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OYAMA BONSAI KAI Club Newsletter – January 2016
President’s report Andrew dP Legg Hi everyone. I must start this report with an apology. The end of 2015 and the first part of 2016 have been a bit of a blur for me. I’m starting a suiseki collection with two kidney stone operations late last year and I’ll be just waking up from my anaesthetic from the third when you all have our first meeting of the year! The forth one should be lined up for me a few weeks afterwards. I’ve been pretty out of it as a result and it means that I’ve let the organisation for the annual calendar slip. Carl has thankfully agreed at short notice to do a Round 2 demo on a ficus he flipped sideways and planted on a rock at a previous meeting. Should be interesting to see where it has come from and where it is going to. I have agreement from a number of members to do some really interesting headline talks at our meetings, and a few are still deciding on topics, so I think we will end up with a busy and interesting year ahead albeit with a slow start. I’ll circulate the calendar in a week or two once it is firmed up. Next up we say goodbye in a way to Joe Coetzee this year. Joe has been a loyal member of the club for a good few years now and his contribution to the club has been fantastic! Joe, is remaining a member, but will be relocating to Napier, so as you can imagine we’ll be seeing him less often. Joe has also helped out at all of the shows since joining and has served briefly on EXCO this year as well so a big thank you is in order. I’d like to ask if there is anyone who will be willing to step into Joe’s shoes on EXCO with Milly, Viky and I until the AGM mid-year. We’d really appreciate the help. If you are happy to help, please let me know on 083 628 8163. The Easter show is looming, and this year it will be earlier than usual, in late March. Viky has offered to crack the whip and run the show this year, so please do everything to help her. On the back of ABC4 I hope we’ll come up with something fresh and continue to challenge the status quo and drive creativity in bonsai locally.
Juniper by Mario Komsta
This year we are going to try to introduce a few more practical sessions where we all get involved in working on trees or plantings. I think it will be great to compliment the fantastic presentations which offer us so much already. For a few of the meetings it will be really cool if everyone brings a toolkit and some wire and we get stuck in doing actual bonsai. I know that I find I learn hugely by actively doing bonsai with folks who have a different artistic sense, and/or new techniques for me to try. I get a lot of value and personal growth when I visit friends’ homes and we work on trees together. I’d like to bring a flavour of that learning and comradery into our club meetings.
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With a bit of luck I’ll be starting a building project at my home soon, but I’d like to host an open workshop here where we can get together, throw some meat on a fire, have a swim and work on some trees. I’m targeting late February, but I’ll send out more details in the next newsletter. Gavin and Cathy Fish have also offered to host a winter workshop in Noordhoek at their charming home, so that’s one to look forward to as well. It was very kind of them to yet again host a fantastic spit braai in December, an event that was thoroughly enjoyed by all. To our newer members I really encourage you to join these sessions as they are invaluable for learning bonsai. At the year-end party we ran the young designers competition for the club. It was fantastic to see almost ten members participating. Well done! The material was juniper procumbens nana, and some were more difficult than others, but everyone gave it a crack and the winners were Phil in 3rd place, Alain in 2nd and Brett taking 1st. Well done guys. There is something very satisfying seeing a tree going from a bush to a pre-bonsai within three hours.
Brett Simon with his winning OYAMA New Talent competition Juniper
Onto the club’s finances. Between Milly and I we have now put in place an Excel master spreadsheet for the club’s books. It allows entries in key fields and then tallies everything up automatically into a financial summary which will feed the AGM numbers and hopefully the club’s income tax returns as well. I hope it’s a step in the right direction to getting simple continuity in the club’s finances rather than having different processes run by different people. Milly will be driving the maintenance on the club’s finances, so I ask that you help her by starting out with payment of 2016 club fees. A reminder that these are set at R200 for the year for all members, and that family memberships no longer exist. I’d ask that we all try to make an effort to pay by the end of January. Thanks. The bank details will be at the end of the newsletter if you don’t have them. Lastly, thanks again to the bonsai nurseries that continue to support Oyama. Bishopsford, Potter’s Yard and Stone Lantern. Your support is greatly appreciated. So let me finish by saying all the best for the year ahead to you all. I hope it is a healthy and happy one with family and friends. See you all on the 13th. Cheerio. Andrew 083 628 8163 [email protected] http://www.oyama.co.za/ Upcoming Meeting
President's Report Viky Petermann Tree Critique Viky Petermann Fig planting revisited Carl Morrow
“What to Do” Stephen Le Roux Summer is here and the days are hot, warm and windy. The wind will cause bonsai to dry out very quickly. Take good care when watering your trees and, when you decide to hide inside from the heat, do remember that your trees are still outside and need water. In the heat, together with the wind you can lose your favorite bonsai within a few hours. Do try and water twice a day. Also misting your trees during the day will help to cool them down and keep the soil moist. (I still need to see any damage due to watering in the heat of the day caused by water drops on the leaves!)
