澄んだ水盆栽会 sundamizu bonsai kaifiles.meetup.com/1273803/journal_sundamizu april...
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from the Greater Clearwater and surrounding areas
澄んだ水盆栽会
Sundamizu Bonsai Kai
April, 2012
2012, Issue 4 Page 2
March 7—May 20 Epcot International Flower &
Garden Festival
April 14: USF Spring Plant Sale
April 28/29: Green Thumb Festival, St Peters-
burg
May 6: Florida Botanical Gardens ,
12520Ulmerton Rd., Largo; showcase fine
arts museums, garden tours, demonstra-
tions by artists, pg 10 for more information
May 24-28 Bonsai Societies of Florida Con-vention, more information at http://bonsai-
bsf.com/?p=1114
National Events
Virginia Pine, Sand Pine and Spruce Pine by Clif
Pottberg
3-5
The Pond Pot & Japanese Black Pine by Steve Pilacik 6
Which is better: collect from the wild or grow from
small nursery stock by Clif Pottberg 7/8
The Wiring Corner 8
Sundamizu Bonsai Kai News 9/10
Additional Opportunities & Ads 10
Contacts, & General Info. 11
Inside this issue:
It’s free! Stay in
touch with Bonsai
activities!
Join the Meet-up Web-
site for the Sundamizu
Bonsai Kai.
Go to http://
www.meetup.com/
WestCen-
tralFloridaBonsai/
It’s easy and only takes
a minute .
Regional Happenings Buttonwood Bonsai—Inverness: Key
Training, 130 Heights St., Inverness, Fl;
Meets 2nd Saturday of every month. April:
public workshop with Bonsai Bob
Bob Eskeitz 352-556-4999 or
Duane Finch Sr 352-726-9261
Sundamizu Bonsai Kai—Clearwater:
Meets 2nd Saturday of every month. Moc-
casin Lake Nature Park, 2750 Park Trail
Lane, Clearwater. April meeting: 3 ring
circus
Clif Pottberg: 352-424-6000
Nick Sellas: 727-938-1985 or
Hukyu Bonsai—Tampa: Meets 3rd Satur-
day of every month at USF Botanical Gar-
dens. April meeting: 3 ring circus
Clif Pottberg: 352-424-6000
Lakeland Bonsai Club: meets 3rd
Thursday of every month; 7:00pm; First
United Methodist Church, 72 Lake Mor-
ton Drive, Room D-3, Lakeland.
Pres. Paul Cacioppo; 863-860-1173
Suncoast Bonsai Club—St. Peters-
burg: Meets 4th Saturday of every
month. This month’s meeting will be the
Green Thumb Festival
Pres. Linda Gibbons;
All club meetings are open to the public
and visitors are welcome.
2012, Issue 4 Page 3
Virginia Pine, Sand Pine & Spruce Pine by Clif Pottberg In the early days of the eighties, Steve Pilacik wrote what might well be called the definitive book on Japanese black pines in America. He just wrote an article on them for our last month's issue. Because of his familiarity and expertise with Japanese black pines, Steve will be doing a continuing series on them and all their characteristics, as an important exten-sion of his writings on the species. I thought it would be an interesting concept to weave arti-cles about other pines that we can grow here in the south, and relate them to what Steve is teaching about the Japa-nese black pine. Some information will be the same for each but some will be different, so it can be useful to re-late the two. There are three short needled natives in the southeast: the Virginia Pine, the Sand Pine and the Spruce Pine, and they all have two-needled clusters, like the Japanese black pine, and unlike the Japanese red pine or Japanese white pine.. The three natives mentioned above have similarly sized needles, growing up to about 8-10 cm, or 3+ inches but they are often shorter. The longest by a little is the Sand Pine, Pinus clausa. its needles are also the thinnest which is a drawback for bonsai. We want to create a full foliaged look, like the big tree. It's possible to thicken the foliage cover of the Sand Pine, but it will take a little more care; a little more time. Another reason for this is that the branches tend to be dense (but casting only light shade), skinny and die back more readlily. All three pine species have thinner branchlets than the Japanese black pine, making them somewhat more in scale. Both the Spruce Pine, Pinus Glabra, and the Virginia Pine, Pinus Virginiana, have needles of similar thickness, greater than the Sand Pine, but their color differs. The Virginia Pine has mostly yellow green needles, while the Spruce Pine has very glossy dark green needles. Another minor drawback to the Virginia Pine is that its needles naturally twist. This makes it harder to stay looking groomed than the Spruce Pine. Thus, as far as the nee-dles of these pines are concerned, and the foliage in gen-eral the Spruce Pine is best. The Pine whose range is closest to us, in fact engulfs us, is the Sand Pine, growing throughout the center of Flor-ida, with an outlier range on the coast of the Florida pan-handle. So for us in the Tampa Bay area, or anywhere in central Florida, it is the easiest to find and collect.
