REBS website

2020 REBS (Virtual) Show

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic restrictions on in person gatherings, the REBS annual August 2020 Show was cancelled. The following back yard images are member bonsai. These bonsai are representative of the trees that would have been shown in the annual show.

Tiger Bark Ficus
*Ficus microcarpa*
In training: 15 years

Olive
*Olea europaea*
In training: 5 years

Korean Hornbeam
*Carpinus coreana*
In training: 25 years

Ginkgo
*Ginkgo biloba*
10 years in training

Hornbeam
*Carnipus*
10 years in training

California pepper
*Schinus molle*
60 years in training

Corkbark Elm
*Ulmus parvifolia* ‘Cork Bark’
20 years in training

Garden Juniper
*Juniperus procumbens nana*
20 years in training

Japanese Maple
*Acer palmatum*
20 years in training

Coastal Redwood Grove
*Sequoia sempervirens*
20 Years in training

Trident maple
*Acer buergerianum*
12 years in training

Trident Maple
*Acer buergeranum*
22 years in training

Dwarf Pomegranate
*Punica granatum nana*
5 years in training

Coastal Redwood
*Sequoia sempervirens*
25 years in training

Contorted Hawthorn
*Crataegus monogyna* ‘Snakethorn’
4 years in training

Chinese Elm
*Ulmus chinensis parvifolia*
9 years in training

San Jose Juniper
*Juniperus chinensis* ‘San Jose’
25 years in training

Pygmy Cypress
*Cupressus pygmaea*
10 years in training

Cork Bark Oak
*Quercus suber*
In training for 36 years

San Jose Juniper
*Juniperus chinensis* ‘San Jose’
In training 27 years

Utah Juniper
*Juniperus osteosperma*
In training 36 years

Japanese Maple
*Acer palmatum*
In training 47 years

Sierra Juniper
*Juniperus occidentalis*
In training 31 years

Japanese Black Pine
*Pinus thunbergiana*
40 years

Japanese Maple Kiyo Hime
Acer palmatum ‘Kiyo Hime’
40 years

Olive
*Olea europaea*
8 years in training

California Coast Live Oak
*Quercus agrifolia*

Burning Bush
*Euonymus*
10 years in training

Japanese Maple Laceleaf
*Acer palmatum var. dissectum*
12 years in training

A special thank you to the REBS members who contributed their bonsai images above.

Craig Thompson
Michael Murtaugh
Bob Shimon
Gene Lynch
Garth Gordon Hoka
Nancy Schramm
Ivan Luckrich
Alan Murakami
George Haas

Next year’s annual show hopefully will be the fourth weekend, 28 & 29 August 2021 at the Veteran’s Memorial Building, Santa Rosa, California.

REBS Virtual Show

Since our annual August show was cancelled due to Covid-19 outbreak and current stay at home restrictions, REBS members are encouraged to share their work on preparing to show trees during the medical crisis.

Here are some examples of bonsai that may have been shown if the August show took place:

Once a number of show trees are submitted, there will be a slideshow posted to the REBS web site.

REBS members should submit their show tree images as jpeg, high resolution 300 ppi, to the Web Site Manager at gwhaas@comcast.net. Identify the species and list the number of years in training.

Preparation for De-candling of Your Japanese Black Pine By Michael Murtaugh

These are some notes for you to think about before you get to the de-candling of your Japanese Black Pines. I have found if I de-candle between June 1 and June 10, I get good sized needles that match my size trees. These are Chyhin size trees, say 8” to 18” tall.

These first photos show typical candles on my pines. The left one is actually a stunted candle which came out normal in the spring, but because of a lack of water actually shut down and stopped growing. I am trying to revive it. The right hand one is more normal growth for a vigorous candle.

De-candling is a refinement technique on multiple flush pines only. JBP and Japanese Red Pines are the only pines we can do this on because they are so vigorous. Shore pines, Limber pines, Ponderosa and most other pines are single flush pines and are not vigorous enough to withstand this kind of treatment and respond in the same way.

Taking off the candles, in a sense, re-sets the tree back to the beginning of the growing season. If you cut candles earlier than June 1 the new set of candles have longer to grow through the summer and will be bigger and longer. If you wait and cut the candles off in July or later the new candles will have less time to grow in the summer and will be shorter when they mature.

De-candling is only used when you are trying to grow shorter needles and produce tighter and denser foliage. If you want bigger trunks or longer branches – don’t cut the candles!

These are candles on a pine in development. I will not be cutting these.

This exposed root pine was weak last year and was transplanted this spring. There are no new growth that has come out this year, but the yellow color is now a barker green. I will not do anything except water and fertilize this the rest of the growing season.

This exposed root pine has grown well and normal this spring. It has been fertilized well up until a few weeks ago when I stopped all fertilizer. No more fertilizer until mid-Fall. I will cut the candles on this the first week of June. The needles have opened up and begun to harden off. There is no further growth or extension of the candle going to happen. If left alone the needles will continue to lengthen but the candle will not lengthen much if at all.

I will cut all candles on the same day and each will be cut to about 2 mm into this year’s growth.

