July 2012 Newsletter

Transcription

1 July 2012 Newsletter President Zack Clayton Tree Curator Dan Binder Director Emeritus José Cueto 1 st Vice President Ken Schultz 2 nd Vice President Denny Sackett 1 year Director Jack Smith 2 year Director Ben William 3 year Directors Tracy Freeland Brian Ireland Past President Mark Passerello Treasurer Richard Gurevitz Secretary Sandy Schoenfeld Librarian John Young Web Master Ed McCracken Newsletter Editor Richard Uhrick Education Tom Holcomb A Pinch of this....get Set. GO!. It is finally upon us, the annual show is here. I hope that everyone is ready. The tree registrations are in and the cards have gone to the printer. This year we cannot accept any trees that are not preregistered since space is more limited than the last couple of years. See pages 8-9 for more information on when to drop off and pick up your trees for the show. Also, please make sure is in show-ready shape by following the checklist on page 9. That way we can insure that this show will be up to our usual (if not better than) standards. See you Saturday and Sunday! Bonsai=Perseverance Rich Uhrick Inside this issue: Program Info 2 Random Thotz 3 Schefflera arboricola 4 Surviving the Storm 6 Show Prep/ Tree Check in John Hill/ Tim Kuhlman 8 10 Librarian 12 Calendar of Events 13 Join us at Franklin Park Conservatory lower level for our show on the See you there. Columbus Bonsai Society PO Box 1981 Columbus OH ColumbusBonsai@hotmail.com Columbus Bonsai is a proud member of the American Bonsai Society and Bonsai Clubs International.

2 2 COLUMBUS BONSAI SOCIETY JULY 2012 This Month s Program Annual Show FRANKLIN PARK CONSERVATORY LOWER LEVEL SATURDAY 7/21/12 10A 5P SUNDAY 7/22/12 10A 4PM UPCOMING PROGRAMS: The Columbus Bonsai Society receives meeting space and other support and assistance from Franklin Park Conservatory and Oakland Nurseries DISCLAIMER The Columbus Bonsai Society Newsletter, is the intellectual property of the Columbus Bonsai Society. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form, or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without permission in writing from the Editor. AUGUST: ANNUAL PICNIC FEATURING IRON BONSAI SEPTEMBER: TROPICALS WORKSHOP OCTOBER: PINES (WIRING) WITH JEFF CARR NOVEMBER: ELECTIONS/ TROPICALS DECEMBER: HOLIDAY DINNER Rich Uhrick, Editor ruhrick@otterbein.edu

3 COLUMBUS BONSAI SOCIETY JULY AND NOW A WORD FROM OUR PRESIDENT. Random Thotz - now from the President I am in that unhappy place where I have trees that I showed last year which are growing out this year, and trees that will be ready to show next year, but none this year. I had one that I thought would be ready, but it decided not to leaf out this spring. It was a trident knocked over by a varmint (possibly a big clumsy dog) and the soil washed out of the pot. The roots were dry when I found it and it never recovered. I had a couple of others that were potential but they had some dieback that will need to regrow before they can show well. The storms were merciful to my yard, no big branches on anything except the edge of my greenhouse roof. I will need to do some minimal patching to get it ready for winter. I know some of you lost much more. Trees, pots, and at least one greenhouse to an Oak that used to provide some summer shade. My boss lost every tree in his yard. No shade left anywhere. Speaking of shade, we have had some very hot weather this summer, and we will undoubtedly get more thru July and August. I saw a very interesting about sun and pot temperatures that I hope is in the newsletter. Shade cloth is better than nothing, but protecting the pots from direct sun and top mulch appear to do more. I would add that the temperate trees I have in dense shade are all in better health than the ones out in the sun for more than a few hours. My tropicals however are thriving in the sun. Who wudda thot? Hmm, I may have to give them a second look for the show. The junipers seem to like the direct sun also. The trees have the residual fertilizer on them from earlier this year, but I am not adding anything with high nitrogen content now. For organics, bone and cottonseed meal would be all right, but stay away from blood meal except for figs and other heat lovers. If it cools down and things start to grow again I will continue fertilizing with my regular pellets. The maples that I defoliated the week after Father s Day are popping leaves like crazy, the ones that I did two weeks later are being sluggish. From both the time lag and the heat I think. I may prune back but I will probably not do further mass defoliating. I have enough of the yard maples to experiment on them some. Stay tuned for updates. I have a new tree in my front yard where the ash used to be. A nice bald cypress from Oakland Nursery. I mention this not for the tree but for the maples that I had to move to make room for it. I dug them up in the hot spell right before the storms. I put them in pots right away and put them in shade. They are not as stressed as I would have thought. There is only some slight leaf wilt. I guess this shows that you can work on some trees any time of year if you take proper precautions. For these maples that meant lots of water, short exposure time to the air, deep shade and some SUPERthrive type fertilizer. I think what I have is Upstart. It is a with B1 and other growth hormones. Well I will see you at the show. Even if I do not have a tree ready, I will be working on some of my stock out in the demo area and answering public questions. It should be a fun time for all. Zack

