Bonsai fun - Bunjin

[Leo Schordje]

Just to make you "jealous"

Marty Schmalenberg was the guest artist at the Milwaukee Bonsai Society meeting, 8/5/08. The meeting room was not air conditioned so all were looking wilted. The topic was Literati bonsai (Bunjin). Marty did a 2 hour discussion of the history of Literati, Then he styled 3 trees, we did not get out of the meeting until after 10 pm. He is quite the artist, this picture is a 15 minute styling of a 3 foot tall globe shaped shrub of a hemlock, into this elegant bunjin. His new book, "North American Bonsai" is fantastic. His presentation style is fun, sort of Don Rickles meets Masahiko Kimura. If you get the chance it is worth going out of your way to see Marty Schmalenberg.

 

[JeanLux]

interesting to see that he took away the main stem and built a new top with a branch; I wonder how it will look like in a few years!!! Jean

 

[Leo Schordje]

I wager pretty good. The tree was raffled off as a fund raiser for the club. One of the local members won it so there is a good chance I'll get to see, if it lives. The problem with Demo's is that they don't always happen at the ideal timing for the health of the tree. Late winter or early spring might have been better for styling a hemlock.

Chopping a trunk off and bending a side branch up to make a new apex is a often used technique to create the illusion of taper in the trunk line. Nice taper to the trunk will lend to the illusion of age.

Leo

 

[JeanLux]

Leo, I was a bit involved in bonsai years ago, my wife was member of a bonsai club! We still have a couple of them left and numbers of 'small' trees that I 'yamadorid' in the woods nearby (with permission of the local forest authorities!), or that we grew from nursery babies. But a certain amount of purchased bonsais did not survive! this is one of the reasons why I came to orchids!!! Jean

 

[Leo Schordje]

Yes, relative to orchids, bonsai leave no margin for error on watering frequency. If you are a day late on the water, you have a dead bonsai. That is the reason my own collection is quite small, only 5 trees that are in a near finished state.

 

[cnycharles]

Yes, relative to orchids, bonsai leave no margin for error on watering frequency. If you are a day late on the water, you have a dead bonsai. That is the reason my own collection is quite small, only 5 trees that are in a near finished state.

i admired bonsai when I was in high school and still do, but I recognize the limitations in my attention span and don't try to grow any (I admire from a distance)

 

[Leo Schordje]

Looking at the Milwaukee Bonsai Society membership - it is a different crowd of people. There is a different 'feel' to the group from the orchid society. Many more of the members are artistic either in their employment or in their approach to life, architects, design engineers, etc or just free spirited artistic personalities. A number of primary & secondary school teachers. Yet, they all have it together enough to be meticulous in keeping to watering and care of their trees and meticulous in detailing the trees. I'm not sure I fit in, particularly with the detailing part.

I found that by potting trees in pots large enough that the tree stays on the same watering schedule for the orchids is what works best for me. This unfortunately means that most of my trees are in pots too large for the artistic design that is planned for them. But with careful pot choice, I can mostly hide the fact that my trees are over-potted. The trees in early and middle stages of develpoment - "Potensai" take very little work. It is the final detailing and grooming that really takes time. I have had to defoliate my Ficus grove twice this year, and wire every branch out. This is a 6 hour project each time I do it. But it should be show ready in less than 2 years.