Despite updating the website and all that jazz, I have been updating this even less than usual. Updating Facebook and Instagram with throwaway nonsense has played a part in that, as has simply being very busy. A lot has happened over the end of 2014, not all of it good, and to be honest I was glad to see the end of it. It has been a pretty bad year for bonsai people in general with lots of people being hospitalised, getting various serious conditions and even worse with the passing of some both well and lesser known members of the bonsai community. I have escaped lightly in comparison and for that I am thankful. I was asked recently during a demonstration why I do bonsai and what is good about it as a profession. Despite a few egotistical idiots and people who seem to kill more trees than they grow, it is really the people in bonsai who make it worth while and the reason for doing it is for others, for clients, students, readers, friends and even for those out there who don't like what I have to say or do.

There were a few things that happened in the autumn that have made me consider where the future may lie in both bonsai and also the niche in which I can make a living. One of the biggest eye opening experience was visiting Saulieu in October. For those that don't know Saulieu is a very well organised exhibition in France held in Autumn which has aspirations to become the Taikanten to Noelanders' Kokufuten. A complete European bonsai community need two large shows a year, one in the autumn and one in the winter image. Otherwise we just experience one tiny piece of the bonsai spectrum of enjoyment, too much focus in bonsai is placed on conifers and we miss out on a lot of other things.

That is a little beside the point to be honest as what happened there was the fact that there were over 50 traders and simply not enough visitors to support them. With so many people collecting trees from the mountains with little regard to their quality and suitability to becoming bonsai, there is a glut of material in the market and basic economic theory predicts that as supply goes up and demand goes down, the price drops. Sadly the average enthusiast is guided by price point and what they hear rather than what they see or have experienced to be good quality. One of the drivers of dropping demand is the bad experience that enthusiasts get from poor quality material and teaching...but this is a whole rabbit hole of another nature that we shouldn't disappear down. Point being, fool me once, shame on you. Most people don't come back for a second round of freshly collected yamadori.

It may sound as though I am complaining about profit margins but as things are in the bonsai community, we will see many nurseries close, many professionals having to quit because of those out there who have a day job but sell bonsai on the side with minimal profit margins or run workshops in their backyards. Lower prices may seem like something beneficial in the short term but success in bonsai is not something which can be measured in economic terms. If the western bonsai community has full time professionals who are talented, dedicated and committed to increasing the level of bonsai then we will all benefit. Sadly sustainability for the bonsai community doesn't come for free but neither is it supposed to be expensive.

One of the most time consuming things and reasons for the silence of late has been the frankly depressing search for purchasing a suitable property to start a permanent base for Saruyama Towers. I am once again at the mercy of economic forces, Supply of affordable houses is low, demand is super high and so prices are ridiculous. In the area where we are looking, South East London and further out, the market is being ruined by investors. Buy to Let property developers who are making what they think is a short term financial profit but is actually at the expense of society as a whole. As the market becomes more and more inaccessible to people, it all comes crumbling down and people leave as they simply cannot afford it. "Move out to the country!" you say...and make Lady Saruyama commute for two hours plus every day or take the risk of becoming the sole earner and then what happens when I break my leg and cannot work? It is a difficult situation to get out of, however all hope is not lost. Irons in the fire and a new dawn on the horizon and all that jazz; have no fear, there is no chance of me giving up, I have already jumped into the abyss.

Kokufu is just around the corner, I leave for Japan in a few days so expect the usual photo deluge. I will be busy as usual with setting up the displays from the Chief and Akiyama, sales and looking after clients. This year we are not having a tilt at the big kokufu sho prize but it is still nice to be part. There will be the first ever UK based client displaying at the show as well as a few other foreign entrants. We will have about 14 trees I think to sort out over the two shows as well as setting up for the second suiseki show which looks like being a good one as well. Pictures will come, I have a super high capacity portable battery to keep my phone, camera and wifi router all charged up (thanks santa) so there are no excuses.