4 4 COLUMBUS BONSAI SOCIETY JULY 2012 TREE OF THE MONTH: Dwarf Hinoki Cypress Schefflera arboricola Y ou may also know it as Umbrella Tree. A name used to describe its umbrella like long stemmed palmate leaves. Most of us know this plant as office greenery. Frequently you can find it among the selection of tropical evergreen plants suitable for indoor situations that are less than ideal for most other plants. The type more commonly sold S. actinophylla, has leaves that are up to 8 across. S. arboricola is much smaller. One reference reported that the plant is toxic to pets, the others did not mention this, but if you have a cat that eats plants, be careful. My first attempt to bonsai Schefflera started when I trash picked a pot of plants on trash night that someone had given up trying to grow in some of the nastiest spent potting soil that I have seen. When I got the pot of Schefflera home and took the plant out of the soil I had found it in, I ended up with seven cuttings grouped in the pot at the nursery for quick sale. I separated these cuttings and potted them separately in extra pots that I seemed to have accumulated. I eventually sold all of these plants for at least the cost of the pot. A few of them were developing into decent specimens for bonsai, but they were not the preferred dwarf variety that Jose will be providing for our August workshop. By the way, after re-potting my find, I placed them out doors in a shady area, and eventually placed them under fluorescent lights for the winter, in my basement. I did do some light wiring and light pruning. Watch out for mealy bug or scale especially on new plants or after they have been indoors for a month or so. I swear some bugs materialize out of thin air! But they also do well in those indoor conditions with tasty plants to suck on. Schefflera are not trained in the traditional Japanese triangular shapes, rather they are in umbrella shaped styles, frequently with multiple trunks and if you are able to provide sufficient humidity, aerial roots. Young plants grow rapidly, and should provide you with a number of opportunities to practice your pruning skills. Some wiring is possible but the new trunk growth is soft. However, it is also very flexible. A healthy plant improves the likelihood of growing a successful bonsai plant. When maintaining the umbrella shape of your Schefflera think of the shape, and trim branches that grow outside that shape, below the silhouette. The thickest stem should be the focus of the tree you eventually develop. While it may be possible to force smaller stems to catch up, you will get quicker realistic results this way. This thicker stem should also be the tallest, eventually becoming the center of your umbrella while wiring the thinner branches out into a fan shape. After making a cut the first three or four leaves to develop will be smaller, however you will notice that by the sixth or seventh leaves they will get larger. Cut the stem shorter again when it is at least ¼ to 3/8 thick, within the imaginary outline of your final tree. You may also look to see which direction the dormant bud is likely to grow to help you to decide where to cut. Remember, this may mean that your tree will temporarily be way out of shape; perhaps having shoots as long as 2-3 long and Unlike regular bonsai styles where less is more ; this method will yield a tree with many trunks and branches. Ideally, pruning occurs in late spring when temperatures are over 75. Try to keep your Schefflera moist at all times but not soggy. While you may be tempted to over water, this will also cause longer internodes and bigger leaves. Use a humidity tray in the winter. Ideal growing conditions include light, temperature and fertilizer. Provide at least 14 hours of artificial light in the winter. The best temperatures are between 60 and 85, though it will tolerate temperature up to 90. Fortunately, the middle of this range is a common temperature range of most homes. You can take your Schefflera outdoors when the temperatures are above 60 degrees. Of course, in the fall when the temperatures are below 59 bring them back indoors. Outdoors protecting them from direct sun is probably a good idea; books suggest bright semishade. Unlike Ficus, they should not loose their leaves when you move them indoors, though indoors the leaves will be thinner and larger. More light will give shorter stems on the leaves. Too much light will burn the edges of the leaves. Do not use strong fertilizers; rather use a steady weak amount of fertilizer. DO NOT use fertilizers designed for outdoor plants, they will burn the roots of Schefflera. Not to be a namedropper, as I am no relation, 2-3 drops of Schultz s (Continued on page 5)

