Midway Bonsai Society The Midway News · Midway Bonsai Society October 2019 27 27 Below: Bob,...

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Midway Bonsai SocietyMidway Bonsai Society

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The Midway News

October 2019

Inside this issue:1. Chairman’s report2. Club News 3. Birthdays4. October’s meeting5. ABC5 – Rafael Torres6. ABC5 – Mauro Stemberger7. ABC5 – Bob Mahler8. ABC5 – Local and Show9. Editor’s Letter

Hannes Fritz won the Gold award at the ABC5 show

Rafael Torres

Dorian Fourie

Mauro

StembergerBob Mahler

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The Midway News

October 2019

Chairman’s Report for the October 2019 meeting

The last meeting was hosted at Richards house, Richard thanks for being so accommodating and thanks to your wife as well for hosting us. Richard also gave a demo on creating a landscape using Acacias.

The next meeting will be at the club as usual and Jonathan will be giving a talk on forest styles.

1. Chairman's Report

Midway Bonsai Society

We also had the ABC 5 this past week and the club was well represented both by attendees and by having a large number of trees on display. The demos were apparently awesome and those that missed out really missed out. I unfortunately was only able to attend on the Saturday due to work commitments during the week.

On a personal note please ensure your trees are well watered during the heat wave periods. I can at most water twice a day and I still feel that is not enough water.

Looking forward to seeing you all at the next meeting!

Thivern Chairman

Above: This Bougainvillea that was on display at ABC5 belongs to Jonathan Cain

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2. Club news

The next club meeting is on the 16th of November 2019. We will meet at our usual place at 12h00. Jonathan will be doing a demo on Groups and Forests at 14h00. If you have a few small trees and you would want to try making a group planting or forest, then bring them along. If not, then just come and listen. Then you can prepare for next time or make one at home.

3. Birthdays

We have two birthdays before our next meeting, Vaughan Ferreira 28 October Hennie Reyneke 5 November

Midway Bonsai Society October 2019

Happy Birthday may you have a wonderful year.

Above: Denise showed this magnificent specimen at ABC5

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4. October meeting

~“I've learned that anything in life worth having comes from patience and hard work.” -Greg Behrendt

Above: Ronnie in Richards garden. This water feature was originally used in Japan to scare deer away.

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To the left and below: Some of Richards beautiful trees.

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Below: Mack, Ronnie and Johann chatting away in Richards Bonsai garden


Below: Midway members having a braai and drinking a beer.

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Below and to the left: This is Richards Bonsai En. He has a very nice setup. Very inspirational and thanks for inviting us.

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Above: More of his garden. We can do some nice demos on all this material you have Richard.

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Above: Mikibu got some awesome new pots in for that tree Richard.

Below: Richard build this for a Acacia landscape. Very well done. Just very heavy.

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Below: We all helped to place the trees. This was very good practice for the Forest Demo we are doing in November.

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Above: We had to move this monster to a save location to recuperate. Thanks for a wonderful day Richard. We all had lots of fun.

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5. ABC5- Rafael Torres

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What can I say about ABC5. Overwhelmingly stimulating. I learned so much. Saw so many

wonderful trees. I am glad I had 4 days to take it all in. There is just too much to capture in a Newsletter, you just had to be there. I will break it down in four categories to give you a small taster of what happened.

Above: Some of the Midway members with Rafael Torres. Oom Hennie will like Rafa, he does not mess around when cutting, he cuts now and he cuts very hard.

To the left: This is the before picture.

Wild Olive Yamadori 24 October

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Above and to the left: The deadwood on this tree is insane.Does this tree look familiar?

Wild Olive Yamadori 24 OctoberRafael Torres

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Above : Rafa creating a Jin. Wild Olive Yamadori 24 October Rafael Torres

To the right: When you cut hard and clean the deadwood, Jins and Shari properly, you force the strength to where you want it.Wild Olive Yamadori 24 October Rafael Torres

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Above: Rafa sealing all the Jins and Shari with fire.

Wild Olive Yamadori 24 OctoberRafael Torres

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Below: The Artwork will have a few strong branches. Like Rafa says: "More power.”

Wild Olive Yamadori 24 October - Rafael Torres

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Below: Rafa looking at the raw Wild Olive tree - Before

Wild Olive Yamadori 26 October - Rafael Torres

Below: Rafa only carves with hand tools. It’s the only way to make it look natural.Wild Olive Yamadori 26 October - Rafael Torres

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Below: Rafa working on the deadwood Wild Olive Yamadori 26 October - Rafael Torres

Below: Rafa sealing the deadwood with fire. Over time it will look natural. He only leaves a few strong branches to start the new tree. “More beautiful, more power”Wild Olive Yamadori 26 October - Rafael Torres

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6. ABC5 – Mauro Stemberger

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Below and to the right: Mauro received this tree to work on. He leaves a few more branches on the tree. I have never seen anyone wire this fast and this accurately. A true masterclass in wiring and precision.

Wild Olive Yamadori 25 October - MauroStemberger

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Below: Mauro has a very unique way of holding the scissors. If I would try that they will only end up in my eye or leg. Remember when wiring, wax on, wax off. Left hand wires anti-clockwise, the right hand wires clockwise.

Wild Olive Yamadori 25 October - Mauro Stemberger

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Below: These are the hand carving tools of a Master - Mauro Stemberger

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To the left: Dorian and Stefann have reason to look happy, that was one heavy tree.

