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.

Time to Get Out and Shop!

     I think the garden centers here are all tied to the same calendar! At least, many of them have started selling off their nursery stock to make way for whatever they'll offer during the summer. (Maybe swim gear and beach chairs.) For bonsai people, that means an opportunity to acquire raw stock at bargain prices!  ☺

Enjoying New Leaves

   Sometimes the beauty of new foliage can almost match that of flowers. Here are a couple of recent examples among my own trees.

Using the Notch Method for the First Time

     In my last post, I described one of the two major bonsai projects that I tackled on Memorial Day (May 28.) The first was a graft; the other was my first use of the notch method to put a drastic bend in a branch.

Colin Lewis describes this technique as one of the scariest he's ever used, and I can see why. For those not yet familiar with it, here's what you do.