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The Bonsai News of Houston A Monthly Newsletter of the Houston Bonsai Society Inc.
Volume 49 Number 8 August 2018
Bằng lăng, Vietnamese Lagerstroemia Speciosa, not frilly like its US cousins (Photo: Pinterest)
The next meeting of the Houston Bonsai Society will be at the Cherie Flores Garden Pavilion in Hermann Park, 1500 Hermann Park Drive, Houston, TX 77004. Refreshments at 7 PM, meeting starts at 7:30 PM.
August 1 HBS monthly meeting: Antique Japanese Pottery with Michael Ryan Bell
Upcoming Events More details in Calendar of Events
August 4 Saturday Study Group at Quality Feed & Garden in the Heights, 9AM – 12 Noon. Free, refreshments provided.
August 11 Basic Bonsai #2 Class - Styling and wiring at Timeless Trees - 9AM - 1PM. $60 includes a ficus or boxwood, hand-out, wire and wire cutters. Everyone goes home with a styled tree. (No repotting in this class)
August 18 Dwarf Guava from Peru class - Styling and wiring at Timeless Trees - 9AM - 1PM, $100 includes a nice medium sized bonsai, dwarf guava from Peru imported years ago by Pedro Morales - approximately 16-18 inches tall with 1 inch diameter trunk. Don't miss a chance to get one of these rare and unusual trees.
September 5 HBS monthly meeting: Bonsai Soils with Scott Barboza
September 8 Saturday Study Group at Maas Nursery, 5511 Todville Road, Seabrook, 9 AM – 12 Noon. Free, refreshments provided.
September 15 Shohin club - Bring a nursery tree to start a Shohin with John Miller at Persimmon Hill Bonsai, 12001 Red Hawk Cove, Austin, TX. Contact Steven Hendricks at [email protected] or 817-239-7210.
IN THIS ISSUE
Upcoming Events
Antique Japanese Pottery with
Michael Ryan Bell
Showcase of the Month
Crepe Myrtles’ Rainbow
August Bonsai Care
John Miller
President’s Letter
Crepe Myrtles as Bonsai
6th US National Bonsai Exhibit
in Rochester, NY
Crêpe Myrtles
August Bonsai Care During this month, your primary job will be to maintain the health of your bonsai. There is no number 1 task. Soil temperature, soil moisture and sun intensity on the leaves are equally important. You need to know how your bonsai are doing each hour of the day. Things like how hot the pots are getting at 6 or 7 PM as well as at mid-day or 2 PM, does morning sun heat the pots, etc.
So during this time, you will need to provide shade, check your watering habits, and maybe modify your fertilizing techniques.
A good many species could take the summer Texas sun, if their roots were maintained in a normal soil temp less than 80 degrees. But since their pots are in an ambient (where even the August night temps won’t cool off), you have to take some heroic steps to care for them.
When you think about providing shade, remember that the sun is constantly moving. The worst sun is in late afternoon when the ambient is very high and the air is usually very dry. If this sun hits the pots, they will get very hot. Providing shade on the west is very important. You should cover your pots with a loose fitting cloth to allow air flow around them. (Note: Relative Humidity cuts in half for each 10 degrees rise. RH translates into drying capability.)
Special summer care needs to be given any kind of bonsai with rocks. That would include root over rock, tree on a rock, and a tree using a rock to mask a poor nebari. These rocks need to be shielded from the sun even more than the bonsai pots, as they are in intimate contact with the roots.
Watering usually presents a major problem, since most of us work away from home. The high ambient causes the trees to transpire heavily in the afternoon just when the soil is getting drier. The tree has difficulty in transporting enough water up the trunk.
Ideally, water three times a day. A morning watering would get the plant off to a good start. Watering at about 2:30 PM would not only replace the water loss through evaporation but would also cool the soil back to 60 or so, refreshing the tree for its afternoon ordeal. Then again water at sundown which again cools the soil and lets the tree recover overnight. If the humidity allows (no fungal problems), you can spray the foliage. If you have to use an irrigation system, it’s best to not use drip emitters as they only create wet spots in these shallow pots. Better to use a loop of 1/4 inch soaker hose going all the way around the surface of the pot. With overhead sprinklers, the tree may shed the water to the outside (dripline) and may not get the soil wet at all.
