rewire them. Because most of the leaves will have fallen by now, you have a much clearer view of the tree. You may even see a new shape from branches that have been growing disguised behind the foliage.

This is also a great time for rewiring, not as many leaves to get in the way! Always make sure your trees are on the dry side before wiring.

If they have just been watered, they are more likely to be brittle and snap easily. This may sound strange, but picture a stick of celery, when is it easier to snap, when it is full of moisture, or a week old? Don’t learn the hard way!

It is also a good time to cut back you elms. When I say cut back, I mean cut back. Be ruthless! (I obviously don’t mean to cut of branches, but be quite severe on all your branchlets. Elms respond well to heavy pruning this time of the year. You will be rewarded with abundant new growth in spring. This will lead to greater branch ramification, which can be a winter highlight on elms.

Take a trip to the library, you will be amazed at the books available! Take the time, become more educated, be inspired to go further and higher in Bonsai. Be challenged, be stretched, enjoy yourself, remember, this life is not a rehearsal, it’s the real thing!

Sale
For the next week and a half (up to and including the 30th of June) we are running an end of financial year sale at the nursery.

This is only available to those in receipt of the newsletter. So you must mention it when you are purchasing something.

For the sale there will be 10% of all tree stock, and 20% of all pots! This makes for great savings and gives you a chance to get in before spring. The other thing is that at the beginning of spring, most if not all trees are repotted, and consequently rise in price. So by buying them now, you will get the same tree you would have bought in spring, but at a reduced rate.
This is a good time to get the tree or pot you wanted at a discounted price.

I am predicting a fairly large increase in prices in the coming months and years. The reason for this is many. We are seeing increases in water charges, and infrastructures that are being imposed on nurseries, higher petrol prices which impact on freight, insurance increases which again impact on freight and overheads. (for larger trees freight is now around $100 a tree!)
When you couple with this the greater demand for Bonsai, and the administration created by our top heavy bureaucracy, which has increased the hours of paper work dramatically, they all add up to increases.

I have seen some stock double in the last year!
I think we have had it good for a long time, but there is a radical shake up going through the nursery industry. I think we have been spoilt for some time!

Tuition
For those of you who would like one to one tuition, this is now available through the nursery. You may have a tree that you just don’t know what to do with, or you may have wanted to purchase something but didn’t know where to start, well nows your chance!

Larger carving jobs can be done and explained. It works on an hourly rate, and for work on larger collections, we can come to you.
You will need to book,

Happy Bonsai-ing.

Chris

Newsletter January 2007

special welcome to all the new readers of the newsletter, I hope you are in some way inspired and encouraged to keep going further with one of the greatest pastimes known to man…..BONSAI. (Well one of the great pastimes!)

SUMMERWhat summer? you are probably saying, well you are right, we are having very unusual weather up until now. At this time of year we are we are normally experiencing long hot days with late afternoon storms or showers. These can be great times of good growth as long as the periods of intense heat are not to long. There are unusual problems occurring with growing owing to the unseasonal temperatures.

I still think the summer season will come, just a little late. Please don’t blame global warming!! We have had record low temperatures around Australia, as well as record levels of rain. (this is another story that I wont get into here) But as someone famous once said “be carefull of what you hear!If you need to you could even sneak some repotting in now if you must, just be careful of exposure for a couple of weeks after you have repotted. BUT keep in mind the weather can swing at any time so if you don’t need to, avoid it unless you are well experienced.There are trees that should not be done this time of year, trees such as pines, cedars, azaleas etc. Interestingly enough, there are some natives that can be done. The thing with natives is to watch for the tree to go into dormancy, ie no new growth appearing, then get to it. A word of warning though go very easy with the roots, they don’t like them to be drastically cut as a rule!

Usually with the onset of summer we may experience a period of dormancy. This is the trees way of protecting itself from those hot spells where the tree is unable to supply enough moisture to the leaves, so any new growth is very susceptible to die back.For this reason pull back on your fertilizing especially your fertilizers with high nitrogen content, as this will promote new growth artificially and cause your tree to struggle in the heat. Move you more delicate trees into a bit of shade, azaleas, maples etc. Maples tend to burn around this time of the year, and the leaves can look pretty ordinary, all brown and curled up. The other thing is when autumn comes around instead of having a tree with beautifully coloured foliage its just a crinkled misery!
PESTSI have noticed a lot of trees coming into the nursery lately with major pest problems. On trees such as junipers, often it is to late as these trees tend to die from the inside out, in other words the last thing to turn brown is the needles.

Figs on the other hand will show it in their leaves first so we are often aware earlier of the problem.Most of the problems seem to be with the sap sucking variety. These are usually either white louse scale, or red spider mite, two spotted mite.These insects will attack most trees. Junipers usually begin to turn a slight olive colour, and there bark becomes a bit wrinkly. Some of the tell tale signs are very fine webs, also very small whitish specks at the base of the leaves or needles.The best way to treat these is with either Folimat, or Confidor, both available at the hardware store. Be careful spraying these, keep the can well away from the tree as the aerosol can burn the foliage.

It is also important to keep your trees healthy, and your area where they sit clean.If your trees become weak through neglect, they become a target for pests, this is their job! Also keep falling leaves etc away from your trees because these will also harbor little nasties. More often than not, if you follow simply practices you will have minimal problems with pests and disease. If your are having problems and you are going to bring your tree, just bring a small bit in a bag as I don’t like having every disease and pest brought to the nursery, as you can imagine!

