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Our Newsletter Official Newsletter of the
Bonsai Society of Western Australia Visit our website: www.bonsaisocietywa.com
f: h�ps://www.facebook.com/groups/bonsaisocietyofwa/
September 2015
President: Secretary: Treasurer: Editor:
Dianne Boekhout John Oldland Ty Webb Michele Russell
Ph: 94706760(H) Ph: 92916254 Ph:9276 3812 Ph:94443860
Ph: 93626996(W) Email: Email: Email:
Email: [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]
All enquires to one of the
committee members or
please send to the following
email:
Meetings of the Bonsai Society are held on the last Monday of each month at the Collins St Community Centre, Collins St,
South Perth at 7.45pm.
PRESIDENT’s REPORT What a busy start to springtime with both a visiting international demonstrator and also the act belong commit bonsai show within a fortnight.
Bjorn Bornholm’s visit was inspiring with great success at workshops and good attendances at demonstrations. The committee had suggested the multi clump demo because we had suitable stock for this artistic style. Not a usual design that Bjorn creates, it was good to present a challenging, learning experience for him also. I have enjoyed the extra wiring tuition in recent months. Friday early AM, heading tired from preparations on display trees and show organisation, with loaded vehicle to set up I was dreading that there may not be many helpers. It was a great boost to arrive and find eager helpers had made a start. For the whole weekend there was an army of members offering assis-tance. Well done and thanks ++. A great example of act belong commit keeping us all mentally healthy and what as a group can be achieved.
Next Meeting – 28 September 2015 A General Workshop with a theme of Figs and Olives. Now is the ideal time to work
on these tree types … so bring in your Figs and Olives for expert advice and help on design etc.
This year we trialled no ropes or bamboo dividers making the view uncluttered, a larger sales areas and hourly education sessions enjoyed by many. We thank Healthways for their financial support again. Being held in September and with some of our advanced members away there was a different range of species making up the fine display. The contemporary presentations were well received too. The next meeting is a workshop. Expect some visitors after the show so please bring in a display tree as well as workshop trees. There will be some stock trees handed out to members to compete in the “ most growing on” over the next year competition. Make sure you are there in case your name is called “to foster a ficus”. With the weather warming I have noticed some of the olive pull stock is now shooting. Let them grow wild (produce roots) before attempting next step. Did anyone see Garden Guru segment with our members and Bjorn? Watch for more on bonsai
Sat Sept 26th Channel 10 at 5pm. Di
Review Last Meeting August 2015 Monday night’s “evening with Bjorn Bornholm” was enjoyed by 45 people. Bjorn critiqued some members trees and then discussed a slide-show of trees at the Japanese nursery with some of the stock he works on professionally. Some images from the weekend workshops held on Saturday and Sunday with International bonsai professional Bjorn Bjorholm. The workshops were well attended both days, and there
were some good transformations seen. Bjorn's two demonstrations really wowing the crowds with some of the best demonstrations we have ever seen. It was truly amazing to see how otherwise ordinary
stock could be transformed into a quality bonsai in three hours with just some wiring and classical styling (mind you, there was a lot of wiring!). Wiring is just so important for that styling and refinement of the trees, as we were shown so often on the weekend. It's weekends like this that will keep WA punching above its weight with visiting experts helping us to improve our trees and encouraging quality bonsai.
Page 2 September 2015
SUNDAY WORKSHOPS Next Workshop is at Nick Di Loreto’s home.
18 Whittle Place, Stirling.
4 October 2016 at 1pm. 9242 5533
Before Bjorn A�er Bjorn
Page 3 September 2015
THIS CENTURIES-OLD WHITE PINE FROM JAPAN WAS DONATED TO THE NATIONAL ARBORETUM IN 1976.