Fertilizers, including the organics, and insecticides are chemical activities and as such are greatly influenced by the temperature. You still need to feed the trees and control the insects but read all labels carefully. You would be advised to use half the recommended strength.
Meanwhile all the usual mundane things must be taken care of. The warm conditions are great for the bad things. Spider mites especially grow fast and are more damaging. Any problems you have had in the past, scale or other insects, will probably need to be attended too, weekly.
In the real world, plan your soil mix for your average conditions but if you have a long wet spell, tilt the pots for drainage and give an extra watering when hot and dry. Put loose sphagnum moss on the soil surface to keep it from drying out. Use some loose covering on the pot to shade it from the sun. A windbreak could help with tender leaved trees.
Remember to water twice. Wait a few minutes after the first watering for the dry soil particles to absorb some of the water on their surface. When the surface tension is reduced, the second watering gets the soil wet.
We can still to repot our tropicals and semi-tropicals like Fukien tea, Bahamas Black Olive, Buttonwood or Ficus. When repotting, be sure to wire the tree securely to the pot to give it good stability against the winds. It might be a good idea to also tie the pot to the bench also, especially if there is a lot of foliage or your pot and soil mix are lightweight. You should remember that even the tropicals do not like their roots hot. Sun on the pots may heat the soil and prevent new root development even though the tops may break new buds.
Spring flowering species usually set their buds in the fall. Most azaleas set in July. For good flowering next year, do not prune them and feed with a higher phosphorus mix. Some of the minor elements are needed for brilliant colors.
Deciduous trees usually slow (but do not stop) their growth during summer, so you may be able to do some pruning on them. Pruning can stimulate new growth that may not have time to harden before winter, resulting in some dieback of the new growth. On these trees, it’s better to wait until later. After leaves have fallen off, it’s easier to see where corrections need to be made. However, don’t let tip growth ruin the fine ramification on mature trees. Keep it pinched.
John Miller
John Miller, who writes a monthly column for the Bonsai Society of Dallas and Fort Worth Bonsai Society, has agreed to share his column with us. We need to make adjustments for our warmer and damper climate, with earlier springs, longer summers, late fall and erratic winters.
Bằng lăng yamadori,, Vietnamese Lagerstroemia Speciosa
Shohin (Photo: Vietnamese website)
President’s Letter
It has been extra hot outside this past few weeks. So, what do you do when it is too hot to work outside for long periods?
One thing I have been working on the last day or two is recordkeeping for some of my better trees. If you do bonsai for many years, it is great to have a record of how each tree has progressed in your care. It’s also great to be able to pass along the records of a tree if you sell it. I have been reminding myself to be more diligent in taking photos of the trees before and after significant work. These photos combined with text records in a Word file provide the history of the tree.
Now, my only problem is that when I’m starting to make these records, I have to scroll through all 24,000 photos on my hard drive to find the trees. Hopefully it will get easier once the first draft of each document is completed.
If you want a chance to see some of the finest bonsai in the United States, the National Exhibition is coming up this September 8th and 9th in Rochester, NY. The exhibit itself is comprised of approximately 200 trees from all over the US, including several from Houston this year. The vendor area at the last national was the best I have seen at a show, outside of Japan. There was enough great stuff to make a significant dent in my pocket that weekend. (Thank you very much, Sara Rayner).
Registration also includes lectures and demonstrations by many of the best artists in the US. If you would like some inspiration to improve your trees, this is the place to attend. If you would like more information, you can find it at http://www.usnationalbonsai.com
Last month, I mentioned that we will be hosting the American Bonsai Society convention next April 11-14 at the Marriott Westchase hotel. We will be putting on the biggest bonsai event ever in Houston and we will need everyone to play a role in making it a success.
Please pitch in when the chair people from different areas ask you to help them make their area run smoothly. If
you have a particular area you are interested in, let me know and I will point you toward the chairperson for that area.
Pete Parker
Crêpe Myrtles as Bonsai
This summer in Houston area, we have seen the highest record heat in many years. The weather men have been predicting a record high number of hurricanes for the city to prepare for as well. We are all encouraged to stay indoors as possible. Although all my bonsai got their shade screen and multiple sprinkles a day, most still of them seem to enter their summer dormancy. Most, except for the crepe myrtles that are showing off a wide array of colors. In Sugar Land (my neck of the woods), all Bradford pear and crabapple trees have been gradually replaced with mature crepe myrtles. This summer, every street corner was turned into a Monet’s impressionist painting, bursting with a profusion of colors.
