A few pictures of the trees before trimming...
Our volunteer measuring the tree to see if it will fit through the door.
More trimming.
Taking down the shade cloth.
After trimming.
It takes a village to move these trees!
One down, three more to go...
These trees will stay in their temporary greenhouse until Spring.
Some of you might remember this little guy from last year. He still lives here on the same Cedar Elm forest!
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Our dear volunteers gathered again bright and early.
Before pictures.
Working on trimming and cleaning the branches before repotting.
This one sure needs to be repotted.
Our TTSBE soil mix.
Ready for its new soil.
There are a lot of different ways to tie a screen to the pot's drain holes. Here're two different ways and they both work.
We will end this blog post with a picture of the Chinese quince in its environment. Be patient, little tree, Spring is just around the corner.
Before picture of Boxwood #145:
After picture: This old Collected Japanese Boxwood was repotted into a new (but vintage) Sara Rayner pot, giving the whole composition a lighter and more elegant look. This tree is about 50 years old, originally collected in Dallas, and donated to the Exhibit in 2012.
Before picture:
Cleaned the inside and outside of this juniper.
Found some bugs inside and cleaned it with some alcohol and water.
Design change. Prepare to view surgery performed on a tree trunk.
Viola! All cleaned up and will be left to grow until our next Foster Care Day.
Another tree: Drain holes were drilled for this Hackberry.
Working on cleaning the tree trunk.
Look at all the beautiful berries!
Before picture:
Working on trimming the leaves to encourage smaller new leaves.
Before picture:
Trimming and wiring to get it ready for Spring.
Wiring a Bald Cypress.
Before picture of a Cedar Elm:
Notice the two rocks in the pot? Next repotting session, we will try and incorporate that into the design and repot this tree at a different angle.
Working on an oak tree.
After view:
We will end this post with a few beautiful drawings from our talented artist.
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A few months have gone by since we put up our extension for the tropical species and it has been holding up well.
A little bit of adjusting the clamps and we are good to go for another few months until the weather is warm again.
Kathy examining a juniper.
Found some tiny little brown specks that could be spider mites.
Kathy asked one of our volunteers to spray it really well with water to remove them.
Trimming the Brazilian Rain Tree.
Per Kathy's instruction, our experienced volunteer started trimming a beautiful ficus that was recently donated to TTSBE.
As all these go on, our dear friend is always there waiting and guarding our bonsai wires.
A few before and after pictures of Kathy showing us how to clean up the branches to facilitate the healing of the tree.
Before:
After:
Before:
After:
Before:
After:
Sometimes a brown marker can be of great help. Here she colored and dotted the truck so that the white look of the wound disappeared as you look at it from far away.
After:
Another volunteer wiring the branches of a Cedar Elm.
Nicely done.
A few pieces of bark fell off this tree. No worries, we can fix that...
There is an area with no bark and a round wound. No worries, we can fix that too...
Artist at work.
This was the almost finished picture. I did not take an after picture. Believe me, it looked a lot better than before.
Here we see a hole on the top of this Cedar Elm and it will trap rainwater and eventually cause rotting of the trunk.
The solution: Make a drain hole through the truck.
Volunteers took turns holding and stabilizing the tree.
Decided to change pots for the ash juniper, tree # 57E, in our collection.
Took it out from the old pot.
Soak the roots really well.
Reduced root ball and wired it into its new pot.
Fill up with soil and we are good to go.
In its new pot.
An example of what planting angle can do to your perception of the tree. Below is the current planting angle of Tree #51.
By rotating and slightly tilting the pot, we see the third trunk and thus adds interest to the tree.
Finally, Tree #58E, an Ash Juniper about to get its "hair cut".
A different planting angle was also decided for the next repotting session.
After a whole day of work, all our volunteers felt the same as our dear buddy here!
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We spent the morning before the meeting to repot a few of our donated tropicals.
The recent rain together with the hard work of our caretaker brought you these beautiful blooms on this bougainvillea, 'Pink Pixie'.
Since we have limited green house space, we will be selling this beautiful ficus. If you are interested, please notify us as soon as possible. Specimen this size is truly impressive.
To provide some guidance in the size of this particular Ficus, we need to borrow one of our volunteers.
A volunteer busy mixing bonsai soil for the tropicals.
Purple bloom on this bougainvillea.
