founded january, 1964 journal - toronto bonsai society
TRANSCRIPT
Founded January, 1964
JOURNAL
June 2012www.torontobonsai.org
Schedule of eventsMeetings are held at the TBG (Toronto Botanical Gardens), at 777 Lawrence Avenue East, Toronto, in the Garden Hall, (lower auditorium on the west side of building), unless otherwise noted. The first meeting is free for non-members.
Beginner sessions: 6:30 – 7:20The beginner sessions are held in Studio #2 upstairs, at the TBG. Beginners should read the articles in the BEGINNERS section, under ARCHIVES, at the TBS web site.
June: All beginners are welcomed to join the main workshop this month, there will be no Beginner session in June.
General meetings: 7:30 – 10:00
June 11: Juniper workshop. Contact Cheryl Johnson and Linda Chevrier to register (see last page for contact details).
Backyard workshops/garden parties:Please email ahead for directions and to confirm your attendance. For day workshops, club wire will be provided, please bring your tools and pack a picnic lunch. For any further information, please contact Cheryl Johnson and Linda Chevrier (see last page for contact details).
Wednesday June 20th 6:30pm: Otmar Sauer [email protected]
Wednesday June 27th 2pm: Jean Charing [email protected]
Wednesday July 4th 7pm: Reiner Goebel [email protected]
Wednesday July 11th 7pm: John Biel [email protected]
Saturday July 14th 10am to 5pm: David Johnson [email protected]
Wednesday July 18th 7pm: Mike Roussel [email protected]
Saturday July 21th 10am to 5pm: Jorge Pereira [email protected]
Wednesday July 25th 7pm: Paul Chong [email protected]
Wednesday August 8th 7pm: Kem Shaw [email protected]
Outside the club:
June 9, 10: 3rd US National Bonsai Exhibiton: Rochester, New York.
June 21-24: Rocky Mountain Bonsai ABS/BCI Convention 2012: Denver, Colorado
2
On the cover: Ken Shaw's bonsai Korean Hornbeam (Carpinus turczaninowii). Picture taken June 1999.
President's Message
By Keith Oliver
It's now June and we are preparing for our last general meeting of the season, and our last meeting at the Toronto Botanical Gardens. We will be moving to the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre in September. Please stay tuned for meeting and show dates. The TBG has provided us with space for our meetings, workshops and shows for a number of years, but the rental prices are too high to continue to justify staying there, and unfortunately the prices keep going up. I have secured a great rate and venue for our club in the future and I'm sure the JCCC will be a great home for us.
Our Spring Show has come and gone, and I would like to thank everyone who came out and helped with set up and take down, manned the sales and ticket areas, brought in trees and suiseki for display, and for hanging out and making our visitors feel welcome. It couldn't have happened without you! Attendance was down this time around, but otherwise this was a great show. We learned a lot, and worked out the logistics so that our next one will be a huge success.
Thanks everyone for all your support over the last year, I really appreciate it! I look forward to seeing you at some of our summer workshops, and if I happen to miss you over the summer, I hope to see you in the fall.
A Different Venue For Bonsai
By David Johnson
Bonsai in an art gallery? Not the usual setting.
But it happened at the prestigious McMichael Canadian Art Collection in Kleinburg, Ontario on April 14th and 15th, 2012.
The bonsai weekend presented by the Toronto Bonsai Society included a bonsai display with about 25 trees in the large front lobby of the Main Building, “what is bonsai” presentations and demonstrations styling trees.
The bonsai exhibit was part of a program presented by the McMichael Collection on “The Tree” from January to April 2012. A number of community groups and presentations augmented a multi media art from British Columbia and local artists including photography, paintings and audio-visual displays.
An interesting feature of the bonsai exhibit was the display of Group of Seven and Tom Thomson paintings with a complimentary bonsai. In one case, a Lawren Harris Arctic painting was matched with a stone or suiseki.
The bonsai included pines, junipers, eastern white cedars and leafless deciduous trees – larch, birch, Japanese maple and Korean hornbeam.
