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.

No, It IS Repotting time!

 To judge by the calendar, it is too early to do any repotting.

But Since plants can't read, the often have other ideas!

Temperatures in my area have been consistently over freezing

for a while, and often much higher than seasonal norms.  The plants 'feel' this, and they start to react

This is a nice little  Japanese quince that I got from Evergreen Garden Works more than 10 years ago. It has developed into into a nice little tree. It blooms reliably every year, and has been a prolific source of cuttings.








Quince put out flower buds very early, and well before leaf buds.  This particular plant has just started to bud out. With that modest amount of activity "up top" I was surprised to see the massive amount of new, white roots this had put out!














The roots were so strong they pulled the drainage screen right out of the bottom of the pot.












 Quince strike fairly easily from cuttings. Cutting ease can be taken as an indicator how much root can be taken off safely when repotting.  This was cut back and set up with fresh soil.



These are vigorous enough to need repotted every year.

This is the bench the quince st on last year-it is slowly disappearing!!

Almost repotting time!

      It's technically too early for repotting. But sitting doing nothing is no fun, and with the weather giving hints of Springtime to come I started to wonder what needed doing-or what plants could use some attention.
      I got together some supplies and a few possible pots to choose from. The large black vessel that all the stuff got carried around in is a plastic oil drain pan from the dollar store. I bought several thinking they could make good training containers. I will test and see if the plastic can take freezing and ultraviolet, but in the mean time they make great totes!
     I have several Rosemary that are spending the winter in a south window in the spare bedroom. They used to have a window in an unheated garage-ideal winter quarters for Rosemary, but when I moved to my current house the garage having no windows called for a change of plans. The Rosemary have done well in a spare bedroom that was very bright and with the door closed and vents closed too, stayed under 60 degrees.
     That situation changed not long ago when my daughter got to teen aged years, and took over the bathroom attached to the bathroom-young women need space to spread out their implements and products. She complained about the chill, and forgets to close the door, so the plants have a warmer environment. They seem to get along alright.
     This particular plant was started as a cutting and has an really unusual crook in the trunk, along with some wide arm hug sort branches. It has been in a clay pot for training and I have been waiting for the right time to put it in a nicer pot and concentrate on developing foliage pads.
     With the plant pulled from the training pot you can see that using two different soil mixes in the same pot is not always a good idea. They separate and that resulted in an air bubble between top and bottom layers. There are a good deal of dead roots, since this plant, like all the rosemary I have sits in a place that gets full sun all summer. The plants like it, but the also dont like wet feet, so the mix they grow in is heavy on Turface and sand. Meaning that it can dry out quickly. The plants take it all in stride, but part of this repotting will be cleaning up the root mass rather thoroughly.
    Once the plant was yanked ( gently) from the training pot, a few "real" bonsai pots were considered.

     A plain unglazed container seems to be best, to compliment t the tone and texture of the trunk. The Trunk shape is very eccentric and feels rustic.


     But I had one pot that was the right size and shape, but glazed in two tones of white.  Round pots with the 'nail head' trim like this are called drum pots, because of their resemblance to additional Japanese Kodo drums. I like the style and this one was produced by my friend Tom Holcomb and could be called a limited edition I guess-Tom is out of the potting game, so many of us who know his work are a bit sad there will be no more "Tom pots".



Any way, sometimes, in art as in life, some times the wrong choice is so wrong it's right.

     With the root ball reduced, there will be lots of space for good fresh soil.






 Im using a mix of bark, Turface, Floor Dry ( a product from the NAPA auto parts store-just as good as Turace but 1/3 the price) as well as some large sand and some crushed limestone. Rosemary prefer soil on the base side, and the limestone helps with that.






    Time to prepare the pot, and here's were that roll of what looks like tape comes into play. It actually fibreglass mesh used to cover the joins in drywall before they are 'mudded' to make a smooth wall surface. It cuts with scissors and is self adhesive.

    Time fore the seat belt-the safety strap that will keep the tree in the pot. I often use plain cotton cord, such a butcher's twine for this, although wire is fine too. A good mound of soil is placed in the pot for the plant to sit on top of. It's a good rule to avoid mound that are too big, since that mound can dry out quickly. So although I'm avoiding a big hill above the rim of the pot, the root pace will "sit proud" as the carpenters say-base of the trunk just above pot rim. This will create a nice gentle slop of soil down into the pot. I may be able to get some dry climate moss to take hold, and this bad boy will look really sweet in a few months

   The finished process-so far. On the left, as potted, on the right after some trimming-eliminating some verticals and cutting back to encourage denser pads. This will be quite presentable by mid summer.