It will grow on very poor and infertile, very sandy and dry soil and it must grow in such soil, for the roots soon rot with more than a little soil moisture. As most know, pines grow much better with mycorrhizal fungi in the soil, but with Pinus clausa we must be careful to collect from a Sand Pine stand, for the more normally useful fungi don't do well in a soil that is fit for a Sand Pine. Whatever we collect, it is always wise to collect some extra soil from near the tree which has as much humus in it as possible, and incorporate that into your training pot mix. Next most capable of withstanding dry soil is Pinus virgin-iana, and it normally grows in fairly sterile soil, shaly and sandy barrens and lower mountain slopes. Of course, these environments often result in very stunted trees, and you'll likely find the best collectable shapes and sizes of any of these pines. Find a dryish, shaly, sunlit field and you may be able to collect many wonderful specimens in a single day. Another nice thing about finding such an environment is that the root systems may well be more branched, even fibrous, and much easier to collect. However, its range is also farthest from us, descending only into the upper third of Alabama, and only touching the top of Georgia and south Carolina. Anywhere from there north, however, you'll often find large stands all the way into eastern Ohio, and near to the northern ends of Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Unlike the Sand Pine, the Virginia Pine will take a wide range of soil moisture and thus is easier to keep alive in a pot. Of course, watering regularly with an intensely well drained and well aerated bonsai soil, any of these pines should do well -- It's always a good idea to collect some of the native fungus mycelia with it whenever you can, no matter what you're collecting. Longest lived and least likely to die back or suffer shad-ing out is the Spruce Pine. One reason for this is that the Spruce pine is typically found as individual trees scat-tered in moister mixed hardwood forests, and so have had to develop more shade tolerance than most other pines. Further, because of this shade tolerance, the lower branches stay alive and more vigorous than most other pines. They also withstand the most moist growing condi-tions when they occur, which is another reason why they live longer. Pinus glabra is also the fastest growing and grows largest
2012, Issue 4 Page 4
Virginia Pine, Sand Pine & Spruce Pine by Clif Pottberg
of the three, and that is why it also is the most bendable and workable: faster growing wood is generally softer. Consider the flexibility of the fast growing satsuki azalea relative to the easily broken slow growing kurume azaleas for example. The bark of each are different but beautiful, so each will look rough, gnarled and powerful with a little age on them. Pinus glabra has the smallest and best adhering plating; Pinus virginiana has the most colorful, and Pinus clausa, while often very thickly barked, tends to peel off easily, in large pieces. Not easy to collect for us down here in the deep south, and, worse, it is harder to find growing individually in thicker woods, but the Spruce pine is findable on longer trips up the coast. Further, various forestry service nurs-eries carry it and it's well worth the effort. As far as their pruning and bud pinching they are all very similar to the Japanese black pine. Needle plucking is the same, each of them being two needled pines. Easiest to needle pluck and most accepting is the Spruce pine, and the Sand pine is the hardest, since any part of the plant is individually less vigorous than the others. All are fine pieces of material to work with, though. How-
ever, in my mind, Pinus glabra is the best of the three for
most efforts. I believe it is a worthy competitor of the
Japanese black pine as an excellent material for bonsai.
