Demonstration by Jonas Dupuich – Arranging Bonsai Displays

Typical Japanese formal bonsai display for medium sized trees

On June 23, 2022, the Redwood Empire Bonsai Society (REBS) hosted guest bonsai artist/instructor Jonas Dupuich to perform a demonstration on how to effectively display bonsai elements. Jonas is the creator and author of Bonsai Tonight [https://bonsaitonight.com/], a world-famous blog on bonsai techniques. He is also the author of A Little Book of Bonsai, 2021, a great comprehensive guide to bonsai basics. Jonas was a member of the Bay Island Bonsai club for 20 years, where he gained experience in bonsai display. He has traveled to Japan and participated in and photographed many of the formal displays used in the Japanese bonsai exhibits and contests.

The sizes of bonsai are critical to displays. Here you find the approximate Japanese sizing of trees:

          Mame < six inches (15 cm)

          Shohin < eight inches (20 cm)

          Kifu < 16 inches (41 cm)

          Chuhin < 18 inches (46 cm)

          Ogata < 36 inches (91 cm)

The prestigious Japanese bonsai exhibitions, Kokufu-ten and Taikan-ten, provide display spaces at approximately six feet wide. Larger trees require more space, and the smaller trees require less. The display elements commonly used within the six feet of space, consists of the following:

          One large tree with an accent plant

          Two medium sized trees with accent plant

          Up to six small sized trees with accent plant

A scroll, figure or suiseki (viewing stone) can be used with medium sized displays in lieu of a second tree. Three elements are typically used with medium displays. However, two elements may be combined to serve as one. Example: one tree, one scroll and one slab containing the accent plant and figure.

The stand should raise the bonsai tree to a level where the viewer’s eye is focused about mid-section of the tree and the viewer is standing straight, not bent over. A round pot is best suited for a round or square stand. The pot is centered and within the lines or edge of the stand. Consideration should be given to the color of the stand. Dark stands work well with conifers, whereas lighter stands can be used with deciduous trees.

Arranging the display elements takes some thought about their placement. The main tree should be placed towards the back. Place the accent plant towards the front of the display space. For medium trees, place the second tree behind the accent plant but in front of the main tree. Mountain stones are often placed towards the back of the display space as they appear in the distance. Note: for photographing a display, align all elements to the front.

Efforts to convey the season or location are important. For example, scrolls with ocean scenes do not go well with high mountain bonsai trees.

The appearance of accent plants should be full and in season. Also, ensure that the accent plant is within scale with the tree.

Displaying your bonsai trees should be fun. Experiment with different display elements. Artistic displays can be used in lieu of the Japanese formal display above. However, learning the fundamentals of Japanese displays is foremost to understanding the viewer’s perspective of the art form.

Pacific Bonsai Expo

Pacific Bonsai Expo

An Exhibition of Extraordinary Bonsai

The Bridge Yard

Oakland, California

November 12-13, 2022

The Pacific Bonsai Expo is the vision of Jonas Dupuich, Eric and Dory Schrader, consisting of the historic Oakland’s Bridge Yard venue, 75 displays of juried bonsai and the community’s top vendors. There will be a trophy for Best in show and $10,000 in cash prizes for Large Conifer, Large Deciduous, Large Broadleaf Evergreen, Medium display, and Shohin display. A Saturday evening banquet and awards ceremony will highlight the event. Tickets for day passes, weekend passes, commemorative photo book and banquet will go on sale soon.

Jurors Bjorn Bjorholm, Ryan Neil, and William N. Valavanis selected the trees. The exhibitors are the judges.

Details can be found at https://www.pacificbonsaiexpo.com/

This is just the beginning! For the past 14 years, the east coast held the biannual US National Bonsai Exhibition in Rochester, New York. Finally, Pacific Bonsai Expo will be located on the west coast in Oakland, California. There are discussions of making it biannually with the potential of rotating it between Oakland and Portland, Oregon.

It will take a community to build this show. Your support is needed by raising funds and volunteering in the actual event.

REBS board has agreed to solicit funds from the membership in an effort to raise $500 towards direct support of Pacific Bonsai Expo. The funds will provide donor recognition and four admission passes. The four admission passes will be raffled at some future REBS general meeting or event. Please make your donation before or on July 30.

Any amount of funds is greatly appreciated. Mail your check payable to REBS with a memo “Pacific Bonsai Expo” to: Treasurer Paul Wycoff, 6550 Stone Bridge Rd, Santa Rosa, CA 95409-5833

Demonstration by Boon Manakitivipart – Common Olive & Shimpaku Juniper

REBS was privileged to have internationally acclaimed bonsai artist Boon Manakitivipart present the program at our May 26, 2022 meeting. Boon gave us a bit of his personal bonsai history as an introduction, detailing his first frustrating efforts in the 1980’s to even get his trees to live, and his opportunities beginning in the early 1990’s to study in Japan and learn from masters there. Boon spoke of apprenticing in gardens that specialized in Japanese Black Pines and the wealth of high quality material there to study and work on. During his training he had the opportunity to work on several trees that subsequently won top prizes at the Kokufu show in Japan. He has carried this love and study of JBP and bonsai in general to his work in the US at his gardens outside Sacramento, California.

