20 and Under

after my last entry on the Shohin Bonsai Symposium in Rochester and mention of an American Shohin Bonsai Society, I was contacted by two shohin bonsai enthusiasts who have become motivated to try and get the organization started again. Bravo! I’ll let you know of any progress. Shohin is very popular in Japan right now and has gained strength in Europe with the good work of Morten Albek. We have some very talented shohin bonsai artists in this part of the world also and it would be great to have a ‘voice’ for our unique appreciation of shohin bonsai. I think the best shohin bonsai artist, by far, in this country is Suthin Sukolsovisit. Amazing talent! I think he has a intrinsic gift for working with plants – almost a physio/spiritual connection with them. I know – this sounds stupid to some – but his work is amazing and I have thought his plants are often beyond the ordinary. Just here in New England, we have Suthin, Colin Lewis, Nick Lenz, etc. who bring a wealth of talent to the area. We’ve also been blessed at New England Bonsai Gardens to have had Kenji Miyata here in residence for 3 previous years before moving on to California as well as visits by Hiromi Tsukada and other Japanese bonsai artists. Also, not so far away, are other great talents – American Shohin bonsai pioneer, Dorie Froning in Pennsylvania (and Bill Valavanis in NY, etc, etc) I do wish these organizers well in their attempt at restarting the ASBS.
I’ve been thinking lately about the curatorial responsibilities of caring for and cultivating a large bonsai collection and will have an entry on that in the near future. Also, I have a small needle juniper that I will be styling for a shohin bunjin cascade in the near future also. Here is a picture of a shimpaku that I worked in at Taisho en in Japan.

This coming Sept in Rochester, NY, Bill Valvanis will be hosting a shohin bonsai convention at his annual symposium. This is quite exciting! I was part of the original American Shohin Bonsai Society that never got off the ground and it was one of our main goals to have a bi-annual shohin bonsai convention to alternate with the Shohin Bonsai convention in California. When the ASBS floundered, Bill stepped in with his symposium – wonderful! I hope many of you will be going to this as Bill always puts on a first rate convention at an affordable price. I have been grooming some trees for the exhibit since the spring. Sometimes you don’t always get what you hoped for and some trees have not behaved as expected so I have to use others. To wet your appetite, this picture is of a bonsai shop outside of Tokyo – every supply imaginable!

Early summer is an important time for shohin bonsai work. Black pines are decandled at this time. Deciduous trees are also defoliated. This is an important task for the shohin bonsai grower. With the ‘less is more’ motto, it creates the challenge of keeping what little foliage we have to be compact and with very fine ramification. By defoliating healthy trees, we accomplish a few things: a) allow light into the inner portions of the tree to create some new budding; b) reduce the leaf size of the tree (which is also critical for a smaller sized bonsai) and, c) it allows for a mid-season evaluation of the growth of the tree. Once the leaves are off, you can see where some cutback can be done and even some light wiring can be done at this point. Here in zone 6 B in southern Rhode Island, I use July 4th as my goal for defoliating. I generally defoliate my tridents quite aggressively as they are such strong growers. I also defoliate japanese maples but to a bit lesser degree. I defoliate zelkova and ficus salicaria (the only ficus I work with). I have had buttonwoods and defoliate them later in July/Aug when they finally become relatively happy here in New England. After defoliation, I usually back off on fertilization and also do not over water (as the trees need to push foliage out before they can use it). Also, keep them under shade cloth until buds begin to show. There are certainly no prohibitions to this nude sunbathing among bonsai – as plants don’t have the physical shyness nor moral restrictions about their ‘bodies’ that we have