3
JEFFREY SHORTT PHOTO
The invitation the McMichael Collection extended to the TBS had its origins in a Japanese government sponsored tour of southern Ontario and Montreal area bonsai clubs by Mr. Susumu Nakamura in 2007. During Mr. Nakamura’s stay in Toronto, he visited the McMichael Collection and was given an official tour by Anna Stanisz, now the assistant curator. Years later Anna Stanisz asked the TBS to participate in “The Tree” project. The TBS set-up an ad-hoc committee which met a number of times to organize the TBS program. The committee members were: Jean Charing, Keith Oliver, Jorge Pereira, Mike Roussel, Mike McCallion, Bob Wilcox, David Young and David Johnson. Karen Brankley, Linda Chevrier and Cheryl Johnson helped out on the weekend.
The event attracted about 300 people on each day. The exhibit, presentations and demonstrations were well received. The TBS has been invited to participate in future events.
Bonsai Clubs International through Joan Greenway bestowed the BCI Award of Excellence to the TBS for the promotion of bonsai at the McMichael Collection.
The success of the event can be measured primarily by its participation in an important Canadian art gallery and the TBS’s ability to deliver a quality exhibit and program. This success may open the door to future opportunities.
The TBS’s presentation was based on decades of work by members that we take for granted. For that reason, all TBS members and the broader bonsai community, past and present, can be proud of the McMichael bonsai exhibit.
Thanks are extended to the McMichael Collection for their courageous invitation to the TBS. Thanks also go to members who made the event happen organizationally and with their beautiful bonsai.
Reminiscences Of My Early Association With JCGC and TBS
By Norman Haddrick
The following is a speech which was delivered during the JCCC / JCGC 60th Anniversary luncheon held on Saturday, May 12th.
I first arrived in Canada, as an immigrant from England, during a freezing rain storm in February 1968. I remember looking at the ice-covered cars, and thinking, “What, am I getting myself into?”
In the spring of that same year, while on Wynford Drive purely by chance, I was attracted by the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre building, and I saw the sign for a “Spring Festival”. On impulse, I decided to visit this “Spring Festival.”
I had no previous exposure to the Japanese people or their culture, other than some karate training as a young man, while in the Royal Air Force in England. So, my walk through the various displays, all with strange names, like ikebana, origami, sumi-e, exposed me to a fascinating new art world.
Then, I walked downstairs into a room, where there were many small trees growing in containers on display. The unique shapes of these little trees, in harmony with their containers, gripped my artistic interest. Soon, a helpful attendant came up to answer my many questions. Unfortunately, my ear was not well-attuned to his dialectic English, but his friendly enthusiasm, and his love for these little trees, was clearly obvious, as he introduced me to his world of ‘bonsai’, the Japanese art of growing trees in containers.
My guide went on to describe the bonsai club, which had been formed as an off-shoot of the Japanese Canadian Garden Club, and he called this new club, “The Toronto Bonsai Society”.
I now learned that I was speaking with the founding president of the Toronto Bonsai Society, Mr. Mamoru Nishi.
Mr. Nishi went on to introduce me to a few club members, and I recall Mrs. Wilma Swain, Mr. Jim Campbell and Mr. Gordon Scott among others. Everyone was keen to speak on the subject of bonsai, and to proudly point out their own trees in the display.
I spent several hours walking around all of the exhibits, but most of the time was spent in the bonsai display room.
Before I left the cultural centre that day, I was a paid-up member of both the Japanese Canadian Garden Club and the Toronto Bonsai Society, thanks to Mr. Nishi’s convincing presentation.
In that first year, my Canadian business responsibilities came with a hectic travel schedule throughout Canada. This prevented me from attending any of the clubs’ regular meetings or workshops. While travelling, I did attempt to seek out available books on the subject of bonsai, but at that time, there were none to be found in our local library system. Then, in a Vancouver bookstore, I found a copy of “The Japanese Art Of Miniature Trees And Landscapes” by Yuji Yoshimura. What a great reference book from which to grow my new interest, and I absorbed its contents while travelling through every province and territory of Canada...
Now, that all seems to be so long ago? (44 years !)