The lively palette spills out in waves of white, pinks, reds and purples. Every breath of hot summer air scatters the streets and the pavement with a colorful fairy dust. In the garden, my crepe myrtle bonsai put on a pretty magical mini-show of their own.
My brother who had witnessed a few cherry blossom seasons in Japan, once said: As spectacular as cherry blossoms are, they got nothing on crepe myrtles! I thought long and hard about that comment. How can any flowering plant compete with cherry blossoms? No doubt he was mesmerized by those dainty pink and blush flowers but they could not compete with our crepe myrtles in all-summer-long longevity and the myriad of color combinations from early Spring to late Fall.
In fact, crepe myrtles are perhaps the most outstanding ornamental trees and the longest blooming trees around our state. Year round, besides the colors of their blooms, they also display a full spectrum of Shibui palette, ranging from brighter green, rosy red, to yellow and gold, to orange and dark burgundy foliage. In my walks, I brake to admire the crepe myrtle, from shape to colors, to bark and trunks. Barks whether copper tone or multi colored patchwork, peel off here and there to reveal the hidden rippling muscles. What gorgeous trees crepe myrtles are, most of the year, for the exception of the ugly stubs in early spring.
HBS is blessed with one crepe myrtle specialist, Alex Leong. Not only he has the most gorgeous myrtles styled in the Lingnan (Clip & Grow) school, he also can tell you all
about each variety’s colors, individual likes and needs just by looking at their bark and leaves. Here are some photographs of his trees. One was displayed in a Spring show, almost bare to demonstrate the Lingnan styled ramification. The other was taken in early summer, with only a few blossoms. He has been my go-to artist since I was first started with my crepe myrtle collection.
If you don’t already have a few beautiful bonsai crepe myrtles, it’s time to add some colors to your collection to enjoy all summer long, and in the spring and fall too. Too hard to decide on which color to choose from? Why not treat yourself to a dozen of them?
Crape or Crepe? Their crinkled flowers blooming in summer till late fall form clusters or panicles of paper thin petals with a crepe like texture. Therefore, its traditional Southern spelling is Crepe Myrtle (because the delicate flowers resemble Crêpe paper, a type of delicately crinkled French tissue used in gift wrapping). However, across the US, it is more commonly spelled Crape Myrtle.
50, 120 or 169 varieties? According to Wikipedia, commonly known as crape myrtle or crepe myrtle, Lagerstroemia is a genus of around 50 species of deciduous and evergreen trees and shrubs native to the Indian subcontinent, southeast Asia, northern Australia, and parts of Oceania, cultivated in warmer climates around the world. It is a
member of the family Lythraceae, which are also known as the loose strife family. The genus is named after the Swedish merchant Magnus von Lagerström, a director of the Swedish East India Company who Carl Linnaeus with plants he collected. These flowering trees are beautifully colored and are often planted both privately and commercially as ornamentals.
In The Wide Diversity of Crape Myrtles research, Susan Owens, a board member of The Crape Myrtle Trails of McKinney wrote: Almost 120 varieties were identified, but it is widely noted that many varieties may exist under several different names. Dr. Don Egolf’s Lagerstroemia Handbook/ Checklist American Association of Botanic Gardens and Arboreta, Inc., 1978) showed 169 of what he called “valid” cultivar names, but many of those appear to have been of limited distribution and may even be extinct in the trade by now. And, many more varieties have been introduced into the trade since the book was published in 1978. More are introduced each year. The United States National Arboretum maintains a more current checklist...
Many of our crape myrtle varieties have been introduced since 1960. That is generally considered by experts to be the watershed year dividing old varieties from the newer hybrids. As mentioned, you can choose from many features such as flower color, mature size, growth form (shrub-like, weeping, miniature or tree-form), disease and pest resistance, patented varieties, trunk color and character, fall color and even coloration of spring and summer foliage.