Sand pine foliage
Virginia pine foliage and cones
Spruce pine foliage and cones
Pinus glabra bark
Pinus virginiana bark
Pinus clausa bark
2012, Issue 4 Page 5
Virginia Pine, Sand Pine & Spruce Pine by Clif Pottberg
Typical Sand pine
growth
Typical Spruce pine growth
Typical Virginia pine growth
Preview The Bonsai Display at The
Epcot Flower & Garden Festival on
YouTube:
www.youtube.com/orlandobonsaiTV. It’s
called “walk through the bonsai exhibit at
Epcot.
2012, Issue 4 Page 6
The Pond Pot & Japanese Black Pine by Steve Pilacik Even though I have been growing JBP for over 42 years I still try to keep up with worthwhile literature on the spe-cies. I discovered that EBAY was an excellent way to up-date your Japanese Literature Books on bonsai. One eve-ning I saw an issue of Bonsai World, the catch said new technique for growing JBP. I had to own this issue of the Journal. Even though I do not read Japanese-the Japa-nese use sketches to illustrate their points very nicely. I placed my bid and waited for the auction to end-I won the journal and awaited it coming to me from Japan. When the Journal arrived from Japan, I opened the Jour-nal up to the article I was anxiously awaiting. The first photograph showed a JBP in two pots-the smaller being a pond pot the other a regular nursery pot. The nursery pot was larger than the pond pot. Pond pots allow the roots of your tree to grow into the soil in the nursery pot. The theory being that the JBP will produce numerous fi-brous roots and this allows the JBP trunk to thicken more quickly that a regular nursery pot. Also when repotting your main root system is not disturbed allowing the JBP to continue growing without interruption, Of course, I had to test this theory. The results were the trees planted in pond pots grew about 50% quicker than those just planted in nursery pots. I like to wire my trunks of JBP when trees are young—the pond pot planted trees were growing into the wire in less than six months!! I liked the results so I planted more trees in pond pots be-fore planting in nursery pots. The next two pictures show examples
The trees I am showing examples of are JBP grown to be Shohin Bonsai. However, this technique will work on all sizes of bonsai. This technique may also be used with trees planted in the ground. My suggestion would be us-ing very large pond pots to allow for very large trunks. When digging these trees you will not disturbed the root systems, since the fibrous roots stay in the pond pots. When growing Shohin size JBP I use sacrificial branches to thicken the main trunk. Theory suggest that were one allows a branch to grow long –the area below the sacrifi-
cial will thicken. (Figure 1)
When growing JBP for Shohin Bonsai one must take care to prune lower branches to allow for ramification. One also must needle pluck to allow light and air to freely en-
ter the inside of the tree. (Figure 2)
When you feel the JBP is ready for its bonsai container plant directly from pond pot to bonsai container –there are more than enough feeder roots to nourish the tree. This pond pot technique works with basically all species of trees one would use for bonsai. I chose JBP since I have done more experimentation than other species at this time.
Figure 1 Figure 2
2012, Issue 4 Page 7
Which is better: Collect from the wild, or grow from small nursery
stock? By Clif Pottberg There have always been two camps of thought in bonsai
about how to get the best bonsai.
On the one hand, there are the adventurers, going out into
the wilds, and finding massive beauties often with extrava-
gant curves and beautiful deadwood. Some of the biggest
and best bonsai in the world have been collected trees.
These trees, in order to truly demonstrate their remarka-
bly powerful features, must be larger collected material for
the most part. For many people, this is beyond their ca-
pacities, especially when the tree is, for example, half way
up a mountain, or several miles into a wilderness area.
If you wish to go into the wilds for big beautiful material,
you have no need to go farther than into the Florida
swamps to find massively based and hugely tapered bald-
cypress – or into the high hills of Georgia, south Carolina
and West Virginia for wonderful pines. If you want to go
further, take a vacation into the wild western reaches of
Colorado, Utah, and the Sierra Nevadas for the incredible
junipers. The pines and baldcypress and even some of
the desert junipers will survive here with judicious care.
