BONSAI IN SOUTH AFRICA: YOUR COLLECTIONby Carl Morrow, Botany Department, University of Cape Town

In this article, the fourth and last in the series, I present information on ten more species of indigenous trees forbonsai in the form of a table, and discuss how to set about establishing your personal bonsai collection.

W hat do you want from the art?One can be a serious growerwith a large collection of a

variety of trees, an enthusiast with amedium sized collection or justsomeone that enjoys the art andmaintains a collection of a few trees.If you just want a small collectionthen you only need a small amount ofspace in a convenient area, such as apatio. At the other extreme, you couldcompletely re-design your garden andinstall a watering system and shadehouses for your more delicate trees.

To start, I would recommendjoining a bonsai club* to make contactwith like-minded people and you canlearn more about the local conditionsthan reading a book on the subject.A good first step to establishing abonsai collection is to buy a couple ofreasonable quality but not tooexpensive trees. These will maintainyour interest until the trees that youwill start growing from other sourcesmature into bonsai. Be wary ofspending too much money on yourfirst attempts at bonsai as it is likelythat they will be treated to a degree ofmismanagement while you arelearning. Become as informed aspossible before buying a tree - goodbonsai are costly but price and age donot necessarily make a good bonsai.Ask the trader lots of questions. Ifthey have difficulty answering them,be careful of what you buy. Stockquestions include, 'What type of treeis this? and 'When was it planted intothis pot?' A good test to make surethat it is firmly rooted is to gentlymove the trunk and it should be firmwithin the pot. Ask when it will needre-potting and you should expect theanswer to be 'in about two yearsfrom now'. If the tree has trainingwires on it ask when they shouldbe taken off. The best time is whenthe wire just starts pressing into

the swelling branch.If you ever see very good bonsai

being sold at a peculiar venue forsurprisingly cheap prices it is likelythat they have been stolen and youwould be helping enormously bycontacting your local club or society*as they often know when trees havebeen stolen from local collections.

Probably the most common sourceof material for bonsai growers wouldbe trees from commercial nurseries.These trees have been matured for anumber of years and so one can startthe training process immediately afterbuying the tree. As I have said earlier,though, most nurseries stock a verylimited range of indigenous treematerial. Other sources of bonsaistock include seed and seedlings andcuttings. It is wonderfully satisfying todevelop plants from seed. This is theslowest way of creating a bonsai but itdoes have the advantage of one havingcontrol over every development stageof the tree and so very fine results canbe achieved. A reasonable, smallbonsai of about 15 em height can bedeveloped within five to ten years. Ifyou want a bigger tree some otherdevelopment techniques beyond thescope of this article would need to beemployed and the achievement of abonsai would take a bit longer.Development of cuttings is anotherpopular way of increasing the size ofone's bonsai collection. Trees thathave desirable characteristics can beselected and propagated and so youend up with many more of these goodtrees.

The reasonably uncommon practiceof layering is frequently used bybonsai artists. The most common

variation of this being used is 'aeriallayering' where an attractive branch ofa large tree is selected and a ring ofbark is stripped off the branch, treatedwith rooting hormone and thenwrapped in sphagnum moss inside aplastic sleeve. After some time(usually months) the branch willproduce new roots from the damagedsection and the new tree can then beremoved from the mother plant anddeveloped as a bonsai.

As a bonsai artist, one is always onthe look out for gardens that are beingre-designed and hedges that are beingremoved as these are potential sourcesof wonderful, mature bonsai stock.When you see an area beingdeveloped speak to the site managerand find out whether there will beany trees available for you to collect.

All of these techniques used to addto your bonsai collection are discussedin books about bonsai and so refer tothese for more information. Bonsaiclub members can also give youvaluable advice on these differentmethods.

I have left the most controversialissue in bonsai until last in this seriesof articles. The reason for this was totry to show sceptics that this is acredible art that is practised by peoplethat are passionate about horticultureand are genuinely interested in thewell being of the plants that they growas bonsai. The issue to which I amreferring is whether or not treesshould be collected from the wild.This is a difficult moral issue thatwould take up an entire article initself to investigate. Natural treesprovide the serious bonsai artist witha quality of material with age and

Far left A bad tree to buy.Not only is this anuntrained cutting, butthere is no design, norefinement and the tree israther poorly matchedwith the pot. It should notbe called a bonsai, butwith training and time itmay become one.Left A good sales tree.It shows a history ofdesign, some refinementthat will improve overtime and it is matched wellwi th its pot. This is thekind of tree that oneshould look for if onewants to buy a bonsai.Both these trees areFicus burtt-davyi.Photos: C. Morrow.

character that is impossible to acquirefrom any other source. Most of theclassic bonsai specimens that are seenin the Far East were collected fromthe mountains and windsweptislands. In any given landscape only avery small proportion of the trees (asfew as one in 1000 in fruitful areasand lower in less interesting sites) aresuitable as bonsai stock. In SouthAfrica there are so few bonsai growersand such low commercial demandthat I don't think that nature is underthreat form this source. Agriculture,mining, and urbanization are consid­erably larger problems, but one wouldneed to watch out for unscrupulouscollectors or exporters. A keyadvantage of belonging to a bonsaiclub is that there is the expertise tohelp you collect trees and usuallyclubs arrange organized 'digs' thatallow you to go out into the field andfind bonsai stock. They may alsoorganize collections of material inareas that are earmarked for devel­opment and therefore destruction.

