NBF Taps Sophia Osorio for 2020 First Curator’s Apprentice

We are pleased to announce the hiring of the NBF 2020 First Curator’s Apprentice, Sophia Osorio. 

Robert Drechsler served as the first curator for the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum from 1976 to 1998. During the celebration of the 35th anniversary of the Museum in 2011, NBF established an internship – called the First Curator’s Apprenticeship – to honor Robert’s many years of service. The apprenticeship aims to train the next generation of American bonsai artists.

Sophia, who started on March 10, said a previous internship at the Central Park Conservancy in New York City first piqued her interest in wanting to work outside.

“I’ve known since graduating college that I never wanted an office job,” she said. “I wanted to be outdoors doing hands-on work.”

Sophia, 23, said her passion for trees first came to light during an environmental ethics course she took during her undergraduate education at Binghamton University in New York. She learned about the philosophical side of the environment, like how society’s carbon footprint affects Earth. 

“It sort of inspired me to want to make a difference in my own small way,” Sophia said.

She said she first became interested in bonsai during an arbor culture certificate program she took part in at the New York Botanic Garden in the Bronx. Sophia said she saw the posting for the apprenticeship at the garden and decided to apply. 

“I’m still trying to find a specific career path, like what I would like to do specifically with trees, because I feel like the options can be endless,” she said. “Bonsai have a visual aesthetic to them. I thought that was super interesting to learn more about, like pruning and care and things like that.”

Sophia said she has spent her first week working closely with Museum Curator Michael James, jotting down notes and tips about the trees she will be working with for the next year. 

“There’s so much care and many different tactics that go into keeping trees alive for so long, like the Yamaki Pine,” she said. “Some people can’t even keep houseplants alive, so I think that’s amazing and it’s definitely a skill I would like to pick up on.”

When she isn’t learning about the Museum’s collections, Sophia keeps active with trips to the gym, hikes and long walks. She recently visited the Redwood Forest in California. 

“You can leave me in a national park for hours and I'd be fine,” Sophia said. “I'm down for anything outdoors.”

We look forward to all Sophia will contribute to the Museum in her capacity as First Curator’s Apprentice. A special thanks to our 2019 apprentice Andy Bello, whom the U.S. National Arboretum has hired as a temporary agricultural research science technician.

The National Bonsai Foundation is looking for a new funding source for this program. Please contact us if you are interested.

Bonsai Basics: Repotting Techniques and Tools

Bonsai Basics is a NEW blog series dedicated to providing beginner’s tips, tool recommendations and facts about basic bonsai tasks.
Thanks to all of our readers who recommended we start doing this on our 2019 survey!

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Photo Credit: Bonsai Empire

There’s the holiday season, spring cleaning season and back-to-school season – but as a bonsai beginner, there’s one season you should really familiarize yourself with: repotting season. 

You might have a lot of questions about when to repot, what to use to repot and how repotting works. We spoke with NBF Co-President Felix Laughlin about the basic tools and steps you need to get your repotting off to a great start this spring.

“We’re at the critical point where most bonsai are about to leaf out if they haven’t already,” Laughlin said. “This is when the bonsai are the healthiest for repotting and cutting back roots.” 

He said younger bonsai should be repotted each year, but more developed trees can wait longer. 

“Repotting is like renewing the life of the tree and giving it a chance to live a lot longer than it would growing in the ground,” Laughlin said. “That’s why you have 1,000 year bonsai – repotting helps bonsai roots not wrap around the pot, get old and stop feeding the tree.” 

How to Tackle Repotting

An eight-piece tool kit featuring the snips, three-pronged ranks, sickle and pliers discussed below. Available on bonsaioutlet.com for $69.95.

The first step to repotting your bonsai is cutting the wires tying the tree into the pot. Grab your root hook and transplanting sickle or scythe – a curved, sharp saw or cutting edge – and saw or cut around the edge of the pot to remove the root ball without tearing it apart.

Then use a three-pronged root rake to scrape the bottom of the root ball, removing soil and exposing the downward-growing roots.  For root balls removed from deep pots, you may first need to use the curved sickle or a saw to cut off the bottom portion of the root ball.

Next you’ll want to use some scissors or hand snips to cut back the exposed roots, including those growing laterally around the sides of the root ball. You might use bent-nose tweezers and a root hook to help untangle the roots.

This seven-piece tool kit includes: root cutters, root rake, sickle, angled scissors, broom, bent-nose tweezers and root hook. Available on bonsaitonight.com.for $135.