Unlike Japan, there are still countless miles of junipers in
the west, and huge but stunted pines, still filled with fan-
tastic collectible material – if you are careful not to tres-
pass onto protected lands. So many centuries of collect-
ing in Japan have removed the vast majority of collectable
material, but we still have abundant stock of beautiful ma-
terial on unprotected lands.
However, there are drawbacks to collecting, beyond the
obvious ones of scorpions, sunburn or frostbite, falls from
cliffs and the like. They include the fact that in so many
cases it is rational to dig up such a specimen slowly, care-
fully pruning the roots over one or several seasons, to
reduce the likelihood of loss.
Then, when you have successfully transplanted your tree,
you may still have problems. The primary problem is that
very few large collected trees have very good root sys-
tems which look like the root system of a very big adult
tree. They may be gnarled, but they won’t likely look like
an adult tree. They may be thick and buttressy, but the
likelihood of a good, full nebari is very slim. Worse, if that
is the case, there is very little you can do about it, unless
you are willing to graft on a new set of roots. That some-
times may take as many years as it would have taken to
grow such a tree from scratch – or at least quite a few.
Thus it may be very difficult to get a masterpiece bonsai
from a collected piece of material.
Some collected material, like the western junipers, have
so much driftwood that roots aren’t a concern – the drift-
wood is the key and focus. Even then, many times the
tree is made less impressive by a lack of a visible spread-
ing root system.
Still there may be drawbacks. Most desert junipers have
much coarser foliage than ones found in most gardens,
and certainly coarser than the ones the Japanese moun-
tains were lucky enough to have been graced with, the
delicately foliaged shimpaku juniper. Yes, you can graft
on new foliage of another sort to give the tree a better
look, but there again, it will probably take several years;
it’s not instant in most cases. How else, then, can we
achieve larger bonsai material for powerful bonsai? One
answer lies in the ability of plenty of fertilizer, good
actual production of a bonsai during the
"Visions of the American West" Bonsai
Convention and Learning Seminar in
Denver, Colorado at the Denver Marriott
Tech Center, June 21-24, 2012. The
American Bonsai Society, Bonsai Clubs
International and the Rocky Mountain
Bonsai Society are sponsoring the event.
Eligibility:
Any person who lives in North America,
including Puerto Rico, is eligible. He or
she must have been involved with the art
of bonsai for less than ten (10) years.
Any past winner or runner-up is ineligi-
ble to enter. Participation in the second
stage is limited to two (2) competitions.
For more information, go to:
http://absbonsai.org/latest-news/87-new-
talent-bonsai-competition
The Joshua Roth New Talent Bonsai
Competition Supported by ABS
The Joshua Roth New Talent Bonsai
Competition is an annual competition to
recognize and promote new bonsai talent
in North America. First prize is an exclu-
sive course of instruction with an ap-
proved bonsai teacher. The first stage of
the competition is a judging of photo-
graphs of previously designed trees by
the entrant. The second stage will be the
New Talent Bonsai Competition sponsored by American Bonsai Society
2012, Issue 4 Page 8
Which is better: Collect from the wild, or
grow from small nursery stock? By Clif Pottberg drainage and plenty of water to mas-
sively enhance the growth of a plant.
Most bonsai enthusiasts, reading all
the books they can find, are tempted
to be so careful by the warnings
about over fertilizing.
When we want to grow a plant
quickly, we can. Put it in the ground
or a very big pot in good loamy soil.
Start with a carefully well spread
roots system. Then keep fertilizing it.
It won’t take nearly as long to achieve
a particular size of bonsai as you
might think.
I grow a multitude of trident maples,
crape myrtles (to be sure, they are
fast growing on their own), junipers,
podocarpus and others, and can add
12 to sixteen or more feet of height in
a year, and inches of girth , even on
a relatively small plant – when it is
carefully watered and fertilized.
If you think you perceive a strong
point of view, you are right. If you
want an adventure, go collecting. If
you want a big piece of material, and
gamble you’ll find one that’s great in
all its parts, go for it. However, it
really is much easier – an often just
as fast – to tend your garden and
have a few really big pieces that you
just continue to grow, allowing ram-
pant growth. Prune (often) just once
a year to bring the plant back to man-
ageable height, and you’ll be sur-
prised how nice your plants will be
very quickly.