It is a shame that Noelanders comes so quickly after the end of Kokufu and the suiseki show; as a result, I will not be able to attend. January has been very quiet as a result of not having Noelanders and I feel as though a month of my life as just disappeared....still I hope it will be a success and that the UK shohin invasion will prove to be successful.

So like the all those politicians that are infesting the media at the moment, I shall leave you with the promise that in the future, things will all be better...(just don't ask questions or for guarantees as actual results may vary ;)

Onwards and upwards....

Finally...

It seems as though the website is in order and we are all go. There were some teething problems, the site was down for a few days and lots of stuff needed redoing but it should look reet proper now...across all formats, devices and all that jazz. If you notice anything awry then please let me know.

It seems as though website renewal must be in the air, either that or summer is a slack time for bonsai professionals because those crazy hill dwellers over at Bonsai Mirai have only gone and launched the first wave of their website. go over and have a look... BONSAI MIRAI

They have introduced a searchable database with their trees, and believe me, there are some incredible plans in the pipeline, so sign up for their newsletter and watch as Ryan and Chelsea shake up things on a whole new level. Go find the pictures from when the property was first purchased...and see how much blood sweat and tears have gone into the nursery.

Words do not do them justice, so go and have a look at the site and get a feel of what they are trying to achieve.

On another note, I have been having some family time of late, which has been nice, also been pottering around in the garden a little as well as a trip to Poland where I continued to work on some of my long term projects with Mariusz at Ibuki. I half wrote a massive sleep deprived post on "Breaking the bronco" whilst drifting in and out of conciousness due to some great herbal sleeping pills. I will reinvestigate that at some point.

I never promise anything but the online shop should be finished shortly. Hopefully at the end of the week.

If anyone has any suggestions for improvements on the website, things you want to see then please let me know.

Early autumn, fungal issues and what to watch out for

So I am finally starting to get settled into the new website and find my way around. There have been a few issues but it seems to be heading in the right direction. The shop will be opened for business shortly, within the next few days. I have shown a few people some items and they have said it looks good. I doubt anything will sell because it might be a bit "how much for that dirty old pot!" and such like, but it is time to start making space at Saruyama towers so I can fill it up with more stuff. In fact I just purchased a rather nice maple and I now have to start looking into the planning permission and health and safety regs for building double-decker benches. It was however, too good an opportunity to miss out. As part of my Japanese training which now seems oh so long ago, I was introduced to the idea of seasonality in bonsai display, bonsai cultivation and cuisine. Unless you are a farmer or a keen gardener as a child then nowadays we kind of grow up thinking that tomatoes grow all year round, cucumbers are an acceptable addition to Christmas dinner and the only season you are worried about is the start of the football
. Developing as a bonsai practitioner, I started to attune my spidey senses to weather, climate and any little seasonal changes. Growing up in the UK you kind of know naturally when it is going to rain just by the feeling you get in your bones as you stare up at the sky or peer from the window of a morning, but there is more to climate than just rain, just as there is more to climate change than global warming (love that argument that climate change doesn't exist because our winters are still cold). Cast your mind back and remember the winter and early spring we had in Europe...(apologies to the rest of the world)...it seems as if the seasons are shifting up the calendar. It would appear as though we are on the verge of autumn. A few things have made me think this recently...the incredibly red berries on my hawthorns, the slight chill to the air of an evening and the morning and as I was driving to a clients on Friday morning, I looked up to see
  Obviously this isn't the photograph that I took as I drove up the M1, but I saw some geese on their way some where and it was just another nail in the coffin of summer. Another sign which made me ever so slightly wish I was back in Japan (although it is still incredibly hot there 34 degrees) was the misty moon the other night which along with the migrating geese, is a very typical autumnal image used in bonsai display

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Again, not my picture, but it is kind of what I saw. the harvest moon is a bit early, we are a month away yet, but it was definitely feeling autumnal the other night. Such images are often used in Japanese bonsai display in October/November when the trees are starting to turn colour.