4
On reflection of that first meeting with Mr. Nishi, in the original J.C.C.C., - and from today’s perspective, - in parallel with the evolution of my business and personal life,- I can clearly see the wonderful path I have since travelled, throughout the world of bonsai.
In those early days the bonsai society had less than 25 members, but everyone of them was actively involved in the group programs. Each with a collection of trees, as bonsai or as potential bonsai material. This total involvement of the members meant that everyone learned the art, horticulture and techniques of bonsai very quickly.
Within two years I was appointed to the TBS executive committee, and president Mr. Gordon Scott gave me the responsibility for producing the recently introduced “Toronto Bonsai Society Newsletter”. It was a one page, mimeographed letter of club and bonsai information, mailed every month to members.
As the club membership grew, and the newsletter grew, I remember editing and compiling the submitted articles, then one-finger typing the document on a “state of the art” IBM Selectric typewriter, before ‘cutting & pasting’ a layout to letter-size, for the printer.
Of course, despite monthly pleas to members, there were times when the only submitted item for the newsletter was the ‘president’s message’. This meant a scramble, in which I had to research and write a seasonally appropriate article for that month.
At some point during such a cutting and pasting, there was a quarter page of open space remaining. It was the printing deadline. That was when I took the ‘sacred’ original document layout and quickly sketched a bonsai in the open space. It was a big success.
In bi-annual succession, I was voted TBS vice president, then to president, while keeping the newsletter editing/production job for a total of 11 years. By now, we had a club membership over 200, plus we also mailed copies of the now fully illustrated, multi-page, educational TBS “journal”, to other clubs in Canada and USA. Our illustrated articles were much appreciated and were reprinted everywhere.
A highlight of our monthly executive committee meeting agenda, became the collating, stapling and folding of the journal pages, stuffing them into an envelope to seal and add a stamp for mailing. I fondly recall that on these occasions a little wine was consumed, but only to assist with the stamp and envelope licking.
Together with this growing exposure for TBS, the increasing membership meant on-going teaching programs for new member groups at different skill levels. Often, teachers may only be a lesson or two ahead of the students, but the pressure to advance our study and bonsai practice kept us all going, and the TBS club growing.
To this end, in ‘70’s & ‘80’s, the TBS executive and more experienced members, attended annual conventions of “The American Bonsai Society” and the “Bonsai Clubs International”, in major cities around the USA. These followed in 1980 by the “International Bonsai Magazine Symposium’” conveniently held annually in Rochester, NY for 30 years.
Meanwhile, TBS members received invitations from other clubs, and from the above convention groups, to lecture and demonstrate their skills in the art and practice of bonsai techniques to their members & delegates. I personally travelled into several US states, and across Canada, to fill these requests.
TBS was approached by BCI to host the annual convention in Toronto in 1997. The tbs executive members & show committee put together a uniquely Canadian, 3 day program, which included both international teachers and skilled TBS teachers. The convention, at the Toronto Prince Hotel, was later voted by 800 attendees, as the “best bonsai convention ever.”
While I continue to be an interested member, I leave the activities to others. However, I do continue to sketch, producing detailed pen and ink drawings of ancient trees, growing in natures wild, exposed areas.
After all, the art of bonsai originates from the admiration of naturally dwarfed trees growing in these harsh conditions.
I believe that the founding president of the Toronto Bonsai Society, Mr. Mamoru Nishi, would be proud of his club, the Toronto Bonsai Society.
Connan’s Garden Crawl
By Sylvia Le Roy
The weather co-operated. The drive is long, fast, and uneventful. The map I printed is accurate and easy to follow. There is no rain, but the wind is quite unfriendly as I join the TBS group waiting to begin. We straggle outside the commercial building like shoppers waiting for the sale opening. Thankfully the staff at Connan Nursery is warmer than the wind and greet us with a flatbed trailer the size of my garage. Overkill I think immediately.
We carpool our way through vast fields of potted trees like a giant snake of cars. They say we can buy at cost; I say I have to control myself. We are going to the area where they have Japanese white pines. As we disembark from our vehicles the crowd scatters. I keep an eye on the more experienced people and try to see what they are looking at. My first contribution to the flatbed is a healthy looking dwarf Japanese White Pine. I run to a ‘house’ that contains Hornbeams and Beeches and I pick one of each that has good taper and a good choice of branches. Quickly I join a group who are on their way to the ‘propagation shed’ and heading into a building without me. Awesome Chinese wisterias and other exotic plants feast the eyes and the imagination.
