The next meeting is Wednesday, June 22, 2005 . This is a bring your own tree.

A View From Here
by Jack Wikle 

About Preparing Bonsai for an Exhibit:

Our Newsletter editor, Robert Bryant, recently suggested to me that this might be a good time to rerun something written in the past about preparing bonsai for an exhibit. I am accepting his offer. The thoughts below first appeared in our July, 2003 Newsletter. I think they are still valid.

Why Bother?
Of course it is very easy to tell oneself, “They won't need my tree,” or “My bonsai aren't good enough.” Ultimately, it will be a personal choice to participate as an exhibitor or not. Even so, everyone should be aware that if we limit our exhibits to the best of the best, very few bonsai will be displayed. Furthermore, the small-but-elite exhibit will disappoint those people who come expecting to experience a wide variety of bonsai, not just many kinds of trees in different styles but differences in tree maturity and in time in training as well.

Accordingly, it seems very important for our display to include more than just bonsai that make a viewer wonder how anyone could possibly do that. We also need bonsai that encourage people with the realization, “I like that tree, it looks loved, and I could do that.” It is true that not everyone will react in the same way but experience tells us that if you have a tree you like, someone else will like it too.

Not so apparent is a more direct reward to the exhibitor. The person who cleans up a tree for a show often finds he or she likes it more – now sees it as a better bonsai. This is somewhat like one's children becoming more respectable when they are cleaned up to go to church. And, in many cases, the extra attention given a bonsai in preparing it for an exhibit really does make it better. Focusing on the needs of an exhibit candidate rather than dividing time among many trees, the grower often discovers opportunities for improvement that would otherwise have gone unrecognized.  

Start Early
To really present your bonsai at their best, don't wait until the last day and last few minutes to get them ready for an exhibit. Begin early – even weeks ahead -- by picking out one or more trees that you like and that you will enjoy studying and working with to make them look as nice as possible by show time. At the same time, you need to be ready to switch if a chosen tree takes a nosedive or a tree you hadn't planned on showing suddenly begins to look really good.

If the foliage color of a chosen tree seems weak, consider supplementing your normal fertilization with weekly or, better yet, twice weekly foliar feeding. To be extra safe with this, use half the foliar feed concentration recommended on the fertilizer package. Remember too that it is best not to spray trees with anything when air temperatures are unusually high or when their soil is dry. Wait for temperatures to drop first then water your trees well before any spraying.

Closer to show time (perhaps a week or two before), try moving your exhibit bonsai into more shade than they have been getting. Trees often respond to diminished light intensity with deeper green color. The last day or two before the show you might even go to complete shade. (Lacking a better option, bring the tree into your garage or basement.) 

Clean the Pot
Do clean the pot before the very last minute to allow time to do it all over again if necessary. It is not uncommon to think you have a pot really clean then find stains still very apparent when its surface dries completely.

If you have other pots, not in use and not too different in size, there may be a possibility of transferring a well rooted bonsai to a never used pot or a cleaner pot in which it will look even better than in its present container.

At a minimum, lacking other pot options, use some kind of scrubbing pad and a mild solution of soapy water to clean the outside of the usual pot. Follow the scrub with a rinse of clean water and dry with a towel. If needed, try softening mineral crusts and stubborn stains with vinegar solution or a commercial lime removing product (“Lime-A-Way” as an example) and rubbing them off using a scrubbing pad or discarded tooth brush. In doing this be careful not to get too much of the cleaning solution in the soil. I have to mention “Permatex” brand hand cleaner here too because it seems to work for me as well or better than the other products I've mentioned.

If your tree really is well rooted enough that it can be removed from its pot with the soil mass mostly intact, taking it out will make cleaning easier. With pots that are not too large for this approach to be practical, boiling them fifteen to twenty minutes in water with automatic dishwasher soap added will remove many stubborn deposits. (I have had considerable success with this using one third cup of “Sunlight Dishwasher Detergent” in two gallons of tap water.)

Finally, many hazy stains – the kind that remain on some unglazed pots despite your best cleaning efforts -- can be hidden for days with a light coating of baby oil or mineral oil. First I wipe the pot as dry as possible. Then I apply oil with an oily cloth and finish by wiping off any excess with a dry cloth. Minor stains will be masked by the oil and it gives the pot a fresh, moist look.  

Groom the Tree
Much of what we do is “adding by subtracting.” Removing anything dead or noticeably discolored not essential to the design of your bonsai will make whatever is left look surprisingly healthy. Then you can refine your design by pruning out – or repositioning – wayward branches, anything not compatible with the overall design, especially branches dangling below or rocketing above the main branch layers.

Wire no longer needed to hold a branch in place can be removed too. On the other hand, if you discover an opportunity to make your tree look better by adding wire, don't hesitate in doing it. We don't keep children home just because they have braces on their teeth.

Look for leaves or needles that stand out at a glance as being conspicuously large or long. Often, eliminating relatively few really large leaves or needles can be a significant improvement. As an alternative to removing large leaves and long needles completely, consider clipping the needles short or trimming off most of the blade of large leaves with very sharp scissors. It is best to do this kind of trimming just before the show since any browning of the cut edges that takes place will not become conspicuous for a few days. Notice that what we have been doing here is taking off everything we don't like.

In doing this cleanup, change positions frequently to check your progress from all possible points of view. Look up into your tree. Look down on your tree. Study it up close and from farther away, even far enough away that you can't see details and the tree becomes little more than a silhouette. Taking pictures with your “Polaroid” or digital camera is another way of allowing you to see your tree differently. Short of taking a photograph, just studying your bonsai through a camera viewfinder can be helpful. Some people find that looking at a tree's image in a mirror changes their perspective enough that unrecognized needs and new opportunities become apparent. Making his point about the importance of seeing one's trees in new ways, Nick Lenz (well known bonsai artist and author) has even said he's found it useful to leave a tree on the bench in his work shed then go outside to peer at it through a window.  

Enhance Root Exposure
In our efforts to refine branching and foliage, a tree's trunk base and surface roots are easily overlooked. Moss and grime can be removed from the base of the tree and surface roots by gentle scrubbing with a toothbrush moistened in soapy water. Ask yourself also if it is possible to improve your bonsai by brushing away excess soil to reveal more of the rooting or, in some cases, by adding fresh mix and bringing the soil level higher where needed to make your tree look more firmly rooted. And, again, is there opportunity for improvement – for simplification – by cutting off crossing or cluttered-looking surface roots?

In all of this root enhancement, our goal is usually to expose as much surface rooting as possible while still keeping a visual sense that the roots are firmly in contact with the soil.  

Groom the Soil Surface
Remove weeds, conspicuous algae and any ugly moss. Topdressing with fresh soil or, if necessary, scraping off old surface soil and replacing it with fresh mix can give a pleasing, clean looking surface. Adding fresh mix may also make it possible to form interesting soil surface contours where that is desirable.

Now is a good time to plant fresh moss if you like in a way that doesn't hide trunk flare or surface roots. Remember moss doesn't have to grow pot wall to pot wall to be attractive. Try for an interesting, natural looking distribution of moss clumps by varying their sizes and spacing.  

Finally...
Spraying your exhibit tree with a weak concentration of spray oil or spraying with “Safer's Insecticidal Soap” a day or two before the show are other ways of giving everything a fresh look and intensifying colors.

OK, you have done it all. Your trees are ready and will be delivered to the show site tomorrow. Why not bring them indoors overnight? It is not unheard of to have heavy rain, strong winds or roving varmints undo all one's artistry.

Oh yes, water your bonsai thoroughly just before taking them to any exhibit. You never know how soon and how adequate the next watering will be.

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