 I got this image from the Capital Bonsai blog, read it for more autumnal excellence and a full explanation of this scroll



This image comes from the 2012 International stone symposium at which Mr. Morimae did a seminar on mainly suiseki display. He actually painted the scroll himself, a classic oboro zuki (hazy moon)



Like this rainy image...


And there you go, yet another bonsai display with a misty moon, not taken at the Chiefs, I got this from google. Nice pine, shame about the suiseki though..


Apologies for the poor photoshoppery but why does everyone feel the need to put three items in a display? These Japanese don't know anything, or maybe I just prefer to be lonely. Anyway, what does all this mean for our trees? This late summer, early autumn period is very important for lots of reasons. Trees start to think about the upcoming winter, next year and make preparations. We will see a final growth spurt which may manifest itself as another flush of extensions on Junipers, bud setting on pines or thickening in deciduous trees. It is important to fertilise appropriately, so keep up with fertiliser, especially a high P-K fertiliser (organic naturally). In addition to this, seaweed extract is advisable for all those micro nutrients and growth hormones that will strengthen cell walls and assist the tree do all sorts of stuff that trees need to do. I will be selling an incredible brand of this shortly. It has revolutionised my garden (well made it much greener) but that is by the by. Other things that you need to think about are wires digging into to branches as they thicken, especially deciduous and Scots Pine. Many people transplant pines in the Autumn, I rarely do this but I have seen it done successfully.

If your White Pines are starting to look like this...with the orange needle casing starting to fall off then now is the best time to start pruning back. Cut back the strongest buds when you have other secondary shoots behind them. In certain cases on very strong trees you can remove the entire bud, kind of like candle cutting on black pines and it will stimulate new buds further back in. I would not advise this until you have experience of what can and can't be cut or you will end up with a lot of blind shoots next year. I will go into more detail in another post sometime this week weather permitting so wait for that. One of my biggest concerns this year has been the proliferation of fungal problems on trees, in particular junipers. I was having a conversation with the owner of a reputable bonsai nursery about the increase in fungal infections. Tips dying off, branches dying and in some cases entire trees just collapsing in the blink of an eye. Look for browning growth tips, yellowing foliage, anything out of the ordinary and then look closely at the dead foliage. Can you see black spots? chances are it is some kind of fungus and do some more research. Books are good...but the internet can be useful. What can be done to prevent this? Good hygienic practices and preventative spraying of fungicides is always a good idea. Good hygiene is basically cleaning any dead branches as soon as they die, allowing good airflow around the tree and also sterilizing tools as you work on different trees to stop cross contamination. Understanding how and when fungal spores form and distribute will help you to stop infections spreading. Sadly one way they are spread is by the wind and so that is hard to prevent, but rain and water on the foliage can be controlled.




 Preventative spraying should be done on a regular basis at various times of the year. Now and spring in particular. It is important to have a few different chemicals in your armoury and vary them up on a cyclical basis. Spraying chemicals is a very dangerous process and this should be covered in more detail somewhere else but it isn't yet..so the short version.

• Use a mask, use a good sprayer, use gloves and goggles and a waterproof rain coat.
• Don't drink the stuff, breathe it in or spray it on anything other than your trees.
• Avoid any other living things, especially fish. Spray early morning or in the evening to avoid bees and prolong the life of photosensitive chemicals.
• Don't do it on a windy day or a completely still day.
• Use measuring instruments and calculate the correct concentration. Double and triple check.
• Mix thoroughly. Some chemicals, especially daconil, are much heavier than water and have relatively poor solubility. They will sink to the bottom of your sprayer and the last quarter of a tank will come out like rancid milk. (You learn that from experience don't you mike)

A lot of people will say you should be organic and think of the environment and I agree entirely on an agricultural level....but not on my trees. No way. Minimise environmental and human damage as much as possible, but there is yet to be as effective an alternative. I would recommend these items and chemicals to be used with great care. Clicking on the links will take you to amazon uk or .com, if you buy anything I will earn like 0.02% so it will be some kind of payback for the two hours it has taken for me to give you this free information ;) All items are recommended/used at Saruyama. The sprayer might be too big for most people, but go for a good brand rather than a cheap and cheerful one.