Below: Mauro does use power tools to reduce the amount of work, but always finished it off with hand tools.Wild Olive Yamadori 26 October - Mauro Stemberger

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Below: Mauro with Jonathan. Tree repotted, deadwood refined, branched wired, by the time my camera is focused properly, he has finished already.

Wild Olive Yamadori26 October- Mauro Stemberger

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7. ABC5 – Bob Mahler

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Above and to the right: Bob Mahler with Richard.

He worked on an unknown variety of Azalea, and gave us some excellent tips and useful information.

25 October - Bob Mahler

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Below: Bob uses his own fertilizer mix for Azaleas. • 11 Parts Cotton Seed• 5 Parts Bone Meal• 5 Parts Muriate of Potash potassium chloride (KCL) • This is all mixed up and left to ferment. Do not apply this raw.


To the left: Find someone that looks at you the way Bob looks at this Azalea.


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Below: Bob gave us excellent advice on how to show trees. For the next show we will be more than ready. He also settled an old argument on ownership versus artist. The owner owns the tree and can show it where and when he pleases, end of conversation. The age of the tree is more of a tricky one. The collected date/ date when training started is possibly a positive way to overcome this. - 27 October - Bob Mahler

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Below: Bob, Dorian and Jess

I think I can speak for everyone when I compliment the International artists for not only their

friendly and patient characters, but also the openness and passion of them sharing their

knowledge. There was so much to cover, and as the days flew past, I was paying so much

attention that I forgot to take photos. I wish I had the talent to write a book with everything I

have learned.

While the first half of the Bok Semi-final was on, we were in the Bonsai showroom with Bob.

Although we were keeping tabs on the score, I for one was never sorry I stayed to listen to

Bob, and neither were the horde of people hanging on to his every word.

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To the Left and below: Bob working.Thanks for the photos Dorian

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8. ABC5 –Show and Local Talent

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Below: Mack demonstrated his famous strangler style by using Wild Fig saplings on a prepared wooden frame. The wood will rot eventually and leave you with the beautiful lattice structure in the victory phase of the Strangle Style.

Vian showed us his approach to working of Wild Olives.

24 October - Vian Herbst and Mack Boshoff

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Below: Mack in front of two awesome Wild Olives at ABC5.These two belongs to Hannes Fritz.

To the left: Rafa and Dorian discussion his Cascade. I am sure that this bougainvillea will only look even better the next time we see it.

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Above and to the right: Brett and Stefann working on a Wild Olive.

Wild Olive Yamadori 27 October – Brett Simon, Viky Petermann and Stefann Pretorius.

Below: Viky Petermann. If you have the opportunity to watch them in action you will not be disappointed.

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Below: Wild Olive Yamadori 27 October – Brett Simon

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Below: Wild Olive from the Cain Collection

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Below: Now this is a forest! By Hannes Fritz

To the left:Isn’t it gorgeous!

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Below: Do you like Acacias (or Senegalia….), well here you go.

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9. Editor’s letter

ABC5 was absolutely phenomenal! If you missed the conference, you really missed out.The international Artist have a confidence about them that you can only get from working many, many hours on high quality trees. They all only work exclusively on Yamadori or imported stock from Japan. This is Bonsai on another level. You had to be there. I tried to take as many pictures as I could, but there is just no way you can condense an experience like this into a few words or pictures.

I have been asking to see Africa's high quality trees on show, and I was not disappointed. This was the most amount of excellent quality trees I have ever seen together. I met so many new bonsai friends and saw some old ones again. The range of exposure to the International artists was very well planned. They all have different approaches to bonsai. They see the trees differently, work differently and each have their own unique style.

Unlike in the rest of the world, bonsai in South Africa was build on the shoulders of our own giants. People that did bonsai before YouTube and videos, and often had to be pioneers in their field. They only had a book or two and their local nursery or hardware store. Most of us are still amateurs. Things that we take for granted today, took them many years to learn. The most important things I learned during ABC5 is that we (As South African Bonsai enthusiasts) are on the right track. We have some local talent that are really good and that is capable of teaching any young budding bonsai artist many valuable lessons. We have so many Indigenous tree species that can be used. When the rest of the world really start paying attention to us (and I think they are starting to see us in a new light) they will envy us our wide range of available raw material.

We are busy exploring different species for bonsai, and are constantly finding new ones. We can still learn a lot from Masters oversea, but only we as South Africans understand our own African trees. We are still growing as a community and have a lot to learn, but we are slowly getting there.

Rafael, Mauro and Bob taught us a lot. I can only hope they learned a little bit from us as well. I hope they tell others about our bounty and richness of our trees available for selection. If you have access to Facebook check out the copious amount of pictures of the trees that was at ABC5. Stunning. I am glad I had the opportunity to take it all in over four days.

May bonsai in Africa continue to grow from strength to strength!


I hope you have enjoyed this months issue of the Midway News.If you have any questions or comments, please contact me directly.

A big thanks you to everybody that contributed with photos, especially Mack, Dorian and Jonathan.

If you want to show off a few of your trees in the Newsletter, please send some picture to me.

I would love to place a few in the Newsletter.

Pieter Bosch

Midway Bonsai Society The Midway News · Midway Bonsai Society October 2019 27 27 Below: Bob,...

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