A bit of history No flowering shrub and small tree so typifies the South as crape myrtles. Native to Southeast Asia, crape myrtles were introduced to the United States more than
200 years ago. Records from Mount Vernon indicate that the ship George Barclay that arrived in Philadelphia in 1799 brought seeds of crape myrtles to the George Washington plantation. Many 100-year-old and older specimens still dot historic landscapes and abandoned properties from the Atlantic Ocean to Texas.
In their respective climates, both subtropical and tropical species are common in domestic and commercial landscapes. The timber of some species has been used to manufacture bridges, furniture, and railway sleepers,[2] but in Viet Nam's Cat Tien National Park, the dominant stands of Lagerstroemia Calyculata ( Bằng lăng ổi in Vietnamese or guava crepe myrtle) survived logging due to its beautifully mottled flaky bark but low quality wood.
A couple years ago, I spotted its close cousin,
a Bằng Lăng (Lagerstroemia speciosa – queen of crepe myrtle) imported from Viet Nam at our local JRN Nursery II. This 7 ft. tall specimen doesn’t seem to acclimate well to the extreme heat AND extreme cold combination of Houston, although it remains in the greenhouse year-round. I encouraged Thuy to air-layer the mother tree and start young trees that may have a greater chance of adapting to our local climate. I also suggested that she collects the seeds to grow stronger trees.
Although no true blue crepe myrtle variety exists as of now, these flowers trend toward
the blueish purple, a stunning contrast with orange and yellow stamens and red and green buds.
Back to Susan Owens’ report. The common crepe myrtle (L. indica) from China and Korea was introduced circa 1790 to Charleston, South Carolina, in the United States by the French botanist André Michaux. In the wild, the species is most often found as a multi-stemmed large shrub, but 200 years of cultivation have resulted in a huge number of cultivars of widely varying characteristics. Today, crepe myrtle varieties can fill every landscape need, from tidy street trees to dense barrier hedges to fast-growing dwarf types of less than 60 cm (2 ft), which can go from seed to bloom in a season (allowing gardeners in places where the plant is not winter-hardy to still enjoy the intense colors of the frilly flowers). In Europe, crepe myrtle is common in the south of France, the Iberian Peninsula, and most of Italy; in the United States, it is an iconic plant of gardens across the southern United States. While not as widely known, the Japanese crape myrtle, L. fauriei, from central and southern Japan, is becoming increasingly important, both as a landscaping plant and as a parent in complex hybrids with L. indica. This species is distinctly tree-like, with colorful deciduous bark and dark green leaves which are more resistant to fungal diseases than are those of its more popular relative. The Japanese name for this tree is saru
suberi (猿滑、百日紅, literally "monkey slip", latter spelling ateji) which refers to the smooth, slippery bark. Flowers are as large as those of L. indica, but are white with only the slightest pink flush. Japanese crepe
myrtle is hardier to cold than many strains of L. indica, a characteristic (along with fungal resistance, tree form and colorful bark) that makes it valuable as genetic material for hybridization. Dozens of cultivars are available, including 'Kiowa', 'Fantasy', and 'Townhouse'.
Japanese crape myrtle, L. fauriei, parent tree for a lot of complex hybrids
Instead of boring you with the long list of crepe myrtles, here are some of the species and colors sold as dwarf trees (2 to 3 ft.), some even weeping, ready for bonsai. They are such fast grower and their branch ramification so predictable, that they are perhaps my favorite deciduous bonsai. Miniature weeping crape myrtles grow only from 18 inches or less to 3 feet, with an elegant arching habit.
Dwarf varieties are so short that they are used primarily as flowering shrubs. Baton Rouge (dark pink), Sacramento (dark pink), Pixie White and Snow Baby are a few examples. Orlando (lavender) and Delta Blush (pink) are a couple of the weeping varieties which look great grown in large planters. A United States National Arboretum introduction called Pokemoke (or Pocomoke) grows to 3 feet tall and wide and is covered with very small leaves and rosy red flower clusters like popcorn.
Natchez White
Peppermint
Pink Lace
Watermelon red
Bi-color purple
Lavender
Muskogee
Speciosa
Blue
Pocomoke All these most popular varieties can be found in the garden centers in Houston or Texas areas, but also on the Internet. They are hardy and travel well in the summer.