For UK visitors...

For US visitors...

I will say again. Please do be careful if and when you use any of the above chemicals. They are highly toxic and should be handled and used with great care. Think of the environment.

That said, I don't want to sound as though I am the harbinger of doom and gloom, I hope we have a month of summer left, especially as we are spanking the Indians in the cricket but I have one eye on the weather forecast and one eye on the sky every morning.

As you may or may not have noticed, there has been a new and improved website update. I have, with some professional help, been working on this intermittently for what seems like half a year.  The google blogger blog will remain as is and I will post the same content on there for a while but start to move across any subscriptions to here. I will put email sign up thing on in due course.

The transfer of the old blog to the new wordpressery has resulted in some weird photo stuff going on there so my apologies. For the old blog go to http://saruyama-bonsai.blogspot.co.uk/


There will be shop bit opening up once I get around to photographing all the stuff I want to sell...which isn't much lets face it. Also there is a portfolio of a few of the trees I have worked on. There will be some ironing out of creases in the next few days but any problems with the site viewing on different systems, recommendations etc. etc.   please email me

Onwards and indeed upwards

Another trip back...

After the self inflicted trials and tribulations of Florida at the BSF convention, which went very well, I find myself back in Japan for a short trip. For some reason, perhaps its the combination of great people, sun and alcohol, I always enjoy my visits to florida. My demo tree was a great buttonwood, literati style. As always no pics. No decent ones anyway. What a terrible bonsai artist I am to not do that. I ended up buying it in the auction because I liked it so much and well it was ridiculously cheap. The one thing about conventions I dislike is the auctioning off of material after the demos, they never go for anything near their true worth and so I didnt want to let this get away. I set myself a limit and the tree came in spot on. Many people thought I would be taking it home with me, but apart from the illegality of it all, buttonwoods like heat and sunshine. Two things that the UK tends to lack. Instead it now has a home at my good friend Michael Fedducia's bonsai nursery in Plant City. He will look after it and do what is necessary. I will visit when I am there next and maybe one day put it in a show when I am judging and win first prize.

The throbbing crowd before my second demo. It soon filled up mind.

The exhibition itself was very pleasing to see...it showed off a lot of styles of bonsai from traditional Japanese, to American and Chinese penjing influenced. Even had a bit of asobi kokoro in there too. Here are some pics.

Both the above trees are in very nice pots by Japanese potter Shuzan. I was pretty impressed to see them. Without wishing to sound boastful, to the untrained eye, they may not look anything different, but looking at the tsuchi me or the clay quality/consistency, it becomes apparent. Nice patina and well matched to the trees...and before you ask, no I did not sell them.

Although I wish I had done...mmmm.

Brazillian Rain tree forest, winner of best big tree, great story behind it we later heard.

A very well thought out display showing a cow chilling under a big spreading oak tree image. Attention to detail was great. Deservedly won the best display.

This display featuring a little figurine flying a kite next to a windswept tree was evidence of the asobi kokoro that can be all do often missing from the uptight and rule obssessed world we live in. If all tres were like this it would be kitsch and ridiculous, but every now and again, it is necessary to have an amuse bouche to refresh the soul.

After a short trip at home including a seriously jet lagged appearance at Sutton Club, it was to Japan to tie up some business from February and also look for some new stuff. Plenty of pot orders which are as yet unfulfilled but have managed to find some trees for clients that will be shipped in the winter/next spring.

Akiyama and I drove for over 2000km and visited a lot of places. One thing that became apparent is a lack of good trees and stuff to buy. Akiyama has been disappointed as have I too a certain extent. I have made a few purchases including a yamadori kifu sized juniper which is very raw. It will stay at Akiyamas for two years while it grows out (again, they tend to do that better in Japan) while it gets its plant passport and then I will import it in the future...unless I make it here and enter it into Kokufu for somebody.

Either way it was a great tree to find and Akiyama would have snapped it up if I didn't.

