Randy Brings Buckeyes to ACBS

Randy's seed grown Buckeyes

by Michael Rusnak

 

At the ACBS May meeting our own Randy Pepper brought in a group of young buckeye trees that that he had raised over the past couple of seasons from collected seeds. 

Randy gave the buckeyes to members who were willing to give them a try. 

Several of the umbrella shaped three year seedlings

He discussed some of the experiments he has done with them, observing, for example how they respond to pruning along the trunk.  A few started look like cool and exotic literati projects.  

Though not a traditional subject for bonsai, the tall lanky growth pattern of Ohio's signature native tree might lend itself to the literati style at some point. It will be fun to see what people come up with and maybe have an Ohio Buckeye or two in one of our future exhibits.

ACBS on Channel 8 New Day Cleveland Morning Show

Check out this cool 5 minute spot  that our club got on the show

New Day Cleveland, Channel 8 --See this link.

The President's Challenge: Create a Literati Pine from Seedling

Literati from seedling

ACBS's president Mike Rusnak often says that much of the fun in bonsai is in the process, the process of making something out of almost nothing, or more specifically, developing a bonsai over time from simple nursery sock or from discarded material. 

This year Mike passed out two Scotch pine seedlings to each member and issued a challenge.  Members are to work with the seedlings and over the next few/ five  seasons develop a literati bonsai.

At this point each member should have taken home their seedlings, potted them, get them healthy and made growing, and perhaps make some preliminary cuts or wiring to get it on its way.

Developing a pine bonsai is a rewarding project. Typically, it will take about five years to start looking presentable.  We will check in with how they are doing at one of our monthly meeting each year.  We'll also learn more together, and in the end members will have developed their own cool literati.  Imagine having a table of member-created literati pines at one of our future club exhibits. How cool would that be????

Check out what Ken did with the left over scraggly one Mike gave him at the April meeting.

Ken Does Maple Madness At April Meeting

At the ACBS's April meeting, our own Ken Huth showed us his "maple madness" ideas to start projects for this growing season.  Ken showed some slides on how you can make some pretty amazing stuff with a few seedlings and a couple of growing seasons.

Ken in known for experimenting with unconventional training techniques.  He likes to see what He demonstrated a neat root over rock maple setting a group of six trident seedlings over a rock, and keeping them in place with a tight wrap of black electrical tape and steel wire.

Ken also demonstrated a fusion project binding a small handful of seedlings into one, coiling them together with a tight wrap of steel wire. Additionally, Ken brought in a group of experiments from past seasons where he left the wire in place and the tree grew over and around it.  While keeping the wire on a tree is not often recommended, he showed several examples from his experiment.  Some of the trees thickened considerably and produces some interesting textures and shapes along the trunk.
These are inexpensive project ideas and look like a lot of fun to try. 

Jim Doyle Visits ACBS

Nationally known bonsai artist Jim Doyle visited the ACBS in March and led a workshop on some field grown lindens and Korenan hornbeams.  Jim showed us a brief presentation on ways to develop a deciduous bonsai and also talked about care and maintenance.

He worked his way around participating members and discussed with each different viewing angles and plans for developing and the tree. He discussed design elements including pruning back large branches, selecting and apex and training branches downward to give the illusion of age to the tree.
Check out some video clips from the workshop here on our youtube channel.

Jim is the owner of Nature's Way bonsai nursery in Pennsylvania, and has been studying bonsai since 1980.  He has worked with some internationally known artists such as Walter Pall in Germany and has exhibited his trees nationally and internationally. For a full biography, see his websitehttp://www.natureswaybonsai.com