43, 54 or 59F minimum? This premier flowering deciduous make excellent bonsai due to its exquisite branch ramification, especially abundant leaves, blooms and colors, as well as their bark and elegant silhouette. Over all, they are easy bonsai, prolific growers in Texas, along the Gulf Coast states all the way to Florida and North Carolina, and California. Although growers recommend keeping them around 50F, per Alex’s advice, all my crepe myrtles have been kept on the shelves year round, outside in the backyard. The most protection they get is a plastic cover if the temperatures drop below freezing. No heater. Some years, if I didn’t have time to drape the plastic over the shelter’s frame, I just quickly put them on the ground, under the shelves. They
appear to drift into dormancy soon after dropping their leaves but so far, even after brief periods of 15-18F (that’s below freezing), they all come back to life in the spring.
Prune early or late? A decade ago, the common advice was not to allow crepe myrtles to bloom every year. That weakens the trees and may even kill them. Most artists recommend pruning back severely in late winter to stimulate bud production for next year, if flowering is desired. So I used to let the crepe myrtles grow freely to build up strength and to flower for a year. The following year, I pruned the tree constantly for shape and ramification, mostly with Clip & Grow or Lingnan style. Lately, when starting with dwarf cultivars, I try to get both style and blooms in the same year by compressing the two seasons. Crepe myrtle flowers on new growth, so you can prune trees at the end of winter, right before growth begins. (Do not prune in early fall, as pruning promotes new growth and keeps the plant from going dormant). Then prune back Spring growth as soon as it hardens, so by summer, the second
flush of growth can still produce small flower buds. I have experimented with that routine this year, and so far, it seems to be going pretty well. The second batch of leaves and flowers are smaller than the previous year’s, and more proportionate to miniaturized bonsai. I wonder if we have the warm Spring to thank for that?
Watering Since crepe myrtles are fast growers, they also need a lot of water during the growing season. So water moderately in the spring, just before flowering to encourage bud formation, and more frequently during the growing season. Avoid wetting the foliage, especially in the evening, to prevent mildew. After the leaves dropped, reduce watering since they don’t take in much during their dormancy.
Feeding Every two weeks in spring-autumn. Alternate a bonsai food with a low nitrogen tomato fertilizer. Some professionals recommend using high nitrogen fertilizer though to encourage heavy and fast branching. Then you would have to prune constantly to keep the style.
Repotting Every 1-2 years for younger trees and 3 or longer for more established trees. Repotting can be done safely in early spring to summer, before buds burst.
Propagation From seed in spring, or with semi-hardwood cuttings taken from spring to summer. Rooting hormone and SuperThrive can help but many of the cuttings I stuck in flower beds grew fast without any special treatment.
Pest and disease control The best control for white and black powdery mildew is prevention. Don’t allow crepe myrtles to be too stressed with too
little water or inadequate fertilizing, because they become more susceptible to damage by mildew, insects and diseases.
Start with resistant varieties. Keep them in full sun, with some protection from the hottest sun of the day. Good air movement will help keep the leaves dry. Also avoid watering their foliage late in the evening. Excessive fertilization may promote too much new growth (that could be susceptible to the fungus in hot and wet climate). Neem oil and potassium bicarbonate are effective when used early.
The common insects in Texas are crepe myrtle aphids, Japanese beetles, and primrose flea beetles. A few insects usually do not cause significant damage to the plant, but it may be wise to prevent an insect over population or fungal spread. Toxic to humans and pets, chemical insecticide should be used as a last resort.
As elaborated in details in a report on http://citybugs.tamu.edu/2010/05/10/scale, there is an aggressive powdery mildew (Erysiphe lagerstroemiae), a fungal disease attacking crape myrtle leaves, shoots, buds and flowers. Spray with triforine (Funginex) before plants bloom, or grow mildew-resistant hybrids of L. indica and L. fauriei. Almost all selections with names of Native American tribes, such as ‘Hopi’, ‘Miami’, and ‘Zuni’, are mildew resistant.
Crepe myrtle bark scale in North Texas The Crape Myrtle Trails of McKinney horticulture committee has asked the help of Texas AgriLife Extension Entomologist Dr. Mike Merchant in identifying a relatively new insect on crepe myrtles. Application of systemic insecticides as a drench applied to the root zone has been most promising. Imidacloprid (Merit® or Bayer AdvancedTM Garden Tree and Shrub Insect Control) and dinotefuran (Greenlight Tree and Shrub Insect Control with Safari) has shown best control when applied between May and July. Allow several weeks as these products need time to spread throughout the plant.