5
Off we drive to a new location where we see at least a hundred Japanese Quinces, pink ones and red ones with trunks that are very respectable, and I choose one that has a curve in the trunk that I think will be attractive as a bonsai in training. The flatbed does not look so vacant now.
Japanese maples are our next destination announces Andrew, our garden crawl guide, and my cheery crew in the van follows the cavalcade of cars in search of “material’. Already some of our passengers are becoming anxious of what their beloved partners will exclaim as they return home laden with trees that are now piling up on the bushy flatbed.
As we drive to another location we pick up a fresh flatbed. Excellent I think.
The group in the van are excited to go to the Blauwii Junipers in 5 gal pots and on the way someone spies large Mugo Pines and they all cry in a chorus ‘ Go back! Go back!’ These are outside my budget, so I feel safe from temptation. The Junipers, some for a club workshop I am told, are loaded on to the flatbed.
The Mugo Pines are next. I keep asking Andrew for the Japanese Black Pines that were mentioned a while back, but it seems we have run out of time. Back at the office as I my total is being processed, I grieve over the Black Pine that I didn’t buy, and Peter tells me someone will go and get me one! As I load my trees including the black pine, I am grateful to Lily Tsirulnikov who organized the Garden Crawl, to Cheryl Johnson who encouraged me to attend, to the fun crew in the van, to Andrew, our guide, and Connan Nursery for a super deal on trees that I otherwise wouldn’t afford. I will be the first to sign up for next year ... or maybe we can have another one in the fall.
BCI Award of Excellence In Canada
By Joan Greenway
Four years ago, Mr. Susumu Nakamura (former BCI Director and Cultural Ambassador of Japan) donated some of his Bonsai to the Chicago Botanical Garden. Since he was already in Chicago he took the opportunity to visit Toronto where the Toronto Bonsai Society with other Bonsai clubs honoured him at a reception. As part of this visit he was taken by David Johnson, then president of the Toronto Bonsai Society, to the McMichael Canadian Art Collection in Kleinburg, Ontario, where he was introduced to the Assistant Curator Anna Stanisz. From this meeting evolved an invitation to the Toronto Bonsai Society to organize and hold a Bonsai show at the McMichael Gallery.
Subsequently, on April 14th and 15th, 2012 the Toronto Bonsai Society held its first Bonsai show with great success at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection.
6
MATSUYAMA BONSAI CLUB PHOTO MATSUYAMA BONSAI CLUB PHOTO
The organizing committee, under David Johnson’s direction and Keith Oliver's support as the current president of the Toronto Bonsai Society, spent an enormous amount of time and energy organizing, selecting and setting up the trees. As a result of their efforts the Toronto Bonsai Society received the BCI Award of Excellence for promoting Bonsai.
The members of the committee who made all this possible were David Johnston, Mike McCallion, Mike Roussel, Jorge Pereira, David Young, Bob Wilcox, Jean Charing, and Keith Oliver.
“The Group of Seven have become the most famous amongst Canadian artists and are renowned for their Canadian Art”, quotes the McMichael brochure. It was a joy to see the work of The Group of Seven reflected in the Bonsai which were selected for the exhibit. Tom Thomson's paintings were interpreted in true Canadian North style and one could feel an echo of his paintings of the northern Algonquin forest in the Bonsai on display. In addition a suiseki reflected the north shore of Lake Superior with its stark and bare landscape as depicted in the paintings by Lawren Harris, another member of the Group of Seven. The Bonsai Show as a whole created a symbiosis of paintings and bonsai in a spectacular manner. The curator Anna Stanisz, stated that one of her goals was to bring living art into gallery spaces. BCI has similar goals by promoting Bonsai through friendship and connections.
The members of the Toronto Bonsai Society who organized the two day show at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection in Kleinburg well deserved the BCI Award of Excellence.
