April 2000

President's Column

By
Alisan Clarke

Time to remember the Lone Star convention. Be sure to sign up soon and save money. Our April guest is Mas Imazumi, who is bringing his own special tree for the lecture/demo. Thursday night will be a self paced study/ workshop with Mas. Sign up early to reserve your place.

Start thinking now about your trees for our club show. With this wonderful rain, be sure to get your grooming done early.

Elaine is again doing a column on our Texas permanent collection. We will vote on this in May.

Our fourth Wednesday study group will be meeting again this month with deciduous trees, the working with and pruning of them.

Mark your calendars. We'll see you there!

General Meeting Minutes

Our president, Alisan Clarke, called our meeting to order swiftly, had announcements from Pat Ware concerning the Directories now being passed out, Elaine White asking everyone to read the article in the newsletter so we all will be better informed about the proposed bonsai exhibit, and Chuck Ware who reminds us all to get our registrations in for the Corpus Convention, thanked our refreshment committee and proceeded to our program. Our guest speaker, Kathy Shaner, gave us a very interesting demonstration on a green mound juniper. Our president was especially pleased, as she was the one who won it in the raffle. The club was provided this gifted speaker thru the Jerry Henderson Memorial.

Mas Imazumi

Mas was born in the United States, but spent his early childhood years in Japan. He returned to the United States and served in the U.S.Army. After his discharge, he began his career as a landscape gardener specializing in Japanese gardens in California's greater bay area. Over 48 years ago, he began the study of bonsai under the late master, Homei Iseyama. With Mr. Iseyama's encouragement, he began demonstrating bonsai techniques at various Japanese bonsai exhibits. He was the first to do so in Northern California.

Currently, he is an instructor for a number of bonsai clubs in Central and Northern California, where he gives workshops and demonstrations. He travels extensively in the United States and Italy - judging bonsai, giving demonstrations and leading workshops. Additionally, He has arranged tours to Japan for bonsai and sight-seeing trips.

He has served in various capacities on the Board of Trustees of the Golden State Bonsai Federation and on the Editorial Board of Golden Statements for almost 6 years. He has also served on the Board of Directors of the American Bonsai Society and wrote articles for their Journal. Presently, he is a regular contributor to Bonsai: Arte e Natura, Italy's bonsai magazine. He is, also, an active member of several bonsai clubs in the bay area.

Workshop April 13, 2000

Besides a lecture/demo on our normal meeting night of April 12, 2000, Mas Imazumi will be conducting a workshop the following night. It will cost $20.00 and you bring your own tree. We have sent invitations to 5 clubs that might be interested in this gentleman.
There will only be 8 participants!
Contact Pat Ware 847-2514 NOW!

Things learned at Garden Council Meeting

• April 1 & 2 Cactus & Succulent Show
• April 7 History of Plant Dying
  (if you bring eggs, you can dye them with plants!)
• April 8 & 9 at the Wildflower Center
  Herb Festival
• April 9 Iris Show
• April 29 & 30 at the Wildflower Center
  Ethnobotany Festival
  (How to use plants)
• In the works is a 4-sided marker that will give directions to all the different gardens.

Board Meeting Minutes

The board was called to order by president, Alisan Clarke, at approximately 7:15pm. In attendance beside Alisan were Jim Allan, Chuck & Pat Ware, Gloria Norberg and Charlotte Cranberg.

Jim made the motion and Gloria seconded that the cost of the directories, eventhough over budget, be accepted. Everyone agreed.

Discussion of the workshop for Boon Manakitivipart was next. It was decided that we would have a "Bring your own Tree"and charge $50.00 for 10 people; and that it would be from noon to 4:00pm, barbecue dinner from 5:00 to 6:00pm and the lecture/demo would be 6:30 to 9:00pm. We would charge $5.00 for non-member observers at the workshop and they could stay for dinner & the lecture/demo for another $5.00. It was also decided, with all the activity going on, that the airplane tickets for both Boon and Herb Gustafson be purchased now.

Jim made the motion and Gloria seconded that we advance $2,000.00 more to the Convention 2003. All agreed.

Hotel reservations have been made at the Red Lion for Yande Li and his son - no questions arose on this.

LSBF is disbursing its library and Pat has the list of the books that our club does not have in its own library. Decision will be made at the meeting at the Corpus Convention.