(AMANDA VOISARD/FOR THE WASHINGTON POST) BY FAIZ SIDDIQUI AUGUST 2
Moses Weisberg was walking his bicycle through the National Arboretum in Northeast Washington when he stopped at a mushroom-shaped tree. The first thing he noticed was the thickness of the trunk, estimated at almost a foot and a half in diameter. And then there was the abundance of spindly leaves, a healthy head of hair for a botanical relic 390 years old. But it was only when he learned the full history of the tree, a Japanese white pine donated in 1976, that he was truly stunned. The tree, a part of the Arboretum’s National Bonsai and Penjing Museum, has not only navigated the perils of age to become the collection’s oldest, but it also survived the blast of an atomic bomb, Little Boy, dropped over Hiroshima, Japan, during World War II. “For one, it’s amazing to think that something could have survived an atomic blast,” said Weisberg, a 26-year-old student at the Georgetown University Law Center (sic). “And then that by some happenstance a Japanese tree from the 1600s ended up here.” The bonsai tree’s history is being honored (sic) this week, as Thursday marks the 70th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing. But visitors can see the tree as part of the museum’s permanent collection throughout the year. The tree, donated by a bonsai master named Masaru Yamaki, was part of a 53-specimen gift to the United States for its 1976 bicentennial. Little was known about the tree until March 8, 2001, when — with no advance notice — two brothers visiting from Japan showed up at the museum to check on their grandfather’s tree. “I find it amazing that Masaru Yamaki could give a priceless bonsai basically to his enemy and not say a word about it,” said Felix Laughlin, president of the nonprofit National Bonsai Foundation. “I get emotional just talking about it.” Shigeru Yamaki and his brother, Akira, filled in the blanks for museum officials, though they had never seen the tree before their visit and had only heard about it through family stories. News footage taken at the Yamaki Nursery after the blast shows the pine sitting unscathed in the background. Ensuring the continued survival of such an important piece of the collection is no easy task. It falls to Jack Sustic, who has been the curator of the Bonsai and Penjing Museum since 2002. Bonsai, Sustic said, refers not to the type of tree but rather the manner in which it is cared for. It is the blending of nature and art, he said. The care includes seeing that it is watered daily, inspected for insects, rotated for the sun twice a week and repotted on occasion. In the winter, the tree is moved to the museum’s climate-controlled Chinese Pavilion. Currently, it sits in the museum courtyard. “One of the things that makes it so special is, if you imagine, somebody has attended to that tree every day since 1625,” Sustic said. “I always like to say bonsai is like a verb. It’s not a noun; it’s doing.” He joked that tending to a centuries---old tree every day can be enough pressure to keep him up at night. Unlike other museum pieces, there is no recourse when a plant dies. “I have a packed suitcase at home,” he said. “There’s a few trees in here that it’s just kind of a ‘Where’s Waldo?’ if something happens.” The tranquility (sic) of the arboretum is far from the furor (sic) of Hiroshima decades ago. On Aug. 6, 1945, a 9,700-pound bomb exploded over the city at 8:15 a.m. A walled nursery belonging to the Yamakis was less than two miles from the site of the bomb blast, but the ancient tree, Sustic said, was just far enough away to survive. “Location, location, location,” Sustic said. “It was up against a wall. It must have been the wall that shielded it from the blast.” All the family members inside the home survived the blast as well. It blew out all the windows, leaving everyone inside cut from flying glass, but no one suffered permanent injury, according to the museum. The white pine has long outlived its life expectancy and has spent about a tenth of its life in Washington. “I’m reluctant to look because I don’t want it to say 200 years,” Sustic said of the tree’s maximum life expectancy. In 2016, museum officials said, the bonsai will have a new home in the Japanese Pavilion, which is being renovated in honor (sic) of its upcoming 40th anniversary. The tree will bear the same placard that triggers the amazement of passersby every day: “In training since 1625.”
Page 4
If not deliverable, return
to:
Nigel Atkinson
10 Choules Place,
Myaree WA 6154
September 2015
Bonsai Palace Pty Ltd (Liana Kopp)
We are trading EVERY SUNDAY from 8 am to
12.00 noon under the balcony at:
Palmyra Western Farmers Market (PWFM)
Palmyra Primary School
60 McKimmie Road
Palmyra WA 6157
h�p://www.bonsaipalace.net.au/index.htm
Mob: 0419 047 244
Snip-Its
For Your Diary 2015 EDUCATION COURSE: Next course 15 Nov 2015 At the Belmont Sport & Rec Centre. Restricted to 24 and only paid attendees will be accepted. Email committee to register. ACT-BELONG-COMMIT MELVILLE-JAPAN
FRIENDSHIP FESTIVAL.
The event will be held between 3pm-9pm on Saturday 24th October at Frederick Baldwin Park, Kardinya The Facebook page is https://www.facebook.com/
events/1479866525641057/
BONSAI WORKSHOP
EXHIBITION
Craigie Leisure Centre Whitfords Ave Craigie Sat and Sun: 24 and 25 October 2015. 9 am start both days.
Spring is here—anyone else
with hay fever???
