Meetings

Susumu Nakamura rewarded us at our August 1 meeting by talking about a few trees, doing a little leaf magic on a Beech, talking about a change to a Zelkovia, which was already a good Shohin but the change would vastly improve it “in five years”. Susumu finally picked up the saw and the big time cutters and whittled a Chinese White Quince into the beginnings of a fine bonsai.

The format of the meeting was planned in advance to create and maintain interest and, at the same time, be informative. The trees selected, with one exception, had already been worked on by their owners. Some of the trees were already show quality, some of them had been started and worked on for a while and one of them was still in the nursery pot.

The presentation was aided by using a screen and an SGVA machine projecting what Joe Walden was aiming at with a video camera. A great improvement over watching a demonstration from “out there” without really seeing what was going on!!!! We could actually see on the screen what Susumu was doing. We could even watch him draw to show future direction of some trees.

The first tree was a pine, which Tom Thomas presented. Nakamura-san suggested a little pruning on the lower part of the tree and more growth near the top.

Nakamura-san talking about Tom Thomas' tree. Jose Escobedo in the background. The SGVA screen is shown.

Nakamura surprised me on this one. He suggested feeding the area, which he would like to see more growth locally. I was not able to ask but I gathered he was talking about spraying plant food in that area. If I heard wrong, please drop me an e-mail at bonsailar@comcast.net.

The second tree was a very fine beech brought in by Scott Clark. This tree was very well established and quite full on the top.

Nakamura talking about Scott Clark's tree and about leaf trimming.

Nakamura recommended cutting much of the top foliage. He showed us how to trim the leaves on these broad-leaved trees in order to retain photo-synthesis and still open up the tree to the lower branches.

Jose Escobedo presented a very nice pine, which still needs some work. He and Nakamura-san studied and talked about the tree and then Nakamura started to draw his concept of the future direction of the tree, which he then presented to Jose'.

Jose and Nakamura looking at Jose's tree.

Nakamura giving Jose his drawing of the tree's future.

Susumu then picked Jack Fried's crape myrtle. This is a very fine cascade and Nakamura really did not have too much to suggest. He did talk about the slick smoothness of the bark of this bush and how the Japanese had the belief that the bark was so slick that monkey's could not climb the tree.

Nakamura and Jack Fried's crape myrtle.

Mary Fahey presented a real problem tree. This was a very nice Zelkovia but it had a serious branching problem, which created a lump on the side of the tree. They looked at it and discussed it for a while.

Mary Fahey and Nakamura-san studying her tree.

It was finally decided that the side fork would have to go. The real problem was to literally shave off the lump created by this branching. Nakamura thought the tree would look very good in five years.

Nakamura making suggestions to Mary about major trimming.

Then Nakamura admired Rich Helminiak's maple Mame.

Rich Helminiak's trident maple.

The next tree Susumu referred to as the “belly tree” because it had so many big bellies. This is a beginning tree, a pyrocanthas, brought in by Victor Zurcazk. Nakamura made a drawing of the future of this tree, as he saw it, and presented it to Victor.

Victor Zurczak and Nakamura.

The last one I was able to watch was a Chinese White Quince in a nursery pot. This was a fine beginning tree with good lower branching and excellent nebari but the upper branching was to thin and out of hand. Nakamura-san reached for the tools and proceeded to do his thing on this tree, bringing down to a very good proportion of trunk to height ratio.

Nakamura does serious pruning on Jeff Hale's tree.

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