5 COLUMBUS BONSAI SOCIETY JULY (Continued from page 4) Liquid Plant Food per gallon each time you water should give you steady healthy growth. In general, more light and fertilizer results in faster growth. Many recommend watering by dunking. Allow newly repotted plants to soak for 30 minutes. While they do not like to dry out, place your hand on the soil to make sure it does not feel wet. If it does wait. Like too much water, too much fertilizer causes bigger leaves. When you remove your bigger leaves, leave the leaf stock on. I am not sure why, but they will fall off by themselves in four weeks. One of the styles for Schefflera is root over rock. Lava is frequently used. Tying the roots securely to the rock so that the tree does not rock (wobble), planting at an angle also will be more interesting than straight up. When repotting use a soil mix that includes one part peat moss or other organics plus the usual. Repot every two years. Interestingly I found conflicting advice, one author says keep the ph acidic (5.6-7) while another says to keep them slightly alkaline, - ph 7.2 to 7.9) Be patient, it may take 6-10 years to develop an outstanding specimen, but that is much quicker than a pine or other outdoor tree. Also, your cuttings can easily be rooted to create new bonsai challenges or gifts to your plant loving friends even if they will not be training them as bonsai. Though a source also claimed that they are difficult to propagate, I did not have this experience, 3 out of 4 cuttings took, but it did require patience, and I put them in wet sand, not water. Ken Schultz

6 6 COLUMBUS BONSAI SOCIETY JULY 2012 Surviving The Storm A Personal Bonsai Tale By Ken Schultz W hen the straight line winds hit on Friday, June 29, about 20%-25% of my trees blew off the stands I use for my bonsai. Thank goodness, none of the stands blew over. Two trees received heavy damage, but none of the pots were broken. Shortly after the wind and rain stopped, I ventured out to see what had happened. Trees that I repotted this year, even if they did not blow over, lost soil. Older trees with established moss fared much better. I think many trees that blew over have large canopies compared to pot weight/size. Plastic pots blew over more easily. Maybe that is why none of mine were broken? My first triage was to upright them all but leave them on the ground. Then I refilled the soil on the trees with exposed roots, as I had 3 kitty litter pails full already mixed. I then worked on wiring the 3 trees that had managed to free themselves from the wires I had used to hold them in their pots when I rewired. This showed me the value of wring them in tightly to begin with. I had two trees with broken trunks and several with damaged branches. On Saturday I set the plants back on their benches, if they had wire, I checked the position of the branches to restore them to their shape. I topped off soil in many pots as it seemed that the force of the wind and rain had "blown" out some of the mix. The trees with established moss again did better in this department. I ended up cutting off some broken branches as it seemed like the simpler solution. A few branches that did not look damaged have since browned, but nothing major. (These branches have wire so maybe they were broken but held in place. The two trees with broken trunks presented the greater problem. One was a Crabapple. Its trunk was broken high up and splintered. I used cut paste, and "vet wrap" over the broken area and then wired it into position. After a week, it still has green leaves above the break. The other tree had more severe damage. It is the Eastern White Cedar shown at Dawes this year. The taller trunk was broken in 4 places about every 2"-3", down to about 5" above the soil, only one set of branches is below this point. The smaller trunk was broken in two places. I better clarify - the splintering was to the point that the trunk had no strength. I smeared on the cut paste and then double Vet wrapped the trunk - up and down almost its entire length. I figure if there is any way that the tree will heal over the broken areas, moisture loss needs minimized and the trunks needed wiring to be immobile for the next two years. I have my fingers crossed, but the weather has been SO HOT! On 7/6/2012, I noticed that on the very top branches/crown of the taller trunk, the foliage has started to dry... In a "pro-active" effort, I took the one bench that I had that went north/south and made it east/ west, as more trees had blown off it than the others had. However, I do not like the resulting light pattern; the trees seem more shaded now. I have some high quality string - more like good old fishing line, that I plan to use to tie the "jumpers" to the benches. When we were in Japan in 2008, we saw many bonsai trees tied to their stands. This year I had relocated the majority of my benches as the two trees that shade the back yard were shading the benches almost all day. In the early spring before getting the bonsai out of storage, I had studied the sun light patterns throughout the day to better locate my benches. However, it puts them further from the house where the winds are more able topple a dry bonsai. So if you know high winds are coming, it MAY help to go out and water to make the pots heavier. I did much better a few days later when we had another storm with high winds. I noted that the trees that needed watering and were lighter were more likely to be the ones that blew over that day. One of trees after repair. Note the browning above the repair line.