But pay attention to which kind of bonsai you’re working on. Laughlin advises that the roots of deciduous bonsai can be cut back harder than those of evergreen bonsai. 

“It’s a balancing act,” Laughlin said. “You want to rejuvenate the roots without diminishing the ability of the tree to recover.”

Next, place some fresh soil into your pot and tie the tree back in with wire, pliers and wire cutters. Laughlin said any pair of pliers from a hardware store will work, but some technical bonsai pliers offer more precision – though they cost more. 

Watch bonsai master Boon Manakitivipart as he demonstrates some of these repotting steps and illustrates the use of the repotting tools. 

Sickles, three-pronged root rakes and root hooks generally each sell for around $10.  Laughlin likes the Okatsune heavy-duty hand snips, which can be found at Bonsai Outlet for $40. 

“They’re top-notch Japanese shears that are great for cutting heavy roots and getting the root ball back down to where you want it,” Laughlin said.

Bonsai tools can rack up a lengthy bill, but Laughlin said you can cap your costs at about $100 if you do your research. He said not many brick and mortars offer kits with all the tools he discussed, but you can find reasonably priced starter sets or individual tools on sites like Amazon, Bonsai Tonight, Bonsai Learning Center, Stone Lantern, Bonsai Outlet and Brussel's Bonsai.  

When Should You Start Repotting?

NBF Co-President Jack Sustic works with NBF board member Dr. Joe Gutierrez to repot a bonsai.

NBF Co-President Jack Sustic said you’ll want to repot deciduous trees first, which grow more vigorously and sooner than conifers, which are generally ready for repotting in late April. 

Sustic said the repotting season can change depending on where you live – someone in South Carolina might be done with repotting for the year but someone in Michigan could just be getting started. Sustic says to start repotting once buds have started to swell up and gain a bit of color. 

For Sustic, the frequency of repotting depends on the tree itself. Your bonsai likely needs repotting if water sits on the soil and doesn’t drain well or if the overall health of the tree is poor.

“I look at it from a horticulture standpoint,” Sustic said. “Questions like, ‘Is the tree healthy, is it growing, is the soil draining well?’ Ultimately, the tree will tell you when it’s ready to be repotted.”

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Check out our Youtube page for a demonstration by Danny Coffey repotting a boulevard cypress.

COVID-19 Response

UPDATED JUNE 8:

Beginning June 8, the U.S. National Arboretum in Washington, D.C., will reopen with operational changes in place to protect staff and federal resources. The new schedule will see the Arboretum open from 1 to 5 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Entry to the grounds will be provided via dedicated access points and there will be limited services and amenities during this time.

The Administration Building/Visitors Center and the Museum will remain closed for now until further notice.

Arboretum visitors will be required to follow all posted guidelines designed to maximize the safety and health of all visitors and employees, including social distancing rules. For more information on new operating hours and a listing of accessible areas, potential visitors are encouraged to review the Arboretum website at www.usna.usda.gov.

While the Museum remains closed, you can virtually enjoy the peace and beauty that our beloved collections and serene space offer through regular blogs, our website photos and our website.

Also, if you are not already, we invite you to subscribe to our e-newsletter and receive monthly messages about the art of bonsai, our collections, and the bonsai community around the world.

NBF Board Member Passes Away at 94

Jack Wells, middle, while volunteering at the Museum in the late 1990s with (right to left) David Gavin, Jack Cardon, former assistant bonsai curator Dan Chiplis and Warren Hill.

The National Bonsai Foundation is sad to announce the passing of former Board of Directors member Jack Wells. 

Wells was an establishing member of NBF in 1982, served on the Board for many years and previously held the top post at the Potomac Bonsai Society. 

“Jack’s dedication to and history of the Museum was evident from the start,” NBF Co-Presidents Felix Laughlin and Jack Sustic said in a letter to NBF board members. “As a friend, mentor to many and bonsai leader, Jack played a significant role in the development and appreciation of the art of bonsai in our nation’s capital.”

Jack and his wife Kathi at an NBF reception in 2011 talking to the U.S. National Arboretum’s then-Director Tom Elias.

Born in Independence, Oregon in 1925, Jack grew up on the family farm which eventually became a century farm. He graduated from Oregon State University in 1951 from the College of Agricultural Sciences with a major in horticulture, according to his obituary.

Through the International Foreign Youth Exchange program, Wells traveled to Bolivia where he discovered his love for agriculture. While working with the USDA as an Agriculture Marketing and Seed Specialist, Wells traveled to 68 different countries to educate on agriculture improvement techniques. He also worked for the American Seed Trade Association, according to his obituary.