The trip was planned to coincide with an auction down in Kumamoto. As always, there was fun and games and I managed to pick up some cheap pots. One of the brokers brought a lot of clients stuff which was on a no reserve type deal, so went to the highest bidder. There were a few chuhin and larger nakawatari chinese pots that I bought for much less than I thought, so expect to see those for sale at some point on my soon to be redone website. The guy in the white T-shirt in the foreground is the recently returned Moriyama-kun, son of Mr. Moriyama (unsurprisingly) and he has just finished his apprenticeship under Mr. Kimura. Ryan Neil was his senpai for a number of years and talks fondly of him (on the whole). He was busy wiring away when we got there, and there were a number of trees in the nursery which had his touch on them. I hope in the future he will become well known, but he is a shy kid so who knows.

It was a learning experience as well for both of us. Akiyama was giving a lot of thought to business operations and nursery size so he compared nurseries and the way they worked. There is always some new technique or nugget of knowledge to gain. One thing I realised yet again is that all the healthiest trees and those which looked the best were one which were repotted infrequently and when they were, the core root ball was left relatively untouched. Over the last few years I have been repotting less, often due to inability to get it done, but I have noticed an increase in health.

A white pine, 20 odd years in the same pot and soil. "It is still geowing well so I didnt see the point...now I can't get it out of the pot!" joked Miyao-san, the owner of the garden.

The central root ball is left relatively untouched. As long as water can penetrate and the tree is healthy, leave it alone.

Miyao-san was also the dude who put funnels/radio antenna on his trees to collect water for the pots of the whips that are being used for approach grafting.

Didn't get much chance of sight seeing, but what is new there...this was the view from a service area near Miyajima, Hiroshima. Some of the drive was breathtaking, especially the Shin Meishin expressway which I drove because Akiyama hates the heights. It winds itself through the mountains sometimes several hundred feet above ground level. No pictures except for this...a very confused car navi

I will spread out the tree porn pictures over the next few posts...but here are some

Ok. Thats yer lot for now...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Books and learning....

On my recent trip to the United States I made some trees and did some demonstrations and all that. Here are some of those trees in case you don't stalk me on social media.

A limber pine done by Akiyama and myself (Mainly Akiyama). We considered buying it between us and then entering it into a major show one day...however seeing as there is a big possibility I would be the judge and also we have nowhere to keep it, we decided against it. It was a shockingly good piece of material. I went all a bit hipster instagramtastic on the filter there. Makes things look that little bit more wabi-sabi.

We got through a few trees at Natures Way during our two days there. Perhaps we did too much. We did lots more but I am not here to blow my own trumpet. Lets leave that kind of activity to the FBM* crowd.

What I am here to do is that unpleasant thing and talk about important things rather than show pictures of overly wired badly styled trees that all look the same and get lots of attention. (Can you tell I have spent the last week with Akiyama talking about what makes good bonsai and a good bonsai professional, mainly from the exasperated point of view that FBM's seem to be directing the dialogue on what is quality or true and what is not?)

What I am here to do is point out the fact that I did some book learning. Flicking through a lot of old books at Nature's Way, I learnt some ground breaking stuff...made me realise what an absolute gamble it is when you pick up a book. For instance, I learned from some random book that...

That for me was an eye opening piece of information as I had been going around telling people for the last ten years that the root system on a bonsai was the foundation for a strong, healthy, well ramified and generally lovely looking tree. Turns out I was wrong. Apparently the roots don't matter that much.

*** in case you don't realise, I am making fun of this nonsense that was published ****

After having a chuckle at how little they knew back then, for the book was published in the 80's, I picked up a book entitled "American Bonsai" published in the sixties, I forget the author, which is a crime I know. I didnt take a picture of the cover. I will admit, I opened it expecting to have regressed even further back in time. As it happened, I should have had a plate, with a knife and fork, ready to eat my words...