AND, you’ll have much better nebari
and root spread than you usually can
get when you collect a wildling.
California juniper
Windswept sand pine on the Florida coast
Another juniper – too
big for bonsai, but…
The Wiring Corner As a brief introduction to a series of
increasingly complex wiring lessons, let
us start, not with wiring, but with the
wire itself.
There are two forms of wire used in
shaping bonsai, as most people in bonsai
know. However, since the earlier form
of wire, copper wire, became signifi-
cantly more expensive than aluminum
wire, even that which has been anodized
to look as inconspicuous as copper, few
people any longer use copper.
Copper has a number of benefits, how-
ever. First, as it ages, it becomes darker
than anodized aluminum. Second, as it
is bent to be put on a branch, it becomes
harder and holds a branch much more
strongly than aluminum. You can put it
on when it is very soft and easy to work
- easier than aluminum – and it becomes
harder; you can use a smaller gauge and
get more holding and bending power.
Therefore also the cost of the copper
should not be measured by its gauge, but
by its effective bending power, thus
decreasing the difference in price. We
are talking about annealed copper wire,
too, which is more expensive than un-
annealed.
Granted, aluminum is more readily
available, but if you do a quick web-
search for bonsai copper wire you’ll find
plenty.
There are times when aluminum wire is
superior to copper. By having to be a
larger diameter to bend a branch, it will
have less likelihood to damage the
branch as it is being put on. This is es-
pecially important for thin barked plants
like azaleas and is, in fact, why alumi-
num began to be used in the first place.
If you can’t find annealed copper wire,
you can always anneal your own if you
have a source of un-annealed wire. Just
put your copper on a bed of hot coals
and it will be soft soon. After that, try
not to bend your wire any more until you
are using it or it will become hard again.
Next: the OTHER old fashioned way to
bend branches.
2012, Issue 4 Page 9
March 10 Meeting Many thanks to our hospitality team for
the refreshments and homemade
goodies. Thanks, Karen & Lee!
Have you ever wondered whether any possibly great bonsai pieces of material are all
around you, underfoot and gone unnoticed? You'd be very surprised. In the simple cate-
gory of weeds there are many which make super material, and fine shapes.
Our own Marian Borchers has been collecting weeds for a long time and turned them
into stunning bonsai and/or accent plants. She now has many wonderful examples and
will bring examples of many species and talk about where to find them and how to care
for them.
We'll also have a brief discussion of how to root cuttings easily, with new techniques to
ensure better success.
May Meeting Preview
Sundamizu Bonsai Kai News
Our next program will be what we have
long called a "three ring circus"
The idea is that three people each do a
demonstration of styling on a tree. We
learn by watching the different results,
both of tree shape, and the artist's tech-
niques.
The multiple demonstration can be on the
same species, created into different
styles, or three different species, worked
into the same style.
In this case, we will use large Juniperus
squamata prostrata , also known as Juni-
perus procumbens nana, also known as
Dwarf Japanese garden Junipers, do-
nated by Bonsai at Pasiminan
You will see how different, good stylists
can create many different effects with
equivalent material.
It is always a unique experience for we
can learn much by seeing how the eye of
different artists can see such different
opportunities, thus a way to train our own
eyes.
This has always been one of the most
popular - and most educational - bonsai
programs. As always, we will also have a
raffle with fine material.
PLEASE NOTE: this month we will be
outside in the picnic area, next to the
birds' area, and nearer the front entrance
to the park, on the left
Next week Hukyu, the Tampa club, will
also have a 3 ring circus, this time creat-
ing a single style out of different types of
trees. If you enjoyed this program, you
can come and learn next week how to
use different materials for a given style,
and meet other nice bonsai people at the
same time. We will also be shortly inviting
them to our program as well.
Hukyu meets at the USF botanical gar-
den, also at 10 AM Saturday morning,
exactly one week after our meeting (April
21st).
Don’t forget to join us for lunch
on Saturday after the meeting.