Marco Visit
By Mike Roussel
Once again we were all pleased to have Marco visit the club for our May meeting. It was a great evening and everyone enjoyed themselves.
Marco began the meeting reiterating how much he enjoyed visiting the TBS and remarked on how we have “something special” going on with our club. He encouraged us to nurture and grow our passions for bonsai. I am sure that with our, as Marco put it, “Rockstar President” Keith, we will do exactly that.
Next Marco introduced his newest analogy: Cooking as a way to talk about bonsai. As a cook we need to:
• Find the right/best ingredients. That is, do not waste your time on material that does not have good characteristics for bonsai. Marco looked squarely at yours truly (we had worked on my trees the day prior), when he said that many people have a lot of “crap” material in their yards and they should get rid of it. He continued to look at me when he said how hard it was to convince people to reduce the number of trees in one’s collection so one can focus on the best material possible. For many of us, that is a hard pill to swallow. For juniors though, Marco suggests to work with a lot of trees and do “radical” things to learn.
• Prepare the ingredients. That is, do not work on a tree that is not ready. It is important to prepare the material first. He said that “a tree in a pot is not bonsai material”. Trees need to be vigorous and we need to prune back and thin out the foliage to encourage back buds. Only once the “ingredients” are properly prepared should we start “cooking”. Marco likened preparing material as a “first date”. One puts a lot of effort to get to know the tree. In the first session one puts a lot of care and attention in to set the tree up for future dates.
• Cook and Serve. That is, once we have done both of the preceding steps we are ready to start cooking and serve up our trees. The cooking time varies from recipe to recipe but the more car and time that is put into one’s creation, the better the result.
Next Marco started into the demonstration on a collected Eastern White Cedar (EWC). His comments on the species were:
• Great characteristics for bonsai: bark, deadwood, shallow root system, tough.• One drawback: the foliage
◦ Marco said that he rarely sees a finished EWC.◦ It is hard to apply the “Rules of Bonsai” to EWC.◦ The foliage is fragile, hard to wire, with buds all in one point.◦ The branches grow upwards and in every direction with multiple branches coming from one spot.◦ Often times people simply sheer EWC which results in a pom-pom effect.◦ It is better to clean out excessive buds and then wire all the foliage flat, overlapping.◦ The topic of grafting hinoki cypress on EWC. Marco said that nobody seems to do it but if you know how to do it, do it.
There is intensive aftercare needed (high humidity, shade etc …). Some said it takes too long but Marco said that 5, 10 years of effort is nothing for a bonsai. Remember – the best ingredients, prepared.
◦ Mike McCallion also brought up the point of reducing EWC foliage by 30% in September to not lose the foliage one wants to keep.
7
After the prep talk, Marco got into the demo. First he talked about the material:• The tree at hand is difficult virgin material.• What to do first?• Get rid of the stuff you cannot use. The analogy was that one needs to get rid of the ingredients one is allergic to.• It was suggested to eliminate the bottom jin but Marco said that for a small tree it should be retained. There were 2 competing
jins. Marco favoured the small one as it had better taper and movement. Marco created a jin by breaking it rather than carving it.
• Looking at the nebari, Marco eliminated the air roots and in the process discovered some dead wood.• Someone asked what the front was. Marco responded: “I don’t know the ingredients yet”.• Marco talked about the branches
◦ Difficult – 4 branches coming from one place, straight with a young looking apex.◦ Cannot make a literati due to a lack of branches.◦ Branches with foliage only at the end. It is important to improve the branches with a view to future use.◦ Lower branches like an octopus with all the branches coming off from one location.
The goal is an old, ancient tree. Marco looked for a way to bring out the uniqueness of this material. The verdict was to create a leaning tree, taking advantage of the nebari.
• After the break, Marco started working on the tree:• Marco started by showing how to prepare EWC branches. Remove excessive buds from each intersection, leaving only 2-3 in
each spot. Pruned back every branch to push back the foliage.• One branch was left with all buds and no pruning because it was weak.• Marco stated that he had to accept the fact that the tree had long, bare branches. Work with that limitation.• Remarked about the top of the tree, how it looks very young. Just growing straight up because “the tree doesn’t care to
become a bonsai”.• It was decided to separate the original jin at the top from the live part. The live part was jinned and bent back in a windswept
style with guy wires. Marco noted how difficult it is to bend old jin.