Bonsai artists at work.
Need to reduce the roots during repotting.
Another healthy ficus. You can see some mycorrhizae in the roots. Mycorrhiza is a symbiotic fungus that helps the plants absorb nutrients.
A closer look.
Contemplating the size of the pot to use.
More repotting and trimming.
Watering afterwards.
We were very fortunate to have finished repotting before the rain.
Thanks to our observant bonsai caretaker, we have another picture to share with you!
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This Chinese Quince was donated to us by Audrey Lanier and took Kathy Shaner a few hours to wire the whole tree. It looked absolutely magnificent from this angle!
A close up of the detailed wiring.
I love this picture of our volunteer admiring the tree.
Removing wires from a maple.
Before removing wires from this live oak.
All these wires need to come off.
Starting to clip off the thick wires.
After all the wires were removed.
We rotated the tree 180 degrees so that the other side could get enough sun too.
Since we did not see a critter this time, we will end with a picture of our furry friend.
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On a Sunday morning, volunteers gathered at MBP Bonsai Studio to help repot two big ficus, assist in trimming and maintain the rest of our TTSBE collection trees.
We noticed that the leaves on our Cedar Elm forest were very yellow and a closer examination led us to believe that it could be infected by fungal spores.
We found fungal spores on some leaves.
As we figure out our next step, another shade cloth was put up to protect the Cedar Elm forest from the harsh summer sun.
Here you can see a volunteer measuring the tree to see how much we need to trim off for it to fit through our green house door when winter comes along.
Once we knew the dimensions, volunteers trim away.
Working on a Ficus salicifolia donated by the Pipitone family.
Look at these tiny figs!!
A Ficus microcarpa also donated by the Pipitone family.
Now you get to see how we repot bigger trees.
All strapped in and ready to go.
The pot was removed and roots were trimmed.
Bottom view.
It was a hot sunny day, so we made sure to spray plenty of water to keep the roots moist.
Back to the levitating tree picture.
The pot was cleaned and drain holes were prepared.
The pot, now filled with some bonsai soil, was then moved underneath the tree.
The pot was raised to meet the tree and the straps were removed.
This is how we tied the tree to its pot without damaging the roots on top.
The tree was moved back to its stand and more soil was added.
Moving our next tree to the repotting area.
We took this ficus out of the wooden box and will need to trim the roots further for it to fit into a bonsai pot.
View of the roots.
There are still thick mud stuck between the roots so we used some water to wash it away.
Preparing the pot for the tree and further reducing the roots.
Looking more like a bonsai.
These are just a few of our dedicated volunteers that happened to be around for me to get a picture. We have more volunteers around the corner still working hard.
Back on its stand.
More soil added.
Watering well before leaving.
If you have been following our TTSBE blog, you might notice that we always manage to come upon an insect of some sort during our foster days. Let me leave you with a picture of two earth worms this time.
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Preparing bonsai pots for the trees.
Transporting the trees to our working area.
We had to cut around the pot to get the tree out.
Washing the old soil away.
On a previous blog post, we mentioned that some deer had been munching on our narrow leaf ficus. After a month of rest, all of these trees have new leaves and are looking better then before. Maybe deer know how to do bonsai after all.
Here we can see a volunteer repotting a Campeche logwood donated to us by Dario Octaviano.
Some insecticide chalk lines were drawn to prevent ant damage.
Our strong volunteer carrying a narrow leaf ficus forest donated by the estate of Dr. Donald Green. It is ready to go into a fresh bonsai container.
Old soil was removed and roots were trimmed.
More repotting work.
Our bonsai friend was there to cheer us on.
Look at the flowers on this buttonwood! They sure look pretty.
These newly repotted trees get their water and will be put back into the grow area.
A big thank you to all our volunteers for repotted 15 bonsai that day!
We tend to come across a different insect every time we gather. This time, we will end this blog post by showing you a picture of a cute tarantula that we found inside one of the soil containers.
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Luckily it is summer and these trees will grow back their leaves in a few weeks.
After pounding for a while, we found that there was not enough dirt to put up fence posts.
One of our board members suggested that we could use some of our existing trash cans with soil in them to act as temporary fence posts.
Our volunteers load up the truck to transport the heavy trash cans.
Our cheerful driver.
Unloading at the site.
The make shift fence area finished.
