Newsletter August 2007

Well here it is, spring!! This has to be one of the best parts of the year for Bonsai, all the new growth, new inspiration, the challenge to learn more, and create better trees.
Sorry for missing last months newsletter, I was extremely busy with unloading our latest container of pots.

We landed 15 tonnes of pots, a lot of them are unique to Red Dragon Bonsai, we are the only ones in Australia to have them, and we don’t wholesale this range. This gives our customers something different from anybody else. The colours and style are exquisite!

GROWING BETTER BONSAI’S
I have been at a few different peoples places lately looking at their collections. What I have noticed is that they have many small would be Bonsai’s which unfortunately never become the trees they hope them to be. Some have 20, 30 and 40 trees all not quite “there” People have shown me little trees that they bought of the special rack at Bunnings. Rarely will you ever come across cheap trees that will make good Bonsai specimens.

Now I don’t want to seem to harsh but as I have mentioned before, instead of spending $10 on 8 – 10 trees each, buy one tree for $80 - $100. Small stuff is fine if you are doing mame, (miniatures) or groups, but if you are serious about Bonsai, start with something decent!
Here are some tips on doing this:
When you are looking for trees, consider the base and the first 1,2, or 3 branches and what would happen if you cut the whole thing back down and grew a new apex? To often people look at a tree that is say 60cm tall and try and work out what to do with it. Now it might make a good tree, but first explore the possibilities of cutting it back severely.

What if you found a great trunk, and cutting the whole thing back to just the first branch to create a really nice cascade?

Try and develop the artistic side of Bonsai. Treat it like art, and whilst keeping the guidelines in place try being abstract.

What about creating a “literati” This is a tree that has a long slow tapering trunk, with only 3 or maybe 5 branches at the top. Or with the same tree, wire it so as to create a sideways “C” shape with the apex or head coming up in between the pot and the trunk. Sometimes the tree you will use will be of quality stock, but the results will be worth it. I am just creating a literati with a $180 black pine, and cutting all the branches of except for a couple on the top. This will grow quickly as these trees have dominant apex’s and the size of the pot will feed it well.

It doesn’t have to be expensive! You may find a $50 tree that might make a fair informal upright, but by looking around the bottom it may have a couple of great bottom branches and you could gin the rest, turning an average looking 40cm tree into a superb 10cm tree. Small pots are cheaper and often more elaborate. Something like this on the dining room table for an evening can look stunning.

If you are wondering about this, ask me next time you are at the nursery and I will show you a couple of elms I am doing this with.

FERTILISING
You should have started fetilising by now. Again it is better to use a weak solution more frequently than a strong solution every so often. A good way of doing this is to find a tub big enough to soak your whole tree in pot and all. The water should cover the base of the trunk by 3 -5 cm’s or so. This will ensure all the old air is forced out, (you will notice the bubbles, now you know what it is) and the tree will be saturated, ensuring no dry spots in your soil which can easily happen. As you lift out the pot after say 20 minutes or so, you will notice all the water draining out the bottom. This means that new oxygen is being sucked down into the soil. This allows the continual breaking down of the nutrients, and allows them to mix with the moisture which in turn is mixed with the oxygen. This forms a gas and it is this that passes through the cell walls of the root hairs thus feeding the tree! Amazing isn’t it. This is just a brief summary but helps to understand what is going on.

Many people tend to ignore what is going on in the soil, and only observe the top growth, but guess what? Healthy roots, healthy tree!! Take some time to understand roots, soil, and watering. You will be well rewarded.

REPOTTING
Repot, repot, repot!! Spring has come very suddenly this year. Many trees are starting to wake up, and its best to be able to repot and root prune now before they have budded. If you are busy, leave your evergreens and concentrate on your deciduous. Most deciduous varieties can be heavily root pruned. Make sure thought that you cut of the heavier roots, and leave as many of the small fibrous roots as you can. These are the roots that are feeding the tree. Make sure you put your tree somewhere warm for a week, not back in the full sun.

When root pruning make sure you get up under the rootball below the trunk. Often this part of the tree is neglected, and over the years this can become very compacted. After you have done some clearing out of old soil, hold your tree in beween your fingers upside down, allowing the roots to fall away to the sides. This should give you good access to this part of the tree. Gently comb out the old soil and loosen any compacted dirt. Sometimes the soil the tree was originally planted in will still be there, this needs to be gotten rid of!