This is the typical technique of cutting candles. Within a few weeks there will be small rice-like buds happening at each cut site. If there is enough vigor there may even be needle buds activated further back on each stem or smaller buds further back in will begin to grow.

This is one of two times during the year you can add some wire as needed and reposition your shoots. Just be careful not to damage any interior buds.

This tree has long candles at the top of the tree and very little growth on the lower branches. In this case it is alright to de-candle the top and not cut the lower branches. This will begin to balance the growth throughout the tree and it will be more uniform top to bottom next year. Cutting the top this year will encourage growth on the bottom for the tree this year.

Cutting back vigorous growth on Black Pines at this time of year is a way to use that vigorous growth to start a second round of growth that will be smaller and denser. When that density and compactness grows out for the rest of the year without any further pinching or cut back it will be necessary to thin out that growth when the end of the growing season has passed. The next major work will be about October or November.

Pines look best when shown in mid-winter when all growth is fresh and healthy from the late season growth.

I hope this gets you to thinking about working on your pines in the next few weeks. If you have any questions I am available to talk. If you want to post photos of your trees I am sure we would all like to see what you are doing.

Stay safe and stay sane. Michael

Covid-19 Update

Due to the current stay at home restrictions, there are no scheduled meeting/demonstration and workshops for May 2020.

Now that May is here, it’s time to get back to work on our deciduous and broad leaf evergreen Bonsai. Most of our deciduous and broad leaf evergreens’ foliage has now hardened off which is one of the signs we look for before we wire, style and cut our Bonsai.

Do you remember the other three things we look for?

General overall growth of our bonsai (Bonsai getting bushy)
Runners of the terminal ends of branches
Foliage has hardened off

If you plan to wire/style and cut your Bonsai, be sure that they are showing the above three signs.

Getting Busy with Deciduous

From now till November is the busy season for deciduous and broad leaf evergreens. These trees are not necessarily labor intensive but time sensitive. Deciduous or broad leaf evergreen Bonsai can grow fast, you may be working on them several times during the growing season. Fast growing Bonsai also thicken fast, so if wire is applied to the branch, keep an eye out or the branch will grow over the wire. Generally, I never keep wire on a deciduous tree for more than a year and have removed wire as soon as within three weeks of application.

When is the right time you ask? If a branch needs thickening, then let it grow, if the branch is thick enough, then cut them back to create division.

Generally, deciduous and broad leave evergreens can be cut/thin/styled this month. An exception can be cork bark oak. They start to leaf out later in the spring and tend to be worked on more at the end of May or even June.

Fast vs. Slow Growing Bonsai

It’s important to understand that working with Bonsai that grows fast, requires a lot more of our time, whereas Bonsai that grows slow requires less of our time. The benefits of a fast growing tree is that you can develop the tree quickly into Bonsai whereas slower growing trees take much longer to develop into Bonsai. For example, a Chinese elm can be refined much faster than a beech. Knowing how much time you have to spend on your Bonsai may cause you to select specific species to work with.

Defoliation and Some Misconceptions:

First off, not every deciduous tree needs to be defoliated. There are also species out there that will not take kindly to defoliation at all (e.g. hornbeam, beech, certain varieties of Japanese maple), especially if the defoliation is complete. Defoliation isn’t only done on deciduous trees either. There are other broad leaf evergreens that can take defoliation (oaks, silverberry and ficus are a few examples).

So, what is Defoliation and what does it do for us?

Weakens the defoliated area
New Leaves will be smaller
Easier to wire branches
Maintain (NOT Create) Ramification (We’ll discuss this more at the workshop)

Those are the four main reasons why we choose to defoliate. If your current goals don’t match up with any of the four reasons, then don’t defoliate.

Example: We want a branch to grow out and get stronger. We don’t defoliate that branch because it will slow the growth down.

Misconceptions: Cutting back vs. Defoliation

The biggest misconception to defoliation is that it will give you back budding. Back budding is not caused by defoliation, but by the cutting back of branches. We can cut the tree back without defoliating and back budding will occur. Keep defoliation and cutting back into two separate categories to help ease the understanding of defoliation.

Wiring

If you plan on wiring your trees this month, be sure to bring the proper wire size ranges. Aluminum wire should be used for deciduous and broadleaf evergreens, whereas copper should be used for conifers. Ideally you should have a set of aluminum wire in the following sizes: 1mm, 1.5mm, 2.0mm, 2.5mm, 3mm, 3.5mm.

Watering

As always, be aware of how wet or dry your trees are and water accordingly. Recognize which trees like water (deciduous) and which trees don’t like water (high mountain pines). Training your eyes and understanding your tree’s water consumption rate will help you catch any problems that arises. You may notice that a tree that normally takes a lot of water isn’t taking as much anymore. Is there a problem developing or is it because the tree was recently cut back? If you see these things early, you can make adjustments that will help your tree continuing to growth healthy.

…more to be added in the future

The above information and more can be found on the web site established by Peter Tea at https://www.ptbonsai.com/. Peter is a professional bonsai artist and teacher.

Stay healthy and safe.