We have had some great stock come in lately. We have some really nice ground grown corky bark elms. These have been grown from root cuttings so already have great bark and trunks, and also good shape, they are about 40-50mm thick. We have some nice cedars, big pyracanthas, these have a lovely flower, followed by red berries. We also have some nice chunky black pines, some huge Chinese elms, (250mm + trunks!) some good sized maples, some awesome little stumpy olives, very unusual. Also some good sized seiju elms ( these are like Chinese elms only they have minute leaves).I am still unpacking pots and putting out new styles all the time, so if you are after something special have a look.I have also started selling “Bonsai Europe” This is an outstanding bonsai magazine, probably one of the best publications I have seen. I initially got one for myself and was that impressed decided to import them for resale at the nursery. It is printed once every 2 months and is a very classy magazine done in full gloss from cover to cover, It is full of hints tips and inspiration, and of course some amazing trees.I only have 25 copies each delivery. They are only available from the nursery I cant post them out. They are $15 and the only other place I have seen them was Brisbane and they were $19.95.

Reading this magazine you realize how big bonsai has become in the western world. I don’t think we have really started to scratch the surface here in Australia. I know just from the trade at the nursery that it is beginning to explode here. The inevitable will come out of this, higher demand bringing higher prices. But with this will also come the expansion of knowledge shared, techniques improved and greater enjoyment for all.What an exciting time to be involved with bonsai!

Newsletter April 2007

Welcome all the newcomers to the newsletter, things have been very busy lately with 10 attending all the recent classes. Hope all your trees are doing well!!
Bonsai is really growing at a rapid rate in Australia, but it still hasn’t caught up with the enthusiasm of Europe and the U.S.. I think we are developing our own unique style which is exciting to see. As I always say in my classes, the rules of bonsai are there for guidelines, not something that must be adhered to at all costs. You will never fully enjoy your bonsai until you break out of the mould and start to create pieces that YOU find pleasing. They may not all turn out spectacular but it will lead you to a more enjoyable pastime.
Its good to let pictures and other trees you see inspire you, but let that be the motivation, don’t try and copy things, this will always lead to disappointment!

FERTILISING
Don’t forget to keep up the fertilizing at the moment. Even though the trees may seem to have stopped growing, they are still hard at work storing all their nutrients for spring. If you fail to keep this up at the moment, you will pay the price at spring time with less than efficient growth, and dieback of much of the small branchlets that take so long to develop. Remember that growth must come from somewhere, and that somewhere is nutrients stored in the trunk and large roots. This is especially important if you are trying to increase branch ramification on trees as well as fruit and flowers.

DECIDUOUS TREES
This is a good time for exploring your trees as they defoliate, it’s a great time to consider if the tree needs restyling. Often over the growing months, the tree will send shoots out all over the place. Whilst the tree might look good in full foliage, its not until you see it with out its leaves you realize that the tree is really messy. Now don’t be lazy and just leave it as it is thinking it will look good again when its got all its leaves in spring! Take the time to go through all the branches and cut of all the branches that have grown to long, have grown to far upwards, shot downward under the branch, and grown outside the overall shape of the tree. Now wire any branches into their correct position. Remember that refinement is an ongoing work on your trees. Being deciduous it just makes it easier to get to.

This will pay dividends over the years with great ramification, which is just as important as your summer look.

There is nothing more stunning than a elm or maple that has hundreds or even thousands of tiny little branchlets in winter. Believe me this wont happen naturally, it takes time, pruning, fertilizing and vision. By vision I mean seeing the future shape of the tree, by starting at each individual branch.

Most people are a little timid when it comes to pruning their deciduous trees. It is really important to be quite hard in cutting them back. Especially with trees such as elms, you need to be fairly savage. Remember to cut to the bud that you want the branch/branchlets to grow in.
By doing this you will create shorter internodes (the distance between the buds) which will give you better ramification. If this is not trimmed or pruned each year, you will gain a mass/mess of little twiglets that will not produce the fine even growth you are trying to achieve.

Pines also can be pruned quite hard now also. Remember to take out the larger candles at the top, and the smaller candles lower down as they are dominant in their apex. If this is not done then the tops will grow at the expense of the lower and inner branches.

By cutting back this way smaller buds will form at the base of the cut which will produce next seasons branchlets, which in turn will need to be thinned. This will help produce those elusive smaller needles and compact growth.

CLEANING CONIFERS
As your conifers begin to slow down in growth, you will notice that as the weather cools that you will get “die back” inside your tree. The reason for this is that sun is no longer penetrating this area so the tree stops producing new growth underneath. This leads to lots of small brown needles which if allowed to stay, will produce the ideal living place for lots of bugs (if it already hasn’t.) Much of insect infestation can be avoided by keeping your trees well groomed and clean.
The best way to remove these old needles is to use something like a chopstick to loosen all the old matter. After you have done this is then worth going over the tree and shortening all the smaller branchlets that have grown over 25mm in height above the branch. By doing this you will allow light to penetrate inside the tree which is imperative for health, good growth, and short compact ramification. This is how these lovely compact clouds are developed.

BONSAI EUROPE
The latest edition of bonsai Europe is also now available for sale at the nursery. Again the quality is magnificent. Bonsai Europe has now combined with Bonsai today to produce and even bigger magazine. This is a real plus for bonsai nuts. These magazines really inspire, help you understand what is happening around the world and give great insight and tips to help you grow in bonsai.