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You will find that the trees are developing slower during this time of the year. This will give you time to catch up on your bonsai work. Do keep track of wiring on your trees. The branches thicken rapidly and can cause wire bite. You may find that trees like maples will have dry edges on their leaves. Don’t worry about it. It’s caused by the high temperatures and the wind damaging the leaves. Keep to normal feeding programs feeding your trees on a monthly basis.
Pest and diseases may be found less frequent due to the low humidity but do keep a lookout for them and control when necessary. Mame trees can be placed on humidity trays. This can be made from drip trays filled with river sand or gravel. Put enough water in the drip tray to the level of the gravel/sand. Then place the mame on the gravel. Do not let the pot stand in the water. If the pot is placed in the water it will cause root rot on the mame. The idea is for the
water in the drip tray to form a more humid environment around the tree. Several mame can be placed on the same drip tray.
Maples and White Stinkwood can still be defoliated. This will help to replace leaves damaged by the wind, will force the tree to produce smaller leafs and also give you the opportunity to work on your development of the tree, prune unwanted branches and wire were necessary. Just remember that if you decide to defoliate a tree to reduce the size of the leaves, do not feed the tree for at least two months after defoliation. Feeding it will have the result of bigger leafs. Do not defoliate a tree that’s not healthy. When your tree start to push new leafs (around two weeks after defoliation), place the tree in an area protected from the wind, or the leaves again will get damaged. Figs can now be repotted. Do usual maintenance pruning, pinching back new growth and developing the tree.
Also look out for signs of Thrips on your Wild Olives. On the first sign of marks on the Olive leafs spray your trees. Look for white fly on the underside of the leaves of Olives. Spray your olives with a preventative spray for root rot. Prune Elms by constantly pruning the new growth back to 2 to 4 leafs. Make also use of the clip and grow method to
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develop the tree. Remove unwanted growth on your Elms. Choose the branches that you need to develop on new trees and remove the rest. Weeds also tend to grow fast this time of the year and can become a problem. Use Snapshot to stop the germination of seeds. (Just remember that if you are going to use snapshot in your garden it can influence the germination of future flower seeds.) Cheers, Stephen Ps. Visit our face book page 'Stone lantern bonsai nursery' at http://www.stonelantern.co.za/ for more articles, photos and events. Please feel free to make suggestions on how to improve the page and what you would like to know more about.
End of Year Braai Viky Petermann
Oyama invited us to a fantastic end of the year spit braai on Sunday the 13th of December at Kathy & Gavin Fish’s beautiful home in Noordhoek. A big thank you to our wonderful host for opening their home for us to enjoy such a great afternoon of friendship and Bonsai!
All photos from the braai – Johanna Honeyman
Eight members participated in Oyama’s New Talent competition which took place during the afternoon: Milly, Allistair, Russel, Sion, Brett, Phil, Alain and Wesley. The judges were Lionel, Thys, Justing and Andrew and they had a very tough time selecting the winner (thank you to the judges for their hard work!!) but in the end Brett Simon took first place with Alain Garbaccio coming second and Phil Levitt third. All participants took home a beautiful Juniper and the winner a pot to plant it in as well. Well done!!
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Bonsai Classified An 8cm wide by 5 cm long size advert will be included if you email it to [email protected] in word document format by the 26th of each month. In return we are asking for the occasional item that we can donate to the raffle at our monthly meetings.
Stone Lantern Bonsai Nursery.
We stock trees, pots, tools, wire, figurines, fertiliser,
bonsai soil and gravel etc.
Contact us: 083 375 0446 or [email protected]
Visit our website: www.stonelantern.co.za We are also on Facebook.
BISHOPSFORD BONSAI GARDEN The Bonsai specialists with a large selection of Bonsai and
related products
3 Muscat Lane South, Constantia Tel: 079 306 6900
http://bishopsfordbonsai.blogspot.com/ Join our Facebook page: Bonsai at Bishopsford
e-mail: [email protected]
Display - Accent figurine
Display – Modern Accent Planting
Display – Moss Acent Planting & collection of Mame pots
