January 2010

Maintenance.

I cannot stress enough the importance of vigilance with looking after your trees.
Now is a good time to take a different type of approach to your trees and their setting. We are probably in the midst of our summer dormancy at the moment.

In summer without the rain we just have hot days, and this leads to dormancy in many of your trees. They just stop growing! The reason for this is that the tree stops producing new soft growth

As it would just get burnt of with the heat. This means whilst we have steady hot periods without extended it is not worth fertilizing most trees. (Trees such as junipers and pines are an exception). You are just wasting fertilizer as it just sits in the pot. What can be dangerous is by keeping up the fertilizing, you push your trees to produce new growth, (as most fertilizer is high in nitrogen which produces leaf growth) and this new growth will badly burn, making the tree look ordinary or worse killing it all together. You are making your tree work hard to produce new growth without the necessary corresponding root growth. Therefore the new leaves have nothing to sustain them! You should keep up the liquid fertilizer especially if you are using organic types such as healthy earth, which we stock here.

Take the time to inspect your trees carefully. Things like weeds in the pots, bugs or other problems such as disease, are more easily spotted when you are looking for them! Don’t let a withering branch be the first indication of problems!

Cleanliness is next to Godliness, so keep your pots and surrounding areas clean and free from old leaves and needles and any other rubbish that may affect your trees.

I see so many trees with problems that could have been avoided with a little maintenance. Bugs and disease will always attack weak and unkempt trees. Nature has its way of dealing with things that are weak, destroy them!

Patience
One of the hardest aspects with bonsai is waiting for the development of trees. One of the ways around this is not to start with very immature trees. This can actually work against you so that you eventually are no longer interested in bonsai.

I have included a picture of an old maple of mine. This is about 38 years old but the branching has only been growing for 2 seasons. Using mature material will get you much quicker results. Now you don’t have to go out and spend $5-6000 on a trunk! Smaller material material will develop just as quickly but it’s a matter of spending $50-$100 and cutting the trunk right back. Give it a couple of growing seasons and hey presto something that looks really nice.

I always tell people if they want to take this approach I am more than willing to choose stock that will produce good trees. Its about looking down lower in the trees.

I have also included a picture of an old Chinese elm that I have spent 2 years on. This was about 1 meter tall, and I just cut it back to nothing, a bit of carving and look at the result. It measures about 60cm tall with a 28cm trunk! This is great fun and gives a real sense of achievement.

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.

Pots, Pots Pots!
We are just unloading 15 tonnes of new pots! We really do pride ourselves in some of the stock we are getting. We are doing this by actually visiting the factories and carefully choosing pots that we think are unique and affordable. Also by doing this we are able to keep the prices to minimum by dealing directly with the various potters. We have been importing for 4 years now and I think we are getting the hang of it!
I have included a few pics to wet your appetite!

Anyway hope some of this helps!!
See you all soon,
Happy bonsai-ing!
Chris

December 2009

WELCOME
What a great time of the year! If your trees are not growing at the moment, take up knitting. I mean, you couldn’t stop your trees from growing even if you hid them inside. We seem to be returning to the old weather patterns of summers storms. This produces ideal growing conditions, with high humidity, good rainfall, and lots of UV (sun).

WATERING.
I know I am always going on about watering, but if you want to make the most of this weather, keep the water up. I see more sick plants from lack of water than anything else. You may find you need to water twice a day on very hot days. If you are growing stuff on in pots or boxes, it’s a good idea to mulch them with a good mulch. Use tea tree mulch. I find this doesn’t pack to tight (stopping water penetrating) and seems to have a natural repellent to pests. (its also cheap!) But it mainly will keep moisture in your pots from evaporating. Just a thought!

TRIMMING
Whilst we have all this fantastic growth, don’t let it go to waste with growth in areas that you don’t want.

