Korean Hornbeam workshop with bonsai master John Romano

This month, I am showing a video my wife, Sarah Whitaker, made during a workshop with John Romano. John is famous for his shohin, but is expert in all bonsai techniques and styles. He is also a wonderful person and teacher. The tree is a Korean Hornbeam that I got as a prebonsai 2 years ago. At the time of the workshop, I had roughed out the styling of the excellent raw material, root pruned and potted the tree.

The Hornbeam when I first got it in 2011

 It was time for the next step up in its bonsai life - a style refinement that could be built upon in the subsequent years. I also needed help in solving the tree's few peculiarities; all trees have them, if not all the same kind. The tree was at the bud development stage and very fragile. It was unpleasantly easy to knock buds off by merely touching them. So, the work had to be very careful and delicate. I still lost some important buds, however. The video is a bit over 20 minutes long, but it is compressed from hours of work and thought. I hope you get as many ideas from John as I did.

My Jaboticaba selected for inclusion in the 3rd U.S. National Bonsai Exhibition

This morning I got a wonderful email from William Valavanis: my Jaboticaba bonsai has been selected for display, and judging, in the 3rd U.S. National Bonsai Exhibition this June 9-10 in Rochester, NY. Naturally, I am pleased, but I am also nervous. I have only displayed it, and some of my other bonsai, in club events. This is something altogether more serious. As I look at it, as it sits in my living room, all I can see is its defects.

My Jaboticaba in this year's Club Show

 Last Summer, I decided it was getting too large (about a yard tall), and did some very radical apical pruning and lowered the root pad by about a half inch. Maintaining a tree at its desired end state is more difficult for me than creating that end state. It also had a very rough Summer because of the horribly weird weather we have been having in CT the last few years. In July and August, the temperature rose to 100 degrees F (38C) in the shade, and the sun shown blisteringly hot. I moved this tree, and some others, into dappled shade and watered every day (even the foliage, which I usually don't do for fear of molds), but leaves still got burned. Some days I even moved it inside. I was forced to remove quite a few leaves. So, now, the apex is just growing back nicely and the partial defoliation caused some nice ramification, and new leaves are budding out all over the tree, but the older leaves look a bit leathery. I think that is because it is Winter and, even with a humidifier in the room, the air is rather dry for a tree that comes from Brazilian uplands.

Now that I have just told the Exhibition's judges all about my tree's fearful faults (in my own eyes), I have a serious job ahead of me: get that tree into fighting shape. The material is still there, but I must justify the Selection Committee's faith in me. It is only mid-Feb, so I am hopeful that I have enough time to help the Jaboticaba shine like a star. As, I turn my head to look at it this instant, it looks pretty damned good.