Now also is a good time to top prune your tree, this will create less stress on the tree as you repot. As with most deciduous trees, they are best cut back heavily this time of the year.
You may decide its time for a new pot. If possible always take the tree that needs to be repotted to pick a pot. Its amazing how much smaller/bigger your tree was when you get back home. If you need help with selecting the right pot, just ask myself or Corey, we will steer you in the right direction.

TREE STOCK
We have recently acquired some nice field grown stock. These are privet, Chinese elms, corky bark elms, flowering plum, crab apples, and some beautiful seiju elms (very small leaf)
As these are field grown the have nice root structure which will produce ideal nebari. (root flare around the trunk)

See you soon,
Chris

Newsletter September 2007

Again welcome to all the new readers to the newsletter, hope your bonsai’s are doing well and you are enjoying your new found hobby.

Annual show.
The annual Gold Coast and Tweed Bonsai show is on again this year at the Robina Town Centre. It is held in the Large auditorium outside the centre at the David Jones end. The show will be on the 10th and 11th of November. This is a great opportunity to see a wide range of styles and presentations reflecting the different aspects of Bonsai. These sort of events are a real source of inspiration and learning. You will be amazed at what can actually be done with different species.
There will also be demonstrations by Robert Stevens from Indonesia who was here last year for the AABC convention last year and was very popular. His approach to Bonsai is a little different but definitely one for pushing the boundaries, and a real gentleman! The show will have probably in excess of 200 Bonsai to view.

Tools
I find myself talking more and more to people about the type of tools they are using for bonsai.
The first aspect of tools is the steel that they are made from. Many of us just think steel is steel but it couldn’t be further from the truth.

In the process of steels manufacture, different methods are used to produce steel in varying degrees of “hardness”. What this translates to is that a cutting tool that is made of a hard steel will hold its cutting edge much longer, it is also able to get a much sharper edge. What this means to us Bonsai folk is that when cutting a branch or a stem, we want to make sure we are getting a nice clean cut. If this is not happening then the branch or stem is being crushed. Maybe to the naked eye it looks ok but when cells are crushed it creates a twofold problem. 1. it can cause dieback along the branch, losing the bud you were cutting to, and 2. it is much easier to transfer disease to a ragged cut.

The levels of tools available are
1. Chinese carbon steel, 2.Japanese carbon steel, and 3. Japanese stainless steel. The price of these runs accordingly. The Chinese the cheapest, the Japanese next and then the stainless. Many people just starting out will only get the Chinese tools and this is only fair enough because Bonsai might not be something they really embrace.

Once you have decided this is for you then consider good quality tools. If looked after they should last you a life time! You don’t need to buy them all at once, plan to get them one at a time. One of the tools many people neglect to use is a pair of bonsai wire cutters. These wire cutters are especially designed to easily remove wire without damaging your tree.
Remember the old adage, ‘The right tool for the right job”

Developing new trees.
I find many people coming to the nursery looking for stock to start a new tree. Most people find it difficult to select something because of all the branching going in all directions, and start trying to find something that already looks like a bonsai. We put in quite a bit of time “preshaping” our trees but they still need lots of changes and removal of branches and sometimes large amounts of trunk.

The secret to finding good stock is to start at the bottom of the tree and try and find the “tree within the tee”. What I mean is this, many trees are a lot taller than they will be when transformed into a bonsai. The trunks are allowed to grow as this is what thickens the trunk. By looking up the tree from its base try and find a new suitable apex. It may only be one third or one half up the tree, the rest is cut of and thrown away! This is where people struggle, think hang on, I paid a lot of money for this I cant throw all that away! But just remember, the tree is often grown to this size purely to get taper and thickness. I have cut trees back hard and people ask me where they came from only to be told they have been here for years!
I have included a couple of pictures of a black pine I have started working on, before and after shots. Its about 12-13 years old, and shows great potential for the future.
Most people spend the time trying to shape the rest of the tree, but this is not always the best proposal!

This tree will need some heavy wiring to bring this first branch up to become the new leader. The tree has been repotted on its side to give it more angle, and the old trunk will be jinned to give it some character.

A tree like this will look much more powerful when done this way. It creates a huge amount of taper, and in a few years you wouldn’t know it had ever happened.
We have many good sized corky bark elms that present with this type of scenario. It can also be done with junipers, seiju elms etc.
If you need help with this type of thing just ask and I can help you find the right tree.

Hopefully this has been a help in developing your trees. Just remember Bonsai is not about the destination but about the journey, enjoy yourself!!
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!