The idea of a good bonsai is a tree with lots of fine twiggy branches. If we are to let growth run unhindered, we are likely to get a tree that has just long thick branches. This is ok if you want to develop the trunk further. This is called a “sacrifice branch”. The idea of this is to choose a branch that you do not want and allow it to grow uncut until the area of the tree you are trying to thicken has grown to the desired thickness.

This may be part of the apex. By allowing part of this to grow, you will find the rest of the trunk will thicken, (kind of common sense when you think of it eh?) and when you have reached the desired thickness simply remove it. This can be done anywhere on the tree, to thicken the bottom of the trunk use a lower branch, to thicken a branch just allow it to grow. The only point here is to ensure that if you are thickening a branch it is a variety that will shoot back on old wood. (black pines do not).

Getting back to good branching (ramification) it is important that you continue to cut back each shoot after it has produced 2 or more shoots. This is assuming you have created the basic outline shape for that branch. By constantly cutting back you are doing 2 things, 1. your are forcing the tree to produce more buds. There is a hormone in the growing tip, and once removed sends a message to the tree that it must produce more leaves (or it dies) and away it goes. (isn’t creation wonderful!!) 2. By removing shoots you are allowing more light and air into the inside of the tree, which again will help produce new growth. If your trees interior is constantly shaded it will not produce new shoots as they are not able to receive any light which is crucial for the tree to operate. That’s why most trees have all the growth on the extremes of the branches.

Just as an aside, make sure you are turning your trees every 2-3 weeks to ensure even growth. Again I have seen many trees nice and healthy on one side and weak on the other. This is from allowing the tree to receive light on one side only.

HEALTHY ROOTS
Another point on creating good ramification, is again fairly common sense.Keep your roots healthy! Guess what, healthy roots, healthy tree. Lots of roots, lots of leaves!!

If you were to take your tree out of the pot, there should be a direct correlation between root mass, and foliage. This is not done by just allowing your pot to fill with roots, it is done by, you guessed it, root ramification! This is done by removing larger roots at the time of repotting and creating smaller more effective roots.

Many of the fertilizers that are on the market are extremely high in nitrogen. This can and does produce amazing results, causing your tree to burst into lots of new green growth. But this can pose a serious problem. If just the leaves are growing, what is supporting this growth? Nitrogen does not cause root growth, so the new growth is not even. You need to have a balanced growth were new root growth is producing good leaf production. The other point is that often these fertilizers are chemical, and can kill the good bacteria in the soil paramount to healthy growth. I personally use recommend and sell “Healthy Earth fertilizer”. It is a completely natural all round fertilizer and is safe to use on all trees. (including natives)

Often we disregard the roots because as the old saying goes “out of sight out of mind”. I hope this helps you all with understanding your trees a little more.

Books
We have also just received a shipment of books. The last shipment of these sold out very quickly.These are Shohin Bonsai, a superb book on miniature bonsai,Penjing Worlds of wonderment, a detailed book on bonsai landscapes translated from Chinese,Bonsai Masterclass a fully detailed book on Bonsai from all around the world including all the tips you could ever want to know.
As I said get in quick as they will go quickly especially at this time of year.
Also in limited numbers we haveBonsai its art science and history, and Australian book which is like a text book,F icus in the Temperate climate, if you grow figs this is the book, written in and for Australia, Growing Australian natives as bonsai ,Growing bonsai in Australia, 101 Bonsai tips, So plenty there for everyone!

MERRY CHRISTMAS
Kathy, Sam, Barry and I would also like to take this opportunity to wish you all a superb Christmas, and a awesome new year. Thank you to all who have supported us here at the nursery. Nurseries are hard work, and it is very much appreciated when we are supported so well locally!

THANKS!!Our opening hours leading up to Christmas will be 7 days a week, 9-5 Tuesday to Saturday, and 10-4 Sundays and Mondays. We will be closed from Christmas eve, (hopefully a little early!) and will re-open January the 12th. Gotta have a break!

December 2008 'Literati Style'

Bonsai, like any hobby or art form, needs to grow with us if it is to retain that “feeling” you got when you bought your first tree. Remember that? If you just continue to do the same old thing you will get bored, stale and become tired with bonsai.