Choosing a variety After learning about the old and new pests and diseases, perhaps the best and easiest way to prevent diseases in crepe myrtles is to select the new disease-resistant cultivars. Pick the tree size (dwarf cultivars are a good start), flower and leaf color and leaf size carefully for that naturally stunted look.
Hope you don’t let the serious pests deter you from enjoying this gorgeous flowering bonsai in the South. Hurry out to the nurseries now to catch all the crepe myrtles in their full glory.
Best of luck to you!
Shawn Nguyen For more information on how to keep crepe myrtle bonsai healthy and beautiful, visit: https://www.crapemyrtle.com/store/c2/Miniature_Crape_Myrtles.html https://www.southernliving.com/home-garden/ gardens/crepe-myrtle-trees https://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/databases/crape myrtle/crape_myrtle_varieties.html
Some of the crepe myrtle photos were taken by Ms. Miri Talabac at Behnkes Nursery, who has written a wonderful blog about Crepe Myrtles for this month. Please visit: http://behnkes.com/ to view the incredibly wide color assortment this nursery carries.
Calendar of Events
2018
AUG 1 HBS Monthly Meeting: Antique Japanese Pottery with Michael Ryan Bell
AUG 4 Saturday Study Group at Quality Feed & Garden in the Heights, 9AM -12 Noon. Free, refreshments provided..
AUG 11 Basic Bonsai #2 Class - Styling and wiring, Timeless Trees - 9AM - 1PM. $60 includes a ficus or boxwood, hand-out, wire and wire cutters. Everyone goes home with a styled tree. (No repotting in this class)
AUG 18 Dwarf Guava from Peru class - Styling and wiring, Timeless Trees - 9AM - 1PM, $100 includes a nice medium sized bonsai, rare dwarf guava from Peru imported years ago by Pedro Morales - approximately 16-18 inches tall with 1 inch in diameter trunk. Don't miss a chance to get one of these rare and unusual trees.
SEP 5 HBS meeting: Bonsai Soils with Scott Barboza
SEP 8 Saturday Study Group at Maas Nursery, 5511 Todville Road, Seabrook, 9 AM – 12 Noon. Free, refreshments provided. SEP 8 – 9 6th U. S. National Bonsai Exhibition in Rochester, NY at Total Sports Experience (TSE), 435 W. Commercial Street, East Rochester, NY 14445. Featuring Minoru Akiyama, Michael Ryan Bell, Bjorn Bjorholm, Enrique Castaño, Kora Dalager, David DeGroot, David Easterbrook, Boon Manakitivipart, Larry & Nina Ragle, Kathy Shaner, Sean Smith, Suthin Sukosolvisit, Tony Tickle, and Peter Warren.
SEP 15 Shohin club - Bring a nursery tree to start a Shohin with John Miller at Persimmon Hill Bonsai, 12001 Red Hawk Cove, Austin, TX. Contact Steven Hendricks at [email protected] or 817-239-7210.
SEP 18-20 2nd IBACB & IPCC (International Bonsai Art & Culture Biennial and International Penjing Creation Conference) in Canberra, Australia.
SEP 29 Saturday - Tyler Sherrod (Dogwood Studios) LSBF visiting artist’ s lecture demo
SEP 30 Sunday - Workshops with Tyler Sherrod - morning and afternoon sessions available. Venues for these 2 events will be announced at the meeting.
6th U.S. National Bonsai Exhibition
in Rochester, NY at the Total Sports Experience (TSE),
435 W. Commercial St., East Rochester, NY 14445
Featuring Minoru Akiyama, Michael Ryan Bell, Bjorn Bjorholm, Enrique Castaño, Kora Dalager,
David de Groot, David Easterbrook, Boon Manakitivipart, Larry & Nina Ragle,
Kathy Shaner, Sean Smith, Suthin Sukosolvisit, Tony Tickle,
and Peter Warren.
Details at http://www.usnationalbonsai.com/ This US National Show is a wonderful event. Four trees from
Houston were accepted for this show, after a very selective vetting process.
