Newsletter of the Northern Virginia Bonsai Society Dec/Jan 2015

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1 Newsletter of the Northern Virginia Bonsai Society Dec/Jan 2015 The January meeting will feature a panel discussion about repotting and bonsai soils. This is a good time of year to start thinking about and preparing for spring repotting. Some people repot in the winter and some repot in the spring. I ve been told that the best time to repot Tropical bonsai trees is in the summer when they are most healthy. Other trees should be repotted before they come out of dormancy. The panel will be a great opportunity to ask a varied group for their opinions. It s the end of the year and we need some new officers for the club. We plan to have an election for officers at the Jan 10 meeting. Please contact any of the current officers if you are interested. We need new help to keep the club going. Newsletter editor is also an open position that needs a replacement. If you have not heard already, PBA (the umbrella group of bonsai clubs that NVBS is a part of) will be hosting the national conference just outside of Baltimore. Given the close proximity, we all hope that everyone in NVBS attends and even helps out. Many poeple are already volunterring time and will be asking everyone for help. To begin, please register for the conference and the workshops. A world-class faculty has been assembled and great material is being provided for the conference. Check It s been suggested that winter is a good time to read a good bonsai book. Someone is taking the advice. out the registeration via the ABS website at Register soon because workshops are filling up. Note that there is only full registration and no oneday registration for the conference. This means that you need full-registration to participate in any of the events including visiting the vendor area. Also know that the May PBA Bonsai Festival will not be held or will be greatly scaled back due to the

2 June ABS event. Twenty-nine vendors are lined up for ABS -- both regular PBA Festival vendors and some national vendors from around the country -- so attending ABS is a must. Having this national event in our backyard is a can t miss event. If you have not already, please send your dues to Stephen Ash -- address on the last page. The dues help us sustain great programs during the year. Part of your dues also goes to PBA which helps with the PBA sfestival and the speakers that PBA brings to our area. Books and magazines from the former Northern Virginia Bonsai Society lending library will be offered for sale to members at future meetings. Items will be priced based on condition and scarcity. Many magazines will be offered in groups by year where all of the issues from that particular year are available. Sales will be cash or check only; no credit cards. Twenty-five percent (25%) of the proceeds will be donated to the National Bonsai Foundation to aid in their efforts to refurbish and maintain the National Bonsai and Penjing Museum at the National Arboretum. The sale will take place after the lecture/demonstration portion of the meeting. Lloyd sent us the picture. Here s his explanation from his . Chloe is our 8 year old Jack Russell Terrier. She loves to guard my bonsai garden and over 20 trees in my back yard. She scares away birds, lizards and any bugs she sees or finds while snooping around my garden. Here she is catching up on her Bonsai techniques. On pages 4 and 5, we have our usual Magician article that comes from Joe Gutierrez. This month is a special article because it is not just a one day or one week transformation -- it s a great piece about an azalea that was in the ground and worked on over several years. It shows how bonsai does not need to cost a lot of money and with some imagination and persistence, we can all produce amazing bonsai. Li Scianna is scaling back her collection and has some mature trees for sale. Call her to set-up an appointment at or her at p.scianna@cox.net. Gary Reese, who puts notices of our meetings in newspapers and Washington Gardener has asked that he receive by individual pictures of bonsai so that he may include the same in the meeting announcments. His address is: greese67@msn.com 2

3 Mr. Kwok is better known as the grand organizer of the Holiday Party in December, but we also know him to be a great lover of bonsai and trees. Here is a picture from a interesting website that celebrates grand trees., The tree on the right was collected by our very own Joe Gutierrez, aka, the Magician, in Colorado about 30 years ago. Joe of course worked on the tree and developed it into the beauty it is today. This is the same tree that won second place in the Juried Competition at the PBA Festival. Larry Jackal asked Joe to donate one of his trees to the Bonsai Collection at the Denver Botanical Collection and Joe picked this one. It made a seldom return trip to Colorado and now has a prominent place in the collection at the Colorado arboretum. 3

4 The tall azalea was one of several I dug up from Jack FitzSimons backyard when he was relandscaping back in As you can see the azaleas were very tall -- almost 7 ft in height or more. Rather than simply pruning off the tops, I decided to air-layer them off... this is one of them. The series will show what has happened as I developed a bonsai from the air-layer... The collected azaleas were planted in large nursery pots and allowed to adjust to pot culture... Here is how it all began. After this azalea had been in a pot a year. An air layer was started in April 2011 and then cut off in September that year (over the Labor day weekend). 4

5 The tree bloomed in the Springtime of ! Because it had been kept in a greenhouse after being potted in January It bloomed early and it was one of only about 3 trees that had blossoms during our 2013 Northern Virginia Bonsai Society Spring Show at Merrifield last year. Future plans: more foliage to develop, particularly towards the back of the tree... further refinement of the crown...it will need to be repotted after next Spring s blooming, at which time the stump (the bottom of the air-layer) at the bottom of the trunk will need to be trimmed off... and that will allow for a new, shallower pot. A nice round or oval pot would be appropriate but I think a round pot might be better. 5

6 Directions from Route 66 traveling East - Take Exit 71 - the Glebe Road Exit - When you get off Rt 66, the exit puts you on North Fairfax Drive. - Turn right on Glebe Road at the traffic light - traveling south. - Turn left on Walter Reed Drive after 2.4 miles. - Turn right on 16 th Street after 0.1 miles. Directions from Take Exit 15, Glebe Road going North. - Turn right on Walter Reed after 0.7 miles - Turn right on 16 th Street after 0.1 miles Address: th Street S. Arlington, VA

7 President Judith Schwartz "Schwartz, Judi" Vice President Gary Reese Meeting Date 1st Program (9am) 2nd Program Jan 10 Fertilizing and Making Soils Feb 14 Repotting Secretary Carl Tull March 14 April 11 Working Pine Bonsai John Kirby Spring Show at Merrifield Treasurer Stephen Ash th Road South Arlington VA May 9 June 13 Juniper Bonsai Pruning, Shearing, and Defoliating Deciduous Trees July 11 Pests and Diseases and Plant Streeses -- Hugh Meehan August 8 Sept 12 Shohin / Styling Jack Sustic Picnic October 10 Larry Jackel Nov 13 Dec 4 or 11?? Holiday Party 7