The Midway News. Inside this issue: 1. Chairman s report 2. Club News 3. Birthdays 4. October meeting 5. Who s Who 6. Editor s Letter.

Transcription

1 Midway Bonsai Society October 2018 Inside this issue: 1. Chairman s report 2. Club News 3. Birthdays 4. October meeting 5. Who s Who 6. Editor s Letter Bonsai to me: a little tree in a container that touches my soul. If it speaks to my soul much, it is bonsai art. It does not matter at all how it does it as long as it does it. - Walter Pall Carving by Denise Cain Photo by Pieter Bosch 1

2 Midway Bonsai Society October Chairman's Report Due to family commitment Oom Hennie could not attend and chair the meeting, Thivern was not feeling well leaving me to Chair the meeting. Oliver Roberts visited the club, he is a Feature writer for the Sunday Times and had some discussions with some of our members, and he is writing a piece about bonsai and the people who love them. Our Christmas Party will be on the 25 th of November at 12H00 at the nursery. The club will provide Cold meat. Please contact Ina will salads that you are prepared to bring. Oom Hennie will provide ice cream with his special caramel souse, Antonet will provide the bread. We had some excellent bonsai trees on mini show. I would like to thank all members that brought trees for the show. I personally would like to see this turn into a quarterly event, with the provisory that all members must bring a tree, even trees in training and in a growing pot. During our workshop senior member helped with the styling of some trees and I noticed that our member seemed scared of pruning their trees. The more a tree is pruned the quicker they will ramify. As an example, if a branch is left to grow say 200mm with 10 leaves and alternative branch are regularly pruned as soon as the second set of leaves appear. This branch would have ramified at least 3 times, with much shorter internodes in the same period that it took the first branch to grow to 200mm. Dorian gave us a very informative talk on LECA. Several of our members are now going to start to experiment with LECA. A note of caution, LECA are totally inorganic and do not hold any nutrition and plant must fertilize very regularly with an organic fertilizer when planted in LECA. Our main meeting was on Carving with Denise and Jonathan giving tips to our members during the meeting with woodchip flying all over the place, and the floor was flooded during a rain storm. Upcoming Brat and Saba events: SABA Mini Convention, November 2018, hosted by Bloemfontein Kai. SBF5 Mini Convention, March2019, Pine Lodge Resort, George, Hosted by Kat Rivier Kai. ABC5, Oct 2019, Safari Nursery Pretoria, Hosted by Brat I would encourage our member to start saving for the registration fees for ABC5 now as this is an event not to be missed. See you all at next meeting on the 17 th November 2018, Johann Espach Treasurer 2

3 2. Club news The next club meeting is on the 17 th of November. It will be at our normal venue at the nursery. Dorian will be talking to us about using rocks in Bonsai. Bring some interesting rocks, Saikei and your Root-over-rock trees. It can be any stage of development, but don t forget to bring a few for the show table too. Please remember to keep 25th of November open for the Year end function. It is always lots of fun. Happy Birthday 3. Birthdays Since our last meeting we celebrated the following birthdays: Vaughan Ferreira Hennie Reyneke 28-Oct 05-Nov Above: My Leopard Orchid We wish you all the best for the year ahead and hope you have many more to come! 4. October meeting - Sawdust and Power tools What a noisy and awesome meeting. A thunderstorm even helped create the atmosphere and made listening to the conversations a bit difficult at times, but the rain is always welcome. The NOSE trees for the month was a Brunfelsia Pauciflora (Yesterday-todayand-tomorrow) and a Crassula Sarcocaulis (Bonsai Crassula). Sawdust by Dorian Fourie Dorian carving away Dorian made a deep carving into his Celtis. The end product was looking quite nice. The photos really does not do it justice. 3

4 To the left: Our Braai master Denise making magic, as Richard photo bombs with his Power Tools. Above: Dorian still needs to refine the carving, but it is looking good so far. Above: Denise: Hurry up and take the picture. My hands are cramping! Above: Richard working hard on his tree. 4

5 Below: Denise before carving Below: Denise after carving Mack is concentrating To the left: Some deadwood Mother nature carved Above: Denise during 5

6 Above: Mack, Jeanette and Oom Pieter having a discussion about an Olive that was repotted in Leca. To the left: Crassula sarcocaulis This one belongs to Jonathan. This indigenous succulent have naturally very small leaves. With a common name like Bonsai Crassula you need one of these in your collection. Left: A small Bonsai Crassula I am training to become a Mame. 6

7 Below are a few trees members brought to the show table. To the left: Show table trees continue. 7

8 Below: The flowers on my Spekboom cascade. This is the second season that I was lucky enough for it to flower. Below: Dorian s cascade Bougainvillea. Just look at the awesome deadwood. A very applicable tree for the meetings topic. 8

9 To the left: Dorian displayed this little Celtis on a rock. Next month he will speak more on this topic. To the left: The last of the trees. Overall a very nice exhibition. 9