Plan to join our group from Houston
and Dallas - Fort Worth.
Stop by and enjoy Phil’s weekly bonsai show & sale, and a study group on Saturday morning, 8AM-12 Noon, at the Urban Harvest Eastside Farmers’ Market, 3000 Richmond. Make appointments to see pre-bonsai and large bonsai.
Make sure you go to Timeless Trees’ website and subscribe to weekly Current Events to stay in the know. You can find the best gifts: trees, pots, all sorts of bonsai supplies, soils of all kinds, tools and books for your bonsai lovers and yourself. Classes are offered every week-end.
Quality Feed & Garden and Ken stand ready to help you with bonsai trees, basic tools, pots and soils like Akadama, Lava, Pumice, Kanuma, and “Ken’s Bonsai Soil in 10 lb. & 50 lb. bags. Free Study classes for HBS every 3-months Ask for 10% HBS discount.
Come stock up on bonsai soils, pesticides, fungicides, fertilizers and other supplies. The plant doctor is always on duty, so bring your unhappy or unhealthy bonsai for a free check-up. Don’t forget to ask for a 10% HBS discount.
Summer is officially here and so are the heat loving tropicals at JRN II. Asian exotics and ficuses do well as indoor bonsai. Arrangements of orchids and bromeliads can be ordered for all occasions year round. While you are at the nursery, give fruit trees a try as bonsai too.
Visit artist Andrew Sankowski at the Mossrock Studio & Fine Art Gallery for the finest gifts and most uniquely beautiful bonsai pots in every shape, form and color. Personalized pots or gifts can be commissioned year round. Weekly pottery classes are also available.
Andrew Sankowski 26002 Oak Ridge Drive Direct (281) 684-4411
The Woodlands, TX 77380 Fax (281) 363-9032
For high quality daizas for viewing stones, Suiseki, bonsai stands and Shoji screens in any shape, form, style, wood, dimensions and colors, please visit artist Jerry Braswell. Send him your designs and specifications for custom wood work. For more info: www.artofthedaiza.wordpress.com
Houston Bonsai Society, Inc. P. O. Box 540727, Houston, Texas 77254-0727
www.houstonbonsaisociety.com
HBS Board Members
President Pete Parker [email protected]
1st Vice President Scott Barboza [email protected] in charge of Education 2nd Vice President Hoe Chuah [email protected] Secretary Maria Grissom [email protected] Publicity Ken Cousino [email protected]
Treasurer Eldon Branham [email protected]
in charge of Membership Webmaster Anthony Cutola [email protected]
Member at Large - O Gale Childers [email protected]
Member at Large - O James Kelly [email protected]
Member at Large - O Ryan Vollert [email protected]
Member at Large – E Sharon Barker [email protected] Member at Large - E Ray González [email protected] Member at Large – E Brian Gurrola [email protected]
Delegates Past President Hurley Johnson [email protected]
LSBF Delegate Terry Dubois [email protected]
LSBF Alternate Pete Parker [email protected]
BCI Ambassador
TTSBE Representative Alan Raymond [email protected]
Refreshments
Website/email Gary Teeter [email protected]
Newsletter editor Shawn Nguyen [email protected]
The Bonsai News of Houston is a monthly publication of the Houston Bonsai Society, Inc. Copyright © 2011. The contents of this publication may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the consent of the editor or a member of the Board of Directors. Exceptions exist, however, for certain not-for-profit and non-profit bonsai organizations or associated bonsai and bonsai nursery newsletters, including without limitation the American Bonsai Society. HBS participates fully with reciprocation of contents and material between other LSBF member organizations and others. Authors who submit articles for this newsletter thereby give permission to such organizations to reprint, unless they expressly state otherwise.
Space for advertising in The Bonsai News of Houston can be requested by contacting the newsletter editor or a member of the HBS Board. The rates for a business-card-size ad (approximately 3 1/2" x 2") are $10 per month, and $75 per year (12 issues). A full-page ad is $50 per month. Rates are subject to change without notice. 3½" x 2" classified ads are run free of charge for one month once per 12-month period for non-commercial members. For special requests or questions related to The Bonsai News of Houston, contact the newsletter editor or a member of the HBS Board.
