This Month's Meeting – MONDAY DECEMBER 14, at the Pittsburgh Civic Garden Center 5th and Shady Ave. will feature the Pittsburgh Bonsai Society annual end of year party repleat with favors, fun, frolic, and food. The festivities will begin at 6:00 p.m. and will continue until 9:00 p.m. Bob Johnson has graciously agreed to prepare the entrees while members should bring appetizers and desserts.
Let your creative urges guide you in preparing a suitable donation. Sweet and sour escargot and chocolate tofu will not be tolerated.
Swissvale Classes: The classes will resume March 9, 1999.
Nominating Committee Report: The nominating committee has selected and the membership has voted the following slate of officers for 1999: Fred Bruckman – President; Mark Wazenegger – Vice-President; Linda Veltri – Recording Secretary; Michael Matic – Treasurer; Evelyn Christie – Corresponding Secretary; Carol Parsons –Librarian.
Other Events
January 20th program to be announced
The Season Is Over! I've noted over the long and sometimes nightmare years that one of the benefits of living where leaves fall is that winter shows tree structure. Another feature of winter's doldrums is that in working with bonsai the careful craftsman-artist will use winter's bareness to see trees, shrubs as if they were never there. Once a person learns to appreciate bonsai, the world will never look the same again. It is the beginning of learning to "see". We all look but few "see" the intricate complexity of trees. As a newspaper ad once stated, "Grow bonsai for fun and profit. Pick it up. Hold it in your hand. Revel in the joys of nature in miniature!" But, look at nature in macrocosm and transfer that to the miniature. Hand and eye coordination cannot be understated. A lyricist once wrote, "It's a long, long time from May to December, and the days grow short when you reach September". But keep in mind: In December the days also get longer – around December 25 – coincidence noted.
Editor's Note
Beginning with the January issue of the "newsletter" a new category will be added to the "Care Sheet." Just under the species section will be a note such as the following: Yoshimura 184. Persons wishing to get a thumbnail sketch of the plant being featured, need only to look in the glossary in Yoshimura's book to find details about the care and cultivation of a specific bonsai subject.
For those not familiar with the book, it is available through and bookstore or from Mizuki Bonsai Supplies. The Art of Bonsai – Creation, Care and Enjoyment by Yoshimura and Halford Tuttle Co. Rutland, Vermont
| Species: | Common name: | Winter flowering witch hazel |
| Botanical name: | Hamamelis sp. | |
| Japanese name: | Mansaku |
Varieties: Because of its unusual flowering the witch hazel has long been a favorite of committed gardeners. The seedling form blossoms yellow but scores of hybrids are available from Greer Gardens and Girard Nursery. The colors range from lemon yellow to dusty orange and crimson as well as bronze.
Advantages: Flowers in snow! The careful observer will see witch hazel's spidery, delicate petals pushing through snow on a day when the late winter sun melts the snow and the temperature goes even slightly above freezing. Should a witchhazel be kept in a polyhouse or cold frame, the temperature is therefore moderated and it will blossom continuously for weeks. It can be grown from cuttings but grafts are more readily available. It grows wild throughout the temperate zone but is not prolific. For a small, ethereal specimen in winter, it has no peer.
Disadvantages: As a classic bonsai subject the witch hazel does not measure up to, say, a pine or a crab apple; but, look in Mr. Murata's book on The Four Seasons of Bonsai and the illustrations will convince even the most hardened cynic of its value. However, its large leaves and rangy growth disallow it as a bonsai when in leaf. Its strength is its winter flowers.
| Bonsai Potential: | As a classic: 4 |
| As a beautiful winter specimen: 9 |
Growing location: Full sun but watch for leaf burn in late summer. Keep well watered with good, rapid drainage.
Watering: Keep the soil damp to the touch and avoid letting the plant dry out.
Propagation: Cuttings but grafted subjects perform better.
Fertilizing: Balanced fertilizer but if possible emphasize nitrogen in spring and mid summer with higher phosphorus in late summer and fall.
Over-wintering: If the subject is to be seen in mid winter, keep the plant in a cold frame or in a polyhouse where its blossoms can be monitored. It can even be brought in for an evening or two and then returned to its winter quarters.
Styling: Informal upright; it can be wired but it is best grown by cut and grow, being sure its lower branches develop well.
| Species: | Common name: | Holly |
| Botanical name: | Ilex | |
| Japanese name: | Umemodoki |
| Varieties: | Ilex serrata sieboldi |
| Ilex crenata helleri, stokesi | |
| Ilex opaka (dwarf forms) |
A Much Needed Preface: This time of year brings out those folks whose love of things Chrismasian wish to see, and better yet, own a bonsai holly. The red berries and glossy green leaves glistening and reflecting the season's colors make a bonsai holly highly desirable. However, the American holly has such large leaves that it becomes hard to find anyone prepared to grow holly, only to have it taken in the house for the holidays and watch it dry up post haste. Large leaf hollies are used as bonsai in both Korea and central and northern China but, these specimens are large bonsai requiring two or more people to move them.
Compounding the holly problem are the two small leafed holly groups: the Japanese holly (Ilex crenata stokesi and helleri) and the siebold holly which is a deciduous holly with pronounced berries when grown well and birds are kept away. Good Luck. It produces a superior buttress sometimes referred to as a "turtle back".
To complicate matters the Japanese hollies don't even look like the holly known and loved in western culture. Its flowers are insignificant and its black berries are shrouded beneath the leaves.
All the holly forms root well from cuttings and require conventional care and feeding but a caution or two should be noted: holly tends to be broad leafed and thus needs filtered sun and to be kept out of strong winter wind to perform well. Also, they are not reliably hardy without protection. Holly trees dot Pittsburgh's older homes but such hollies are relatively few.
Finally, to dispel an old spouse's tale, nursery sales people usually tell unwitting customers that to produce berries they must buy both a male and female. Just buy a female form. The male trees in near and distant neighborhoods, being such prolific pollen producers, will fertilize the female. Caveat emptor.