One post -3 topics.

An upcoming meeting of the Columbus Bonsai society will highlight a technique, that for me is the essence of bonsai-a bonsai grower is often fooling the viewer.   The technique is the Phoenix Graft. It involves grafting young, flexible plant material onto a piece of specially prepared wood to create the image of an old, battle scarred tree that has lots of drift wood features.  

The wood part of the process can be a bonsai that has died, SOME collected driftwood, or a carved piece of wood.  The idea of making a dead piece of wood  “come to life” again, just like the mythical bird of legend that arose to new life from it’s own ashes, explains the name: Phoenix graft.

Yes, those are exactly what you think they are
there between his feet.

The process is referred to by another name-Tanuki. That word is the Japanese name for an animal that looks like a cross between a dog and a raccoon, and which bears the imaginative  common name Raccoon dog.  Although colored like a ‘coon, right down to the thief’s mask across the eyes, it is a member of the biological family Canidae, meaning its related to dogs, foxes and wolves, but isn’t quite any of those familiar animals. In Japanese folklore, the Tanuki is a trickster, able to shape shift and imbued with other supernatural powers.  It is very similar to the role the Coyote has in Native American folklore. One interesting fact, is that artistic representations of Tanuki are often obviously, prodigiously

 male.

The ability to ‘trick’ and to change shape is an obvious reflection of what happens in the Tanuki/Phoenix graft bonsai technique. And really, it is what bonsai is about-making you think you see something that isn’t truly there. That plant in a pot isn’t a full sized tree, may not even be a biological ‘tree’, but immediately gives the impression of a tree.

In  doing some reading I was reminded that one of the plants popular for indoor bonsai Fukien Tea(Carmona retusa), has several other common names.  This plant has more aliases than a con-artist!  When I started in bonsai nearly three decades ago it was called Ehretia microphylla, and along the way switched to Carmona microphylla, before more recently being dubbed C. retusa. It has a raft of common names as well: besides Fukien Tea, it is known as Fujian Tea ( both from the different ways the province in China can be transliterated)Philippine Tea and Bath Tree.  On other that I came across is Scorpion Bush, and too my mind this is a much better, much cooler name for a plant. Fukien/Fujan are odd to the ear and make it sound like you tried to cuss, but didn’t.  Scorpion is easy to understand, instantly conjures up an image. It seems right for a plant that has glossy leaves with prickles on the edges.  Let’s do our part to put the name Scorpion bush into common usage for this bonsai plant.

And if that name retusa sounds familiar, it is with good reason. Aside from the familiar Ficus retusa, many plants bear the species name retusa-it’s a descriptor for leaf shape, specifically:having a rounded apex with small central notch. As if the name wasn’t spread around enough in the plant kingdom, Retusa is also the genus name for some very small sea snails.

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Some of the recommended horticultural practices found in old bonsai books (or books that were current when I started the hobby) often fall out of favor over time.  One of the bedrock pieces of advice was to have layers, or levels of different sized soil particles in the pot. At the bottom, a layer of large sized items ‘for drainage’, the some moderate sized soil in the root zone, finished off with a thin layer of small particles  on top, for looks.  This advice was in all the books, and I recall hearing it at the very first bonsai workshop I attended.  Aside from the difficulty in trying to work three layers of different soil into a pot 1.5 inches deep, modern thinking says that the idea of a drainage layer at the bottom of a pot, bonsai or otherwise, not only doesn’t improve drainage, it may help retain water that never drains. The physics of water within a containers are complicated. IF you’re interested, this webpage gives a very detailed overview: http://oregonstate.edu/dept/nursery-weeds/feature_articles/physical_properties/physical_properties.html

Another quaintly antiquated topic is the discussion of fertilizer in the earliest bonsai books.   This was from way back in the day when chemical fertilizers were not as widely available, so various ‘organic’ options were presented, even though that term wouldn’t have had its modern meanings.  In recommending  things like rape seed cake, bonsai authors, most of whom were either Japanese or directly instructed by Japanese growers, seemed to attach a great importance to the old, traditional way of doing things. It really seems like the ‘mystery’ element of bonsai care (that Westerners may not understand it or be able to do it) was still strong, so methods to fertilize plants the way the old masters did hung on strong as well.

John Naka gives a recipe for fertilizer cakes in his seminal book Bonsai Techniques I , that conforms to the this old timey formulae, right down to the odd ball advice about the correct texture for the mixture ( it should feel like an ear lobe!). Effective as they may be, it can be a hassle to assemble all the needed ingredients, and once mixed up, it can be all too clear why these things are called poo-poo balls: they look, and smell just like it!

Members of the Mohawk Hudson Bonsai Club
make up a batch of fertilizer cakes-the infamous Poo-Poo
Balls. Hope the window is open!

Standing in the fertilizer section of a good nursery makes me wonder: do we need to make our own poo-poo balls anymore?  There are tremendous selections of pelleted, granulated or otherwise shaped and formed fertilizer options. Both chemical and organic options are out there, and they promise to release plant ‘nutrients’ over time.  


My preferred brand of fish emulsion liquid as put out a pellet that contains fish elements as well as blood, bone, feather and alfalfa meals.  It looks like it was processed through the same machinery that makes rabbit food pellets, has that pleasant ‘plant-y’ odor that separates real gardeners from wanna-bes, and didn’t require any laborious mixing, drying and cutting. I am testing it over this summer-results to follow.