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.