Turface or not Turface -- an active question.

(With, again, apologies to Mr. Shakespeare.)

Some of you have already seen Michael Hagedorn's recent blog post, "Life Without Turface." Turface® is a high-fired calcined-clay product, originally developed to soak up excess water in wet spots on athletic fields, golf courses, etc. It has come to be widely used in soil-less potting mixes (and not just for bonsai, by the way.) But opinions about it are divided, and debate about it is very much alive here in the USA.

Acorns From the Alamo. (Well, about a block away.)

     Early in November I went to San Antonio, Texas, to attend the 2013 annual conference of the American Translators Association. There wasn't much time for sight-seeing, but I did manage to pick up some acorns of Southern live oak (Quercus virginiana) within sight of the famous old Alamo mission.

Now almost 300 years old and originally a Spanish mission, the Alamo was built largely from the fine local limestone. 

Mid-America Bonsai Show 2013, Part VII. Two More Things To Do

(This is my last post about this year's Mid-Am Show -- honest.)

     Participate in the Exhibit Critique, attend Bjorn Bjorholm's demonstration, go thru the Exhibit savoring the quality of the trees, touch base with friends -- what more was there to do at the Mid-America Bonsai Show, you might ask?  I did have two more objectives.

One of the weak areas in my knowledge is the development of an apex. So I devoted two to three hours to peering down (or up) into the apices of various Exhibit trees, examining how they were arranged, and deducing how they must have been pruned. I also took pictures for further study at home, like these of a Japanese black pine:

"On Getting Older," from Willowbog Bonsai

      I read this on Willowbog's blog (thanks to "Bonsai Eejit,") commented, and moved on -- but then came back to it after a few minutes' thought. This is worth passing along.