We always enjoy seeing our furry friend.
Final checking on the trees before leaving.
Further trimming on some tall ficus.
We were lucky enough to meet this little critter in the afternoon. Until next time...
What a nice day to do some trimming and fertilizing on our bonsai trees!
Thanks to Mike and Candy Hansen, we got to sample different flavored M&M's during our board meeting. Which one is your favorite?
Updates:
More than a month has gone by and our watering system seems to be holding up great. Many thanks to our volunteers for signing up to go check on the trees daily.
]]>"It has been a long weekend, but also a fun one spent with good bonsai friends. I'd like to thank everyone for the gift of their time and hard work. The effort we put into the Exhibit is a collaborative one, and each person helps to make everything go so smooth. We spent an entire day loading and driving, and the next day unloading & sorting with some repotting and trimming both at Lakeview and later at MBP. Thank you everyone for all the energy. A BIG thank you to Andy for donating these wonderful trees to TTSBE and helping our Exhibit! " - Joey
They started driving really early in the morning...
After the long drive, the whole car was covered with bugs.
They finally arrived at Andy's place.
Look at the size of that Narrow Leaf Ficus in front!
Taking a rest before getting ready to load up the truck.
Two in and a lot more to move.
Had to cut this one down quite a bit to fit into the truck.
The next day.
After the trees were unloaded, we then proceed to number and take pictures for our database. A small number were repotted and trimmed. The following pictures showed just a few of these magnificent trees.
One of our volunteers was kind enough to stay late to trim and repot.
There is still a lot of work to be done but right now, these bonsai just need to rest under the oak trees to recover from the long drive.
Another one of the donated trees.
Volunteers always learn a lot just by listening to Kathy's recommendations.
Lots of hands-on experience.
More trimming.
This Trident Maple had a leaf fungus that Kathy wanted to eradicate. She gave a volunteer instructions to cut off all the infected leaves and had him spray the tree with a fungicide.
Before spraying and trimming.
After spraying and trimming.
Volunteers took turn cutting off the leaves.
This close-up look shows that we cut the leaves off very close to the branches. By doing it this way, the very end of the stems will fall off faster and buds will come out quicker in the spring. During autumn, we will leave longer leaf stems so they will take more time to fall off, thus delaying bud growth.
Another view.
We took some time off looking at some stones that our volunteer brought to us.
Of course our bonsai buddy is keeping us company.
This volunteer did a really nice job wiring the tree.
Kathy working on a Cedar Elm.
Kathy looking at a Live Oak.
Observing the health of this pine tree.
We will end this blog post with a picture of a tiny critter. Its color blended right in with the stem of the maple!!
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Here you see everyone pondering over Kathy's question of how we could improve this particular Cedar elm.
My dear backdrop holder at work again.
Original potting angle.
Future potting angle. It turns out that a slight change of angle in the pot will make a huge difference. Do you agree?
Here you can see Kathy checking the wires underneath the pot to see if the tree is secured.
A quick and easy way to fix missing bark is shown here.
Some bark is removed from other parts of the tree and glued into the empty space. It can then be colored to blend in and the bare area will be less noticeable.
Our artist at work again.
A nicely trimmed Brazilian Rain Tree.
Another Brazilian Rain Tree before trimming.
After a few minutes of magic, it is looking more like a bonsai tree already.
Using a chopstick to create more space between the trunks.
Adding more soil.
Wiring the branches.
Giving a slight trim to this juniper.
Bonsai weight-lifting.
Using a dead branch to demonstrate how to secure a tree to its pot.
This piece of wood resembles a water dragon! Can you see it too?
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Unloading is easier with more volunteers.
Beginning the set up by laying out table cloths.
Meanwhile, our sign designer gets ready to put up this beautiful sign by the display area.
Attaching the sign to the fence.
Securing the bonsai to the stand.
Inside the Greene Room.
There will be daily demonstrations by the Austin Bonsai Society and members available to answer any questions you have about this art. Please join us at the Zilker Garden Festival this weekend (April 2nd - 3rd, 2016, 10am - 5 pm) to view our bonsai trees and see this 130+ years old Japanese Boxwood in person. We look forward to meeting you!
Three trees are carefully loaded onto the club car to be transported to the site.
A few days ago, our talented volunteer put bamboo trimmings on the fence.
Trident maple and Japanese maple on the stands.