A suggestion from Elaine White was made concerning our new members. In order not to be judgemental and hurt anyone's feelings, it was decided that we will have a FREE workshop for new members who have been members for one year. This year we will try to do it in September.

It was decided that a hospitality call would be made to all members to remind them of Mr. Nakamura's lecture/demo, since this was not a normal meeting night.

Jim, Gloria, and Charlotte split up the directory to do so.

Gloria suggested that when we put up a website for the 2003 Convention, that she list donors on it. It might be an incentive for some donors. We adjourned at approximately 8:30pm.

Control of Scale Insects on Tropical Bonsai

by
Michael Parkey

The bane of my tropical bonsai has always been scale insects. I have little problem with them in the summer when the trees are outside, but when I bring them in for the winter it becomes disgusting, with the sticky excreta of the scales spotting the foliage of the plants.

My tropicals spend the winter in a sun room with supplemental fluorescent lighting. I have used pebble trays and humidifiers to increase the moisture in the air, but these seem to have no effect on the scales.

In the past I have used insecticidal soap to control the pests, but this has two disadvantages. The soap only kills immature and adult scales - the eggs are immune, so you have to keep spraying. The soap also smells terrible.

This winter I tried a highly refined pesticidal oil. This is an improved version of the dormant oil spray most of us are familiar with, but it is less toxic to plants, especially when they have foliage. The brand I use is Sun Spray Ultra-Fine.

The results were very good, with the big plus that the oil kills scale insects in both the adult and egg stage. Theoretically, if you do a really good job, one spraying should do the trick. It also doesn't smell as bad as the insecticidal soap.

I used the oil on my entire tropical collection with no leaf burn or other damage. I grow the following species:

• Willow-leaf fig, Ficus nerifolia var salicifolia

• Indian laurel, F. retusa

• Mistletoe fig, F. deltoidea

• Dwarf schefflera, Schefflera arbicola

• Natal plum, Carissa grandiflora

• Buttonwood, Conocarpus erectus

Insecticidal oils also work well on hardy bonsai, but read the label carefully. They are specifically not recommended for junipers, for example.

Reprinted from Bonsai Society of Dallas March Newsletter, 2000

Meet Mas Imazumi

All members who wish to meet Mas, please join him for dinner at the Texas Land & Cattle at 5:00pm on April 12, 2000. Everyone pays for their own meal. The restaurant is located on the northbound access road next to MOPAC. Get off at the Rollingwood, Zilker Park, exit, and go north a few hundred feet. It's on the right hand side. They have a large menu, besides steaks.

Permanent Exhibit 2005

I am concerned that no one is asking questions about our proposed exhibit. Does no one care one way or the other?

I attended the March executive meeting where thoughtful questions were posed and discussed. I have called a few people that took the time to answer my questionnaire, for further details. They were all enthusiastic, saying "It's worth the effort...Go for it!

Scott Clark of the Midwest Bonsai Society detailed their relationship with the Chicago Botanical Gardens. Their Annual Exhibit in August attracts about 20,000 visitors in 3 days, many fro several surrounding states. They have visiting artists giving two demonstrations per day and workshop slots for 120 people! They have a large exhibit in addition to the Gardens' permanent display but they have no registration fee. This sounds very much like our Lone Star Federation Convention and this point we cannot attract this many visitors. We can, however, expand upon what we're doing now (more vendors in the parking lot) if the Garden Center will agree to open parking across the street as they do for the Garden Festival. They could charge for parking. (profitable for them)

Other permanent exhibits have had many problems when they have had to acquire land and facilities before they could get started. If feel that we can expect to receive free land and water at Zilker. We would be a great addition to the Botanical Garden and our Society will benefit from enthusiastic new members.

Our annual auction could become bigger and generate more income for our permanent exhibit. With Jerry Henderson's trees last year, we cleared over $1,000.00.

Our treasurer has said that we have about $5,000.00 in a CD (money mkt.?) that we could use for preliminary construction. I feel that we cannot ask for corporate donations until we have accumulated some funds on our own. ($5,000.00 so far, and at our next Lone Star Convention, hopefully, we can come close to the same amount.)

I'm sure that some of you have creative ideas that I haven't thought of. Let me know!
Elaine

Susuma Nakamura