On the topic of wiring EWC:• Marco does limited wiring on EWC.• One has to make sure the base is thick enough to wire.• Change position of branches to flat.• Progressively wire and twist the foliage with every turn of the wire.• Use the thinnest possible copper wire.• Use guy wires since they can be left on much longer.
Once Marco had finished the demo he suggested that the winner (turned out to be Cheryl) should let it grow, cleaning out the buds growing from the wrong places. Prune to get a nice structure.
In conclusion, everyone was quite impressed with the result. It was clear that it was very difficult material and Marco brought out the best in it. Everyone enjoyed the step by step explanation and the audience participation that Marco encouraged.
8
JEETO BUTALIA PHOTO
TBS Library Update
By Margrit Frederickson
We are very excited to announce some great changes for Library! With our move to JCCC we will have meeting space at a great savings to the club. What is not available is storage space for books and tools. We have come up with a great solution which actually works out to be better, in that you will be able to access our library 24 hours a day 7 days a week. There will be a link on the new TBS website, from which you will be able to browse through the library, and review a short description of the book or video, and be able to request the book for borrowing. I will go through the request list, and bring those books to the next meeting. The website is quite amazing and very user friendly! Thank you Jorge for all your hard work!
TBS announcementsMagazines for saleOur club president, Keith, has has a collection of Bonsai Today numbers 1 thru 50 for sale.
Links to other clubs:
Bonsai Society at the RBG: http://www.BonsaiSocietyatRBG.com
Matsuyama Bonsai Society: http://www.informdurham.com/record/OSH1103
Misseto Bonsai Club: http://www.missetobonsai.org/
Kitchener-Waterloo Bonsai Society: http://www.kwbonsai.com/Welcome.html
Regular TBS meetingsMeetings take place on the second Monday of every month, except July and August, at the TBG (Toronto Botanical Gardens), located at 777 Lawrence Avenue East, at Leslie Street, in the auditorium on the west side of the building at 7:30 pm. The general meetings frequently include: demonstrations of bonsai techniques, critiques of bonsai trees, and workshops, in which each participant styles a tree with the help of an experienced member. These meetings are preceded at 6:30 pm. by the Beginner sessions, held upstairs.
A small fee is charged for workshops, and a tree, wire and instructor are provided. To participate in workshops, it is necessary to register in advance of the meeting so that materials can be provided.
Members are encouraged to bring in bonsai to show and work on during the meetings. Wire is provided at no charge. Non-members may attend a meeting at no charge to see if the club is of interest to them.
9
Library hours and policyThe library is open to members at the beginning of our regular meetings. Members may borrow books free of charge for one month. Late returns cost $2 per month with a minimum charge of $2. Please return all materials the next month, and before summer.
Membership deskThe membership desk will be open at all meetings. The opening time may be extended for the first fall meeting to assist with renewals. You may also register for workshops there.
Tools & suppliesTools and supplies are sold by the club at most meetings. It is a good idea to contact Carlos Bras (see last page for contact details) in advance of the meeting for specific tools and supplies.
TBS Executive:
President:Keith Oliver
Vice-President:Lilly Tsirulnikov
Web-Master:Jorge Pereira
Treasurer:Jean Charing
Editor/Publisher: Jeeto Butalia
Tools & Supplies:Carlos Bras
Membership Secretary:Linda Chevrier, Cheryl Johnson
New Member Host:Karen Brankley
Recording Secretary:Sylvia Le Roy
Past-President:Mike Roussel
Librarian:Margrit Frederickson
Member at Large:Otmar Sauer
10
The Journal was founded in January, 1964, is published
monthly, and exists to further the study, practice, promulgation,
and fellowship of bonsai.
Visit the Toronto Bonsai Society's web site, at:
www.torontobonsai.org
Toronto Bonsai Society
P.O. Box 155,
Don Mills, Ontario
M3C 2S2