Another view with the Japanese maple in front.
Chinese Quince is last to go onto the stand.
Our Pilot Display Area looks so much more alive with bonsai trees on the stands.
Evan Taniguchi giving a tour of the garden.
It was such a nice day that we decided to have our board meeting outside.
A lot of measuring and pounding to make sure that the stakes are in the correct places.
A little raking done to get the fencing to go flush against the ground.
A perfect time to show off some bonsai wiring skills.
Starting to lay down the fencing wires.
Reed fencing waiting its turn.
More people means more fun and the possibility of getting done faster?!
Securing the reed fence to the wire fence.
Good friends = good times.
Cutting bamboo to fit and cover up the green poles.
As we work, some visitors were very interested in our project and lingered to talk to us.
Installation of the gate.
The gate and poles were spray painted to better match the surroundings.
Final clean up for the day.
Back view. We still need to come back and put more bamboo trimmings.
Front view. April will soon be upon us, as will the trees upon their stands. Stay tuned!
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There are different goals to root-pruning. Some trees have been living in their pots for a while and their roots have outgrown the pots so eventually the overall health of the trees will deteriorate. Other trees could have been collected and have never been in a bonsai pot so their roots need to be pruned to fit into the pot. Some good examples are the juniper and the oak tree as seen in the following pictures.
Everyone busy at work.
New volunteers are always welcome. They get to work on several maple trees this time.
Volunteering for TTSBE events provide great learning opportunities.
Another maple tree repotted.
Taking the tree out of its pot and combing out its root system.
Putting new soil into the pot so the tree can grow again.
Trimming some branches off on the left.
Branches are checked and extra ones trimmed.
Removing a thick branch.
Making sure all the wires are in the correct place before putting the tree in its pot.
Trimming the roots so the tree has more room to grow.
The juniper out of its nursery pot...
and into a bonsai pot!!
The live oak in its pot.
Of course, we have to include a picture of our furry friend.
Some TTSBE trees anxiously waiting to be seen at Zilker Botanical Garden.
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Transporting the bonsai stands down to the display area.
Unloading the stands.
Impressive attention to details can be seen in these stands.
Our proud and talented craftsman.
Adjusting the level of the stands.
Leveling the ground for the stands.
Anchoring the stands in the ground. A lot of pounding...
Some positions of the rocks need to be changed.
Final raking and sweeping under the stands.
Group picture time!
Stands in place and area marked out with yellow tape.
Everyone took a moment to admire the stands.
View from the corner of Taniguchi Garden.
More survey work.
The bonsai stands are now ready to display TTSBE trees to the general public.
We are happy to announce that we are one step closer to having TTSBE in Zilker Botanical Garden and our Pilot Display should be up and running within a few months. Stay tuned...
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Another magnificent Ginkgo tree.
Our friend started by doing a yoga pose - downward facing dog.
Preparing and sieving the lava rocks.
Sieving pine bark.
Our furry friend kept us company.
Equal parts of lava and pine bark mixed together with a sprinkle of fertilizer.
The soil mixture is then stored in bins for our trees to use.
Ending this blog post with a fun picture of a dog that looks like a duck in his favorite spot.
Front view: -
Of course I want to capture this and update our photo gallery on the website. Once again you see our human background holders hard at work...
Some close ups of the flowers.
The room was beautifully decorated with a Mexican theme.
A final wiping of the pot to make a perfect display.
The Texas State Bonsai Exhibit had two display tables set up in the banquet room.
The Texas Live Oak in the middle is provided by Pat Ware from their Central Texas Bonsai Exhibit.
Pat Ware, our original delegate to Oita was there with a certificate and a scrapbook of memories from her previous visits.
Last minute spot light adjustment to showcase the Texas Live Oak.
Even the library was nicely decorated.
Banquet room all ready for the delegation and honorable guests.
Meanwhile, the guests were charmed by a Mariachi Band followed by a tour of the garden.
Volunteers ready to greet the guests.
Both Austin's Mayor, Steve Adler and Oita's Mayor, Kiichiro Sato and many Austin City council members were present.
Following along the path past the Taniguchi Garden leading to the future site of The Texas State Bonsai Exhibit.
A mini display consisted of a boxwood, a bald cypress and a cedar elm were set up in the future proposed entrance area.