The section on soils just amazed me. Why hadn't I read this before? Why hadn't this knowledge been repeated in other books? Who stopped this important and essential information from being disseminated? This knowledge is lacking in most people's understanding in the 2010's and this dude was talking about it 50 years ago. 50 years. Things have advanced a little, but not that much. The soil mix bit with peat moss can be ignored but otherwise, this is essential reading. By breaking copyright laws I hope I don't upset anyone, and if Bill Valavanis could tell us what/who the title/author is, that would be great...but as a starter to soil science for bonsai, you can't get much better than this

 

 

There is absolutely no excuse for not knowing this stuff now, it was knowledge around in English fifty years ago. Next time you have a workshop or watch a demonstration with a FBM then ask them about the three forces acting on water in the soil. Next time your teacher uses Akadama straight from the bag without sifting it ask them why. "Because it doesn't make a difference" is not an answer that should be accepted.

Apologies for the rant but this is fundamental knowledge that should be understood and practiced. Sometimes it is better to get off the unedited and irresponsible internet and get back to more traditional ways of learning. Even better, get off the internet and work on trees, it is so much more enjoyable.

 

* In case you didn't figure it out, FBM = Facebook bonsai master...and yes, I have started posting pictures there. In order to change society, you must first be part of it. It won't last though...

Edit **** So I was being a little bit over enthusiastic on the dates....turns out I was like 20 years off...but that still means that goddamn it I was mostly right. Thank you Bill and Frank Kelly. As Morrissey once sand..."There is always someone, somewhere, with a big nose who knows, and trips you up and laughs when you fall". ****

Organic pest removal...

A no nonsense post for once. No jokes. No messing. Just solid information. A break from the norm for once.

Assuming you are not liking me on faceache or following me on instaspam then this will be new. If you are appreciating my attempts to be social and media friendly then apologies for the repetition. The new presence of said social media sites is to attempt to make myself more visible because according to my PR people, that is what I should be doing.

After a few demos and workshops at Nature's Way Nursery near Harrisburg in PA, Akiyama and I have arrived for some work at a large collection nearby. At this time of year many trees have lots of lovely long shoots which are soft and tender. These are juicy and easy to eat for many sucking insects such as aphids. Symptoms of aphids can be the presence of little green insects known as aphids on the soft tender growth. They crap everwhere which makes things greasy and shiny. The growth may also be deformed and less vigorous, mainly because those little suckers are taking away valuable nutrients. Another tell tale sign is the presence of ants running around your trees. They farm the aphids, looking after them and offering protection, moving them to fresh pastures all for a small cut of their honeydew takings. In effect ants are insect pimps and the aphids be their bitches who better have their money.

If you are faced with this problem and are either organically minded or know how easy it is to damage tender growth with incorrect use of pesticides or chemicals that are too strong, especially on chojubai who drop their leaves easily; then how, other than squishing them one by one, can they be removed? Easy.

Now you can see from the power of the water jet (for that is all it is people) that this will damage weaker varieties or possibly knock wired branches out of shape, so adjust the power accordingly. Blast those suckers off into hyperspace. If any ants turn up to protect their bitches, gun them down too like the weak ass pimps they are. Make sure you get the shoots from all angles, not just above. Check out the 360 degree death jet in the video.

It is incredibly effective. Physically removing all of them and washing their crap off the leaves at the same time.

That said however there will always be one or two that escape the blast and manage to stay on there. They can reproduce very quickly and one female can have thousands upon thousands of babies, spreading like a plague across your trees. Get on top of it quickly. After the tree dries out completely, later that day when the sun starts to set, mix up some insecticidal soap and weak contact killer pesticide such as Pyrethrin and spray the new growth. One area to be especially careful of with trees from the rose family such as Chojubai which send out soft tender sucker gowth on the inside of trees is the soft tender sucker growth on the inside. Not only will these be covered in aphids but they will also take away energy from the growth on old branches, so make sure you check inside.

Whenever handling chemicals be careful not to inhale, breathe or get covered in pesicides and wash your hands thoroughly afterwards. Whenever handling aphids, be careful not to upset their ants.