The older we get the safer we tend to become. Risk is vital to remain energized. You don’t grow if you stand still.

I have included some pictures of a simple literati that I completed recently to show you what can be done with a pretty normal tree. I have about 50 of these trees in stock and purchased them because of there amazing trunk shapes. Trees such as this are really difficult to find as the work involved in getting them to this shape is quite arduous. They are a type of juniper and at first glance appear to be procumbens, but some of the foliage is developing scale foliage so may end up being a sergeant juniper.

Anyway:
Firstly these trees present excellently for literati. Now “literati” means “men of the books” (hence the word literature) and only the higher gentry were permitted to grow and shape this type of tree. Whilst it retains some facets of the guidelines of bonsai, it also breaks them. It is a little like jazz music, it follows set principles, but it breaks boundaries. This is the type of thing that will get you thinking outside the box, and stretch you to develop your artistic approach. Now the specimen shown is by no means a perfect one but is merely used as a demonstration as to what can be achieved. This tree will go on to develop into a nice tree all the same.

Your tree should tell a story, in this case it is showing signs of a fight to survive and reach light, in years gone by older branches have given up the ghost but in its incredible struggle it has managed to survive. Most literati’s are very sparse in their foliage, showing the extreme duress they have endured. Literati usually have only 3, 5, or 7 branches, and these are also kept sparse. The branches are always close to the apex (unless the apex is jinned) and are kept in the traditional positions at the extemes of the bends. You need a trunk that has lots of twists and turns in it to make it interesting. Litetarti can be slanting or cascade or even windswept.

Trees such as junipers, pines, cedars and elms can be used as literati. The older and gnarlier the better. I have recently done a beautiful black pine into this style because it sat there with scars all over it, poorly distributed branches, yet it made a great literati! Now everybody wants to buy it, and no its not for sale!!

If you want to have a go at one ask next time you are at the nursery if you would like assistance picking one out.

The other thing I would like people to think about is creating that beautiful tree you have seen in a book. Usually it is something like an old elm or maple with an amazingingly thick trunk with great taper and awesome branch structure.

You don’t get this by buying $12 twigs (sorry but you don’t!) I encourage people instead of buying lots of little trees, save your money and buy 1 big one. What you need to be bold enough to do is get yourself something with a great looking trunk. The bigger the better. Don’t worry about branching that will come later. All the early years in the growth of the tree goes into growing the trunk, branches can be grown in a few seasons.

You can cut an old elm or maple back to nothing, and then start growing your branches. Yes this will take a few years but so many people put it of and lose precious time.

You can have a tree like you see in the books, it’s a matter of starting with the right stock, and then being patient.

Usually patience is the biggest problem, people want it now, but this isn’t going to happen!

DEFOLIATING

Defoliating is the term used to describe the removal of all foliage. This is only done on broadleaf varieties. Trees such as figs, maples etc are ideal for this.
This is practiced in bonsai for a few reasons. By removing the foliage, the tree goes to work developing new leaves to keep the process of work happening in the plant. The tree cant survive without leaves.

One of the reasons for doing this is that it will increase branch ramification, (more branching and sub-branching) as there is more light allowed inside the tree. This stimulates growth on dormant buds back along the existing branches.

The second reason is leaf size. By cutting all the leaves of, the tree will prematurely produce new leaves which will be reduced in size. This is one of the other aspects we are trying to create in bonsai, small leaves.

Now a word of warning, (or 2) don’t do this to sick trees, it will put them under to much stress, and they may die. Also do this only in December as this is the optimum time for the tree to produce new leaves, left to late and the tree may not be able to produce new leaves if the temperatures drop. Again you may lose your tree. When you cut the leaf stem cut it just above the joint between branch and stem, and always use sharp scissors!! (That’s another story for another newsletter)

Have a go this December, and watch the results. Remember to back of on the watering as they will not be transpiring as before, feel the soil before watering each time.