Volunteers getting ready to greet the guests and hand out souvenir bonsai pins.
Guests were very impressed by the explanation of TTSBE future exhibit site.
Talking with Austin City Council Member, Ann Kitchen.
Tree planting ceremony and speech by our former mayor, Frank Cooksey.
After the tea ceremony, guests were treated to a nice lunch with entertainment by Taiko drummers from Austin Taiko and a flamenco guitarist.
Thank you speech by Oita Mayor, Kiichiro Sato.
Drummers from Tesshin Daiko.
TTSBE Board Members with Austin Mayor, Steve Adler and Oita Mayor, Kiichiro Sato.
The event came together successfully with all the help of our wonderful volunteers from TTSBE, the Austin Area Garden Council, Garden greeters and docents. It marks another giant step forward to strengthening the process of building our exhibit at Zilker Park. A job well done, everyone!
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Our volunteers gathered around to listen to Kathy.
Getting the newly donated elm from Dr. Donald Green's estate for Kathy to look at.
Examining the progress of some work that we did a few months ago on this cedar elm.
Trimming the cedar elm.
Ideas as to the future styling direction of this logwood were discussed.
A sketch made by our talented artist.
We then focused on the trees that were recently donated by Dr. Donald Green's estate. The following are the before pictures of each tree.
An Elm.
A weeping cypress.
A bald cypress.
A narrow leaf ficus.
My human background stand.
What one would do to get a good picture.
One photographer taking a picture of another photographer taking a picture...
Kathy said to this weeping cypress, " Weep no more!"
The tree and it's newly adopted parent.
The bald cypress got some work done on it also. Some dead wood was reduced and the bark was removed and saved for future use if necessary.
An oval pot was chosen for next year's repotting season.
My team of background holders.
This picture shows the new potting angle.
The proposed pot for next repotting season.
It took a team of four people to thin out this narrow leaf ficus.
All ready to grow again.
We will end this blog post by viewing a few more sketches made by our artist.
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Here you can see Kathy Shaner contemplating on where to put the steel rebar. The rebar will be attached to bend the top of this live oak back in line with the trunk. The branches will also be wired for better movement.
The possible pot that this tree will go into next year.
After the rebar was placed and branches wired.
Tree #4, a collected ash juniper ready for some dead wood cleaning.
Artist at work.
Getting into the crevice to clean the dead wood.
The cleaning continues...
Working on Tree #10, a twisted pomegranate.
Next, we worked on Tree #9, a trident maple. While examining the wire and finding that it has been cutting into the roots, Kathy decided to redo the tie wire.
A chopstick was used to protect the root from wire scar.
Tree #6, another trident maple. Thinking about how to wire and trim to make it even better.
Tree #15 - a newly donated twisted pomegranate styled by Ted Guyger. Branches were wired and thinned out so as to prepare for Spring time.
Kathy showed us a method to instantly make a wound looked less noticeable on a ginkgo tree.
Before.
After
Beautiful flowers on one of our member's trees.
Finally, this pair had a really fun time cutting off the top branch from Tree #8 - a yaupon holly.
We always enjoy the company of our furry friend. It was another very productive day.
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Chinese Elm donated by Charlotte Cranberg.
Catlin Elm donated by Charlotte Cranberg.
Yaupon Holly donated by Charlotte Cranberg
Pyrachaenomeles donated by Helen Browne
Trident Maple donated by Greg Setter
Acer Palmatum 5 donated by Rev. Neal Hern
Acer Palmatum 1 donated by Rev. Neal Hern
Acer Palmatum 9 donated by Diane Librach
Campeche Logwood donated by Dario Octaviano
Ashe Juniper donated by Terry and Sheila Ward
Quercus donated by J.R. Cody M.D.
Trident Maple donated by Rev. Neal Hern
Twisted Pomegranate donated by Charlotte Cranberg
Crabapple donated by Charlotte Cranberg
Yaupon Holly donated by Kathy Shaner
Two people were in the back holding the backdrop. You can see the size of this tree!
Photo credit: Shiela Ward
We don't see these mushrooms very often here since the weather is pretty dry most of the time.
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Removing leaves on the Cedar Elm donated by Greg Setter.
Trimming the Ashe Juniper donated by Dr. Bill Cody.
Another Ashe Juniper donated by Dr. Bill Cody.