April 14 Meeting: 3-Ring Circus
2012, Issue 4 Page 10
Here is something that seems worthwhile to bring to everyone's attention: White Bear Bonsai is having a major sale in
connection with their move from St. Paul, MN to Charlotte NC. Some nice trees are available: They're not cheap, but
they are beautiful. http://www.whitebearbonsai.com/
Thanks to Joan Lindsay from the Suncoast Club.
Bonsai Sale
If you would like to see some wonderful bonsai trees, a
couple of our members went over to the Jim Smith
collection and Christy took Photo's. You can view them
without becoming a member of Facebook by putting
this in your search bar:
http//www.facebook.com/SuncostBonsaiSociety. There
are 300 photos and they show the tree, the tree root
structure and the information on the tree. Again,
hanks to Joan Lindsay and members of the Suncoast
Club
Viewing Jim Smith’s Trees
www.evesgardengifts.com
(check out scratch & dent area)
INFANTE SERVICES, INC
1820 Gunn Highway
Odessa
813-926-2271
www.infanteservices.com
M-F 7:30-5:30 Sat: 8:30-3:30
MEYERS NURSERY
9491 Rockhill Road
Thonotosassa, FL - near Fowler Avenue
and U.S. 301
813-986-5896
www.meyersnurseries.com
LANDMARK NURSERY
853 E Lake Rd S, Tarpon Springs, FL
34688
(727) 938-2971
Monday – Friday 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM: Sat-
urdays 8:00 AM - 4:00 PM
www.landmarknursery.com
Thanks to Palmer Ogden, Chris Frye and
Lois Powell. Let us know of any others
you find!
Do you like to visit nurseries looking for
the perfect tree, and unusual specimen or
perhaps looking for a good deal. We need
your help to identify some local nurseries..
Here’s a few that our club members have
recommended.
EVE'S GARDEN GIFTS
5602 Land O Lakes Blvd
Land O Lakes, FL 34639
Phone: 813-996-5012
Fax: 813-996-2831
Monday-Friday 9a-5p; Saturday 10a-4p
Help us find some local nurseries!
May 6 Event
The Florida Botani-cal Gardens Foun-dation is hosting an event to showcase fine arts museums in the area on Sun-day, May 6 from 10 to 4 at the gardens at 12520 Ulmerton Rd., Largo. Muse-ums attending are the St. Petersburg Fine Arts Museum, Dunedin Fine Arts Center, Leepa/Ratner Museum, Florida Craftsmen, and the Morean Arts Center. There will also be
garden tours and
each museum has
decorated a rain
barrel to be raffled
off.
www.matsumomiji.com/
Matsu Momiji Bonsai We specialize in
Japanese Black Pine
Travel for Lectures,
Demonstrations,
Workshops
the Greater Clearwater
and surrounding areas
澄んだ水盆栽会
Sundamizu Bonsai Kai
the Greater Clearwater and surrounding areas
2012, Issue 4 Page 11
Sundamizu Bonsai Kai means Clear Water Bonsai Club
(Pronounced soon”da mi’ zu) Nick Sellas 727-938-1985
Clif Pottberg: 352-424-6000
Meets 2nd Saturday of each Month
Moccasin Lake Nature Park
2750 Park Trail Lane, Clearwater
Directions to Moccasin Lake Nature Park
From Southbound US 19 or McMullen Booth Rd (CR 611):
turn west on SR 590 for 0.8 mi
turn left on Calamondin Ln for 0.3 mi
turn right on Edenwood St for 364 ft
turn left onto Beachwood Ave for 0.2 mi
turn right at Park Trail Lane
From Northbound US 19:
turn east on Drew St for 407 ft
turn left on Fairwood Ave/Park Place Blvd for 0.6mi
turn left at Park Trail Lane
Proceed to the back of the parking lot. This is closest to the
classroom. If you have large material/plants you are bringing,
we will open the gate for dropoff and then you can return to lot
to park.
Annual Membership is $24 per individual or $36 per family
and includes:
● Monthly meetings
● New friends
● Lots of fun