Boon worked on three trees during his presentation, the first an olive. He explained that olives with big leaves are referred to as Mission Olives or Common Olives. These will bear fruit, but those with small leaves do not. Olives are easy to collect locally in old orchards or neighbors’ yards, and if you have a good trunk of a common olive the smaller foliage of the small leaved variety can be grafted on from cuttings. In the wild olives have no shape to the foliage, they just look shaggy, but they can have wonderful chunky trunks which make dramatic bonsai when the branches are directed with wire. Branches are grown out for girth and pruned to the desired shape when the tree is full and healthy. On more mature trees pinching will help keep the tree in shape, but Boon warned not to take all the new growth off. When pinching and cutting back in the spring it is important to leave some growing tips so the branch won’t die. During spring cleanup old leaves and downward pointing leaves can be removed to better show good branching and ramification. Also be sure to remove the suckers on the trunk. In styling an olive Boon suggests leaving the top a little fuller. Overall, the ideal is a triangular shape with a slightly rounded top, and it is important to keep the tree looking balanced.

In his bonsai journey finding the right potting soil for his trees was a big challenge for Boon. Now we have easy access to Akadama clay from Japan and premixed soils with lava and pumice as well, but when Boon started those materials were not available in the US and the prevailing “wisdom” here was to include some organics in the soil mix, like orchid bark or peat moss. His trees were failing because the soil became too wet, compromising the health of the trees, so he read everything he could find about soil, including every issue of Bonsai Today from the very beginning of its publication. It took years of experimenting with many combinations before Boon found the blend he favors, which is Akadama/lava/pumice with about 5% decomposed granite. This last ingredient is similar to the sand the Japanese refer to in their mixes. Boon includes it based on his observations of the natural habitat of junipers and pines in the mountains where they grow well in granite.

The second tree Boon worked on was a small, healthy shimpaku juniper. He used this tree to illustrate the importance of balancing growth in a bonsai and keeping the tree developing new branches with proper pruning techniques. Boon was cutting the long shoots on this tree at this time pointing out how evenly distributed they were on the tree which indicates optimal, balanced growth. He was not going through the tree taking off all the green tips. Long ago this was what local teachers recommended, but it stunted the growth of trees because these growing tips are what is needed to keep the tree vibrant and healthy. You also don’t want to prune a juniper, or any tree, at the wrong time which can also slow the growth or result in branches dying off. Boon mentioned that many bonsai hobbyists work on their trees too much or take off too many of the important growing tips. The result is prickly juvenile growth which is usually not desired, and little or no branch development. If this has happened on our trees, he suggests letting them grow out for at least a year and starting again with the pruning when the mature growth has returned. Weaker branches should be allowed to grow without pruning.

Boon saved the raffle tree for last, an olive whose trunk is a  “nice chunk of lumber”. This is a collected common olive with the larger leaves, but Boon had grafted cuttings of a smaller leaf olive in strategic places on the branches. He talked about the 30-40 year old tree and how the trunk could be made to look older and given more character with some carving. He recommends hand tools which encourages a slow approach, stepping back and reviewing the work before moving on, resulting in a more natural look. The grafts had pieces of blue painters’ tape on them which acts as shade cloth for the graft and keeps them moist as they grow.  Boon suggested we all need to learn to let our trees grow, not overwork them and allow them to have a more natural aspect. The ultimate goal for this tree is to make it look like it came from the mountains.

Diane Matzen was the lucky winner of the raffle and picked up a few more growing tips at Boon’s workshop the next day. We want to thank Boon for an inspiring talk and sharing his expertise and wisdom with us.

Write up by Candace Key

Boon is a past apprentice of Kihachiro Kamia of Japan and Boon has many students as well as private clients throughout the country and the world. He has developed several now common bonsai practices including the 1:1:1 soil mix (Boon’s mix) and half bareroot repotting technique.

He first trimmed a developed olive by removing all of the six inch long spring growth back to one or two sets of leaves. This will encourage new growth and shorter internodes that will be refined later in the growing season.
Boon then explained how juniper should be grown strong enough to produce long extending tip growth. Only when the extending tip growth goes well beyond the silhouette should the tip be cut back to the silhouette. Clean all growth below each pad and never pinch tip growth on a juniper. You can cut the one extending long strong tip.
 
This is the olive stump before any work. A large stump with large leaf and small leaf growth. The large leaves are from the stump of the commercial (fruiting) olive. The small leaf growth has been grafted from a seed grown plant which does not produce fruit. Boon then removed much growth and placed several more grafts on.
This is the grafting technique Boon uses now. The graft is a two pair leaf cutting inside the plastic bag with wet sphagnum moss. The bag tied closed with a long copper wire and the graft stick end poking out of a corner of the bag. These can be prepared ahead of time. The graft stick is cut on both sides forming a “V” which is inserted into a slice of a short branch. The graft is tied to the branch tightly with stretchy plastic tape. The wire is used to secure the graft to the end of the short branch. If the bag dries out, you can put more water in using a syringe and needle to keep it moist. Painter’s tape can be put on top of the bag to act as shade cover until the graft begins to extend.
At the end of the evening the newly grafted stump was raffled off to Diane Matzen.
Diane Matzen and Boon Manakitivipart

Photographs and captions by Michael Murtaugh