The Brazilian Rain Tree donated by Steven Hendricks.
The Cedar Elm donated by Rev. Neal Hern.
Our volunteer doing his magic. A contraption was built to direct the apex of the tree upwards.
Bonsai Artists are very creative. Bamboo, chopsticks, a wine cork, and some wires were used to move the left branch.
Evaluating the health of a tree.
To end this blog post, here is a picture of a tiny praying mantis that happened to stroll by on an exhibit tree.
This group of cedar elms are so tall that our volunteer needs to stand on top of the table to trim the top branches!
To cut or not to cut?? Hmm...
The two ficus trees were also moved from the green house to the outside nursery garden.
This narrow leaf ficus barely fits through the door of the green house!
Mike sawing off a dead branch.
On the left is the Ficus Macrocarpa (Chinese Banyan) and to the right is the Ficus Salicaria (Narrow Leaf) with a slight trim and all ready to grow again.
The Ulmus Crassifolia (Cedar Elm) #11 has its bi-annual trim and it is looking good! A big thank you to all our wonderful volunteers for coming out to help today!
Proposed entrance of TTSBE site
Left side of the proposed entrance
Right side of the proposed entrance
Path leading to the back entrance
Looking back into the Taniguchi Garden
Back entrance for loading and unloading
Trees that need to be taken out were marked with tape.
Kathy Shaner and our volunteers hiking through the future TTSBE site
Kathy Shaner holding a discussion meeting at the site
Large Oak Tree on the left near the proposed entrance
Possible workshop area
Thank you to Kathy Shaner and all our wonderful volunteers! We are one step closer to bringing the Texas State Bonsai Exhibit to the general public!
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Putting a rebar on the back of the tree.
Inserting the rebar in position.
Protecting the tree trunk using plastic tubing.
Top of the tree with rebar next to the trunk.
Bending the new apex in place.
Securing the wire to bend the apex.
Twisting the wire to tighten the distance between branches.
Wire was twisted to the desired distance and then cut.
New Apex with rebar in place.
Worked on getting more soil in to cover the top of the pot. A good 2 inches were put into the pot.
There is a hole in the tree trunk.
Scrapped off some bark to try to heal the hole in the trunk.
This maple was styled in an older way where branches were brought down. Used green marker to mark the area where we will tread graft next year. Two years later, we could cut the top off.
Scrapped off some bark around the area where the marker is to initiate root growth so as to get a better nebari.
This Chinese hackberry tree belongs to Audrey. Need new soil and possibly deeper pot. A greenish pot would be a nice choice.
This liquidambar, aka Sweet Gumtree, doesn't heal easily.
Need to repot to a different angle.
This is a flowering tree with bluish purple flowers. For flowering trees, we want to keep as many branches as we can to have more flowers.
This crabapple is a TTSBE Collection tree that is being kept at Elaine's place.
Maple.
Found knob roots under the crabapple.
More root work done on the crabapple.
Sawing underneath the trunk.
inserting chopstick to widen the gap so roots will lay flatter in pot. The tree was repotted in the same pot and soil was piled up high to help with root work.
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Kathy evaluating a Chinese quince that belongs to Audrey before repotting.
Use copper wire to mark new front.
Looking at roots.
Removing wire to get the tree out of pot.
Soil mix for TTSBE trees.
This shows the tree out of the bonsai pot and Kathy is talking about the roots.
Removing soil around roots.
Observing the excess roots.
Reduced roots using chisel and hammer.
The removed quince root.
Use chopsticks to move roots into place.
There is a hole in the middle.
Use knife to score the tree so the cambium will grow together.
Remove excess roots.
Gained about two inches by removing the excess roots that are sticking right down.
Almost ready to put back into a bonsai pot.
Took part of the root off so the tree could develop more fine roots.
Make sharp cut with knife to help the tree send out roots.
Make slits on the side of the roots so we can get more roots.
Proper way to cover the hole in the bottom of the pot.
Wire to the side and not the middle because we are going to pull down on it.
The famous 5th wheel.
How to use the 5th wheel.
Make a mound in the middle.
Layer newspaper in the middle so as to retain water better.
Putting the tree back in a pot.
Side view of the tree.
Pile more soil on top to encourage surface root growth.
Put moss on top to seal in moisture.
Put some old soil on top to keep in moisture.
Water the tree well after repotting.
