Squamish Gardeners’ Club

General Meeting

January 21^st, 2008

Carol Robson opened the meeting by pointing out that a sign-up list for people willing to provide refreshments for future meetings was being circulated. She then introduced the Executive for 2008:

Elected Positions:
President:	Carol Robson	Past President:	Eleanor Bowcock
Vice President:	Carla Halvorson-Burke	Treasurer:	Dorte Froslev
Secretary:	Pauline Lawrence
Volunteer Positions:
Door:	Glenda Begley	Garden Tour:	Carol Robson
Web Master:	Dave Colwell		Eleanor Bowcock
Programme:	Nairn Stewart		Nairn Stewart
	Sandra Kilby		Karen Chelswick
	Moira Biggin-Pound		Judy Crowston
News Letter:	Ellen Grant		Judy Gordon
	Dave Colwell		Ellen Grant
	Beth Fitzgerald		Gerd Moore
Refreshments:	Gerd Moore		Carla Halvorson-Burke
	Moira Biggin-Pound

Dave reported that he has linked our website to the local garden centres’ websites as they give a 10% discount to Garden Club members. It will be possible to do the same thing for companies providing prizes for the Garden Tour.

Carol pointed out that the Club has donated books and magazine subscriptions to the library.

Dave read a letter of support that Carol had written in response to a request from a local person from Water Connections who will be applying for grants to develop an eco-initiative educational garden linked to a community garden. All members were in favour of this letter being sent.

Dorte presented the Treasurer’s Report and proposed Budget for the upcoming year. She pointed out that the Club has $500 more than we did at the same time last year. The Projected Budget, which is balanced, shows an increase in the amount available for speakers. Phyllis Carter asked what is included in the “miscellaneous” category? Dorte will create some new categories to expand and clarify this. A motion to pass the budget was carried.

Correspondence: two letters acknowledging donations were received.

Newsletter: this will in future be an html document in the body of the e-mail. It will also be posted on the website. Ellen is seeking material to include in the Newsletter, including pictures and articles, items of interest, notice of possible trades, etc. Material should be sent to her before the end of the month, particularly in March.

Programme: Nairn asked for suggestions for timely topics. The February speaker will likely be from West Coast Seeds – Carol offered to billet, if required.

March: to be decided.

April: possibly Ingrid Hoff, who writes for Gardens West. Her topic will be rhododendrons.

May: Nairn asked for ideas about the Keynote speaker. Suggestions included Brad Jalbert, from Select Roses; someone to speak on garden design, or re-design; Brian Minter; Des Kennedy; and plants in containers.

Nairn then introduced the speaker for this evening, Ray Zoporozan. For the past 25 years his passion, hobby and commercial venture (in North Vancouver) has been bonsai. He brought a number of different bonsai for us to see.

Bonsai first started in India more than 2,000 years ago. It was subsequently introduced in China, and then Japan, where it flourished and evolved into an art form. Some bonsai trees in Japan are National Treasures and are more than 1,500 years old. There are also bonsai museums there.

There is no mystery to bonsai, just patience and solid principles, including clipping and judicious root trimming. Bonsai is a long-term process. The Chinese form is known as pen-jing; here there is no root trimming, the plant is just left in a pot.

It is important to decide whether the plant will be a summer- or winter-viewing bonsai. It has to be decided which will be the front and back of the plant, and depending on that, a decision is made as to which branches to prune. The ideal has alternating branches and does not exceed 4 feet in height.

In the informal style the plant more resembles nature; it is not necessary to adhere to the rules too closely – just enjoy the plant.

When starting out, everything is based on a triangle, and idea developed by the Japanese. The trunk is the most important part – branches can be trained later. The branches should be in two planes, and weights and wire can be used to shape the plant. Everything has to be done slowly. He uses aluminum wire with a copper coating, made especially for bonsai.

Japanese black pine is the plant to have as a bonsai. Mr. Zoporozan uses native material, including hemlocks and firs. Many plants in the garden can be converted to bonsai, including thyme.

To develop a bonsai it is necessary to train the branches and cut the roots, but not at the same time. The maximum amount that can be cut at a time is one-third; then a few years later, another third. Flowering plants are tricky, as the flowers aren’t miniaturised.

There are seven types of bonsai, including upright, cascading, semi-cascading, formal and forest.

Mr. Zoporozan, who has over 200 plants at home, looks at his plants every day. Good pots are a necessity, particularly as all his plants remain outside year round. He showed us how to identify sturdy pots. All pots should have drainage holes.

It is possible to simulate age. He showed us a 75 year-old tree from which he stripped off bark on part of the trunk to make it appear as though it has been hit by lightning; another technique is to use a lime-sulphur mix on the plant.

If one starts with a dwarf variety of tree a lot of time can be saved. Some deciduous trees still retain large leaves.

Becoming root-bound is part of the process; this produces lots of little roots, which leads to lots of small leaves. Root pruning, top pruning and root constriction – plus 25 years – produces a bonsai. It takes him three days to prune a miniature Canadian hemlock he owns; he needs to pinch out all the new buds. It grows half an inch a year.

All the soil needs to be removed when roots are cut. The largest and all dead roots are removed, plus anything else that is not going to fit into the design. Tap roots should be removed as roots need to grow outwards. After 3-5 years the soil is exhausted, and needs to be replaced. When re-potting, it is necessary to get all the air pockets out. He uses a fish-meal fertiliser, as this introduces beneficial bacteria into the soil. He also may add portions of appropriate myco-rhiza to the pot, which helps the plant to grow; moss can also be added. He uses a base of sandy soil, to which is added a mulch made from needles from the same variety of tree. In the summer he waters his plants twice a day. Mr. Zoporozan makes notes of what he does to each of his bonsai. He pointed out that a bonsai with written provenance is more valuable.

Nairn thanked the speaker at the end of his presentation. He provided a small bonsai as a door prize, and also had a few for sale.