As a bonsai artist one shouldcollect trees in a very responsiblemanner. One must know the regula­tions surrounding collecting of treesas many are protected species incertain regions. It is critical to getpermission from the landowner orrelevant authority. You will have toexplain what you want to do andexperience shows that most friendlyfarmers will shake their heads indisbelief and allow you to collect oneor two 'bossies'. Most importantly,only take those trees that you canproperly care for. Don't be tooambitious and collect so many treesthat most of them will be neglectedand may even die through lack ofcare. When you collect the tree makesure you use the correct techniques atthe correct time of year to ensure thebest chance of survival and make verysure that you leave a minimum ofevidence of your presence once thetree has been removed, by filling inthe hole and returning rocks to theiroriginal positions.

Bonsai is a wonderful hobby thatcan be tremendously rewarding atwhatever level you want to practice itat and it would be fantastic if peoplehave been sufficiently inspired by thisseries of articles to try their hand atthe art. (iff}

AcknowledgementsThis article would not have been possiblewithout the support and encouragementfrom the bonsai community in Cape Townand beyond. I would like to dedicate thisseries to the memory of Bernard Coetzee(29/07/1933 - 08/04/2001) one of SouthAfrica's pioneering and leading bonsaiartists and mentor to generations of bonsaigrowers.

*A list of bonsai contacts in the differentregions is available from the BotanicalSociety at tel (021) 797 2090 or e-mailinfo@botanicalsociety.org.za or fromHeather Pfister at the African BonsaiAssociation, tel (043) 748 1317,e-mail tanuki@mweb.co.za.If there are any specific questions thatyou would like to ask, please contactme at e-mail morrow@botzoo.uct.ac.za.

MORE INDIGENOUS TREES SUITABLE FOR BONSAI

Common Name Latin Name Observations

Small bone-apple Coddia rudis Supposed to be good for bonsai although temperamental when re-potted.(Xeromphis rlldis)

Kei apple Dovyalis caffro This tree is not suitable for the creation of traditional looking bonsai but it isfrequently used. It can produce fruit that have the added charm of being edible.With adequate light, this tree can be grown indoors although it will probablynot produce fruit.

Natal dombeya Dombeya cymosa Sweetly scented autumn flowers and colourful leaves are the attraction ofthis tree. The leaves are rather large but they can reduce to 20 mm in a bonsai.

Wild peach Kiggeloria africana Grows very easily and quickly but has a stiff, rather difficult growth habit.

Carnival bush Dehno serl'lllata Attractive yellow flowers and colourful fruits. It buds well on old wood.

Yellowwood Podocarplls spp. The Yew Podocarpus (Podocarpus macrophylla) is extensively used in Chinato create very beautiful, classic bonsai while here in South Africa we rarely seeyellowwood bonsai. This is possibly due to the South African trees having a

continuous growth form (as opposed to the whorled form seen in P. macrophylla) that makes refinement of the tree difficult. It has been claimed that theBreede River yellowwood (P. elongatus) makes excellent bonsai although I havenot yet seen any good specimens.

Taaibos, karee, Rhus spp. Many Rhus species are used, some are better than others although most seem tocrowberry and have very stiff branches. In my experience, they can bud well on old brancheskuni-bush if they are pruned hard as they seem to exhibit strong terminal dominance.

Karoo and weeping Schotia afro and S. afro is the more desirable plant as it has much smaller leaves thanboerbean S. brachypetala S. braehypetala. The main feature of this tree as a bonsai is its beautiful,

delicate orange-red leaves that emerge in the spring. It develops a gnarledtrunk while the branches have a rather stiff growth habit.

Cape honeysuckle Tecoma capensis There are many cultivated forms of this plant and it is generally used as a(formerly Teeomaria colourful hedging plant. In old moribund hedges one can often findcapensis) reasonable trunks that can be used as bonsai. As with most plants reviewed

here it does not develop a compact refined image associated with classicalbonsai but it is a pretty plant than can be developed into an attractive shapewith the added feature of producing flowers than can range from deep orange-

red through salmon to yellow.

Clanwilliam and Widdringtonia These two trees are particularly bad as bonsai because they have very strongmountain cedar cedarbergensis and terminal dominance on the branches which results in a tree with lanky

W nodifloro branches with only a tuft of foliage at the end and no twig development nearthe trunk of the tree.

Although I have not grown all of the trees in this table, I have briefly commented on remarks and observations made by other artists.There are likely to be many other local species that have been used by bonsai artists all over the country, and it would be interesting tohear your personal experiences - perhaps by a letter to the editor.

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