10 Above: A little visitor came with on my Celtis. Above and below: Just look at the fine and healthy root growth Dorian gets. This is LECA in a Colander. Dorian gave a short introduction on LECA at the last club meeting. Those that went to the Suikerbos BRAT might be familiar with the name and quite a few from the club have bought a bag to try out. LECA (Lightweight expanded clay aggregate) made by heating clay to around 1,200 C (2,190 F) in a rotary kiln. The yielding gases expand the clay by thousands of small bubbles forming during heating producing a honeycomb structure. It looks like little balls. This gives it exceptional drainage qualities. A lot of people have been experimenting with LECA and have seen amazing results. There is a big caution though. Before you re-pot everything you own into LECA, do your own homework. It is true that it offers many great benefits, but don t go and re-pot everything you own into LECA just like that. You might be making a very expensive mistake You might find that LECA is the wonder product you have been waiting for, or that it does not give you any benefits at all. Dorian did a demo on Trident Maples in a Clump style a while back. The amount of root growth he has seen is just ridiculous. LECA drains very fast which in turn allows more oxygen to the roots. Roots thrive on this and grow much quicker. You might need to water more often depending on the species of trees. Some species will love the fast draining mixture. Not all fertilizer will work well in 100% Leca. Use some of Jonathan s Bonsai mix and make ratio experiments for your local micro climate. Try 100% Bonsai Mix, 20% Leca and Bonsai mix or 50% Leca with bonsai mix. Find out what will work for you. 10

11 5. Who s Who: George Richardson Every now and then we ask one of our members to share some personal details about themselves. This month it is George Richardson turn. My First Bonsai tree: I now know it was an Acacia, probably a black monkey- thorn It was given to me as a gift by my kids in 1993 and I killed it within 3 months due mainly to ignorance. I then bought a Bonsai book in 1993, started reading but did not pursue the hobby any further. I have always enjoyed nature and specifically trees. Trees and being with/ under it, revitalises my body and spirit. I am also mad about cycads and indigenous bulbous plants. My first Juniper received from MBS at a club meeting in 2016, is alive and well! How did you start doing bonsai: I acquired a ficus ginseng microcarpia in 2013, started growing four potential trees and again started reading. In 2016 I joined MBS and only then did I discover real Bonsai and encouragement How many trees do you have at home: Bonsais/ trees in training: 9. Trees in pots, mainly from cuttings= My next step is yamadori How do you manage to water, feed and care for them all: through MBS, many books, conversations and lately Facebook, I realised that different species have different needs and that the seasons influence this as well. Most early mornings, I look at most Bonsais and the other trees. I am also recording this in an Excel file which, in addition to my daily inspection, prompts me with times for repotting, pruning, spotting and resolving pests and feeding. Do you use a special mix of soil, your own or from a specific person? I started of buying the commercial Bonsai soil at nurseries and are using Jonathan + Denise s soil, mixed with about 15% of the commercial soil. Above: George Richardson What do you use to water your trees, Watering routine?: as per 3 above. I use municipal water in plastic bottles 1.5-2l and water by hand which enables me to see every tree on a daily basis, with few exceptions. 11

12 Hours spend on you trees per week: 5-7 hours, excluding reading. Favourite style in bonsai: cascades and informal uprights I appreciate all styles, but do not like trees with abnormal/ unnatural movement. Favourite species of tree: Maples (acer), Acacias, Ficus, Junipers and Crassula), but also others, including Dombeya, Cussonia, Bougainvillea, Wisteria, Karee, Oleas choosing one in currently almost impossible. Number of years in Midway: Since 2016, but had an unfortunate break in most of 2017 and 2018 during which I had to sell of most of my trees. Favourite tree in your collection: acacia black monkey-thorn (acacia burkei), with Junipers a close second. Above and to the right: A few of George s trees 12

13 Above: a Money Thorn that is taking shape Above: Swamp Cypress Left: A few more trees Tell us the story of your favourite tree In nature, I am excessively stimulated by most trees, especially the African landscapes with Thorn Trees (still have difficulties in using Acacia and hate the Aussies for their stunt). My family and friends know about this, and is probably bored by my continuous kyk daar and would sometimes give me Acacias with Bonsai potential. My latest acacia burkei/ black monkey-thorn is a young developing tree given to me (by one of my son-in-laws) in a specially created and modified tree stump Your best bonsai advice received: Join a club, cut back heavily, put back into larger growing pots and let the tree speak to you Best advice you can give: have fun, increase knowledge and just experiment based on ever-increasing knowledge 13

14 6. Editor s letter Many people ask me more or less the same questions when they hear I do Bonsai. It can mostly be summed up in the question Why? We had a visitor in the October meeting that more or less kept asking this question. Just in different ways. What does it mean to you? How did you get into doing Bonsai? To me it is a feeling. The way I feel when I look at a tree and I am left with a sense of wonder and astonishment. It changes you, even if only briefly. It touches you deep inside and then I can say that this to me is a Bonsai. The best trees have a story to tell. It lived through drought, pain, loss, fire, pests and time. It witnessed life and has the scars to prove it. You can t cheat time when doing bonsai. Procrastination and haste will both cost you. Patience and timing will always be the key. The rules also keeps popping up. Use them, don t use them. If you are not sure if you should or shouldn t follow a rule/guideline, then I guess you are not free of them yet. You should understand them first before you can break them. Question them, break them and experiment. There is just one rule to me that matters Do no harm. If what you do is probably going to kill the tree, stop. Above: My Brunfelsia I presented as a NOSE tree. I kind of like the nebari on this Yesterday-todayand-tomorrow. I hope you have enjoyed this months issue of the Midway News. If you have any questions or comments/ complaint, please contact me directly, All the photographs have been taken by members of Midway. Pieter Bosch Time is free, but it's priceless. You can't own it, but you can use it. You can't keep it, but you can spend it. Once you've lost it you can never get it back. ~Harvey MacKay 14