Nebari-Enhancement Technique Revisited

     If I believed in weather gods, I might wonder if my last post provoked them: two days later a storm roared thru, tearing down branches and whole trees, dumping roughly half-an-inch of rain in 20 minutes, and knocking out our house's power for more than 10 hours. (We were fortunate; others in the area waited much longer for electrical service to be restored.)

While we waited for electricity, there wasn't much to do, except go outdoors and work on bonsai. (Wasn't that terrible? <wink>) It was in fact a good chance to take care of two rather urgent repottings.

Indiana, or the Gobi Desert ... ?

     Yes, this post's title does contains some hyperbole; but it's not just hyperbole. Our front lawn looks typical for this part of Indiana right now: brown and dry. The grass blades crunch underfoot. One neighbor takes the time to move a sprinkler around his yard at least once a day; but otherwise, the lawns in the neighborhood are faring no better than ours.

Spruce, Ponderosas, and Larch, Oh My! (Part 2.)

     I admit it: I was as excited as a little kid about last week's Styling and Refinement workshop with Andy Smith! (See Part 1.) The tree I took is a ponderosa pine, Pinus ponderosa, that I bought in Andy's Burlap Bonanza in 2010. (A bit of trivia: at the workshop, I was the only one working on a ponderosa that Andy had not brought with him on this trip.) Since receiving the tree in April 2010, I've done almost no pruning or pinching. My focus has been on building up my pine's health, and helping it acclimate to a moister climate and a significantly lower elevation than what it had known. When it produced strobili this spring (see this post,) I knew it was vigorous enough for its first major styling.

Spruce, Ponderosas, and Larch, Oh My! (Part 1.)

(With apologies to A.A. Milne.)

     Four days ago, the Fort Wayne Bonsai Club gathered at the home of our club president, for a Styling and Refinement workshop with Andy Smith. Andy is a bonsai teacher and artist, and one of the best-known collectors of native bonsai material in the USA. He and his two sons had attended the 2nd US National Bonsai Exhibition in Rochester, New York, and stopped on their way home to South Dakota.