He is survived by his wife Kathi, four children, two stepchildren and 16 grandchildren, his obituary states.

A GUIDE TO BONSAI: Forest Bonsai Presentation

Creating Forest Bonsai: A Relatively Easy & Inexpensive Way to a Lifetime of Bonsai Enjoyment

Our Co-President, Felix Laughlin, gave this presentation on November 10, 2019 at the Blue Ridge Bonsai Society in Asheville, NC, as part of their regular education program for club members. We wanted to share it with you.

Laughlin created this presentation in order to do two things:

1.) To show how easy and relatively quick it is to create a forest bonsai using young seedlings.

2.) To raise awareness around the late Saburo Kato, a Japanese bonsai master who made possible the 1976 Bicentennial bonsai gift that lead to the birth of the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum. Throughout the presentation, Laughlin cites Kato’s classic book on forest bonsai plantings, Forest, Rock Planting & Ezo Spruce (Translated into English and published by NBF - Available for purchase here).

The seedlings Laughlin used were Stewartia seedlings grown and donated for the demonstration by Sage Smith. As you will see from the photographs, his fellow club members were a big help with every stage of the process, from preparing the young trees to tying them down in their proper place in the container.

Enjoy!

A 2001 Photo of Saburo Kato at Mansei-en

Saburo Kato with Forest Bonsai at Mansei-en

Historical Tree Spotlight: Pasture Juniper

The Juniper as it stands in the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum today. Photo credit: Stephen Voss.

Bonsai are often developed from seedlings or collected from nature. But this month’s Historical Tree Spotlight features a tree with a unique cultivation story.

Jack Douthitt, a prominent Midwestern bonsai master, retrieved this juniper from a cow pasture in South/Central Wisconsin. But before collecting the tree, Douthitt spent time training the juniper in the pasture, preparing it to be dug up so the tree had time to heal and recover from Douthitt’s initial cuts. Museum Curator Michael James said digging up the tree first may have resulted in lost branches and would have prolonged the tree’s recovery.

“Trees in the ground are much more strong and vigorous – they heal quicker,” James said. “Once it’s in a pot, growth is much, much slower. Those preparations he made in the field allowed him to collect the juniper and get it on the fast track to being a bonsai.” 

Douthitt belonged to myriad local, national and international bonsai clubs, including Bonsai Clubs International, American Bonsai Society, Milwaukee Bonsai Society and Minnesota Bonsai Society. The National Bonsai Foundation recognized him in 1987 as “One of America’s Outstanding Bonsai Artists.” 

Douthitt previously studied art and architecture but deviated from that background after discovering the world of bonsai. 

“Once a painting is finished, I lose my emotional involvement with it,” he once said. “In bonsai, the creative process never stops, and the emotional involvement with it never ends.”

Douthitt’s juniper is native to the Midwest and resides in The National Bonsai & Penjing Museum’s North American Collection. The tree retains its small foliage throughout the year and forms both male and female cones as an adult tree. James added that some junipers naturally grow very low to the ground, crawling much wider than they do tall.

The juniper was repotted from its original rectangular pot to a more shallow, oval pot to better complement the tree’s figure. “That round shape of the pot really harmonizes with the trunk’s curves, whereas the old, rectangular edge just didn’t fit with those rounded trunks and branches,” James said.

While the tree technically falls under the evergreen category, James said the juniper’s branches cycle through a few different colors throughout the seasons. In the spring, the juniper sports lime green new buds that contrast against dark green older leaves, but the tree transforms into a deep green in the summer. 

According to James, the juniper turns almost bronze-like when the cold starts to drift in during autumn, and its leaves develop a purplish color when the tree enters a deep dormant state in the middle of winter.

Left: The bonsai in the 80s before it was donated.

Right: The juniper shortly after it was accepted into the North American Collection.

“It’s neat,” he said. “It’s a cute little tree.”

James added that the juniper tends to take well to pinching when new growths sprout in the spring. Once pinched, the tree forms a proliferation of buds and stays quite dense. 

The twisted deadwood that travels up the side of the tree embodies the Japanese concept of “shari.” Douthitt intentionally created the streak of deadwood and multiple jins, or dead branches, to mirror the harsh conditions – like lightning, sun, wind or animal disturbances – that would kill a strip of the bark in the juniper’s natural setting.

“Snowstorms or ice in the wintertime blow up against the side of a trunk, or an animal or something steps on a branch, which is going to rip and tear the bark away, naturally creating those sharis,” James said. “This one was probably done by the collector, but it could very easily have been found that way as well.”