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8 8 COLUMBUS BONSAI SOCIETY JULY 2012 IF YOU HAVE REGISTERED TREES FOR THE SHOW. HERE IS A SCHEDULE OF TIMES YOU SHOULD BE AWARE OF: (All loading and unloading of trees should be done at the 1st ring after the main parking area. These will come in through main or auxiliary front entrance See Map below.) FRIDAY 7/20/12 Tree Check In 4pm-6pm SATURDAY 7/21/12 Tree Check In 7am-9am NO TREES ACCEPTED AFTER 9AM SUNDAY 7/22/12 Tree Check Out 4:15pm-5pm PLEASE BE THERE TO GET YOUR TREES OR LET ME KNOW WHO WILL PICK THEM UP FOR YOU PLEASE ALSO BE AWARE THAT THIS YEAR WE ARE ONLY ACCEPTING PRE- REGISTERED TREES AS SPACE IS MORE LIMITED. IT IS ALSO POSSIBLE THAT IF YOU REGISTERED MORE THAN ONE TREE A DECISION MAY NEED TO BE MADE ON WHICH ONES THERE IS ROOM FOR. PLEASE DO NOT TAKE IT PERSONALLY IF NOT ALL OF YOUR TREES END UP ON THE SHOW TABLES. RICH UHRICK ruhrick@otterbein.edu Go Here to drop off and pickup trees.

9 COLUMBUS BONSAI SOCIETY JULY Here is a Checklist of what you need to do to get your trees ready 1. CLEAN the pot 2. Weed 3. Make sure trees are bug free 4. Refine/groom the tree (look at its silhouette) 5. If it s not obvious mark your front with a toothpick 6. Select an appropriate stand- if you have one (we do have some loaners) 7. Select an appropriate accent plant, suiseki, or related artistic item 8. Mark your name on the bottom of your items

10 10 COLUMBUS BONSAI SOCIETY JULY 2012 ASIA WITH TIM AND JUNIPERS WITH JOHN

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12 12 COLUMBUS BONSAI SOCIETY JULY 2012 From the Circulation Desk of the C.B.S. Library In an effort to make the C.B.S. library more available to all of our members (since the library cabinet is being stored at Oakland Nursery and since we aren't meeting there every month), I will do my best to fill any requests that you may have to borrow any of the items that we currently have in our collection. I have a complete list of all of the books, magazines and videos that we have in our library; so, no later than the Friday before our monthly meeting, either send me an at jyoungjfy@sbcglobal.net or give me a call at and let me know what items you would like to borrow from our library. I will let you know if we have that particular item in our library or, if it has already been checked out by another one of our members, when it should be available for you to borrow. However, if you are interested in a particular article or topic in one of our bonsai magazines, I will need to know the specific issue you would like to borrow, since I don't have a master index for all of the magazines that we have. And to be as fair as possible to all of our members, you may check out only two books, magazines, CD's or videos at one time for a two month period. Please let me know if you have any questions or suggestions about these new procedures. After all, it is your library, too! John Young, Librarian (614) jyoungjfy@sbcglobal.net Renewal Memberships may be paid for more than one year at a time.

13 COLUMBUS BONSAI SOCIETY JULY Bonsai Here and Beyond the Outer belt Unless otherwise noted, The Columbus Bonsai Society meets the third Sunday of every month at 1:45 pm. Board Meetings are the first Tuesday of the month at 6:30 pm. The board meetings are open to members JUL 2012 CBS 2012 ANNUAL SHOW -FPC 17-8 AUG 2012 MID-AMERICA CHICAGO 19 AUG 2012 PICNIC/ MEMBER SALES/ IRON BONSAI OAKLAND 16 SEP 2012 TROPICALS WITH JOSE OCT 2012 BONSAI EXPO ASHEVILLE, NC 21 OCT 2012 PINES (WIRING) WITH JEFF CARR FPC 18 NOV 2012 ELECTIONS/ TROPICALS OAKLAND DEC 2012 CBS HOLIDAY DINNER FPC= FRANKLIN PARK CONSERVATORY OAKLAND= OAKLAND NURSERY, COLUMBUS LOCATION

14 Columbus Bonsai Society PO Box 1981 Columbus, OH Questions to: Regular Club meetings on 3 rd Sunday of the month Meetings Start at 1:45 pm All are welcome to attend CBS Board meets 1 st Tuesday of the month at 6:30 pm CBS 2012 FPC