The June meeting was the annual frolic in the park. It featured a tour of the Bonsai Garden Lake Merritt collection hosted by two members of EBBS who are both very active in the garden. Janice Dilbeck is in charge of maintaining collected junipers and Bob Gould has his hand in much of the overall operation of the collection.
The history of the garden was briefly reviewed as an introduction to the tour. The garden was conceived in 1993 when funds became available for construction. Actual work began in 1996 and the garden opened to the public in 1999. Many members of EBBS were influential in developing the garden, notably Bill Castellon (who presented our May meeting on pines) and Randall Lee. Probably the most important person in the origin of the garden was John North who was also a member of EBBS. While much of the work was accomplished by volunteers, it was mandated by the city that the peripheral fence be installed by a licensed contractor. Again EBBS came to the rescue. Steve Faulk, a member of EBBS at the time, had a day job as a contractor and he was responsible for construction of the fence. The entry gate was built by Hioshi Sakadoshi who lived in Southern California. Next time you are in the collection take a minute to carefully examine the gate. It is built in the Japanese style with each of the components fitted together without any fastenings such as nails or screws. The multipurpose room was constructed in 2001 and Jim Heady was involved in the design.
Many of the trees in the collection were either donated or worked on by EBBS members. A number of particularly interesting trees were singled out for special comments.
A Sierra Juniper located near the entrance was worked on by Rick Trumm who focused on the deadwood and wiring. Rick used a wood hardener with various tints to preserve the wood against rot and color the wood. The current preferred wood hardener used at the garden is PC Petrifier. It is water based so it mixes easy with tints, absorbs well into the wood, and is easy to clean-up. Joan Scroggs, a current member of EBBS, donated a splendid Sierra Juniper which probably is the gold standard for collecting a tree. She found the tree and then spent three years slowly cutting main roots and even watering the tree during the summers before she finally dug it up. Janice showed the very first tree that she worked on by herself, a magnificent Sierra Juniper. Her skills are certainly reflected in the many trees she has worked on in the garden. Jeff Clarkson has been busy root grafting a Trident maple and in spite of his “aw shucks” comment, great things are in the future of the tree. Jeff has also done an excellent job taking over responsibility for the watering systems in the garden. As you can well imagine, this is a demanding and critical task.
A huge pomegranate made an entrance to the garden worthy of something from the grand opera. It was planted in a big box and while unloading at the garden, the box fell and broke. Emergency repotting was called for, but the biggest pot available was much smaller than the original box. Simply cutting roots to make the plant fit in the pot was not advisable since each root on a pomegranate feeds a single branch and, if the root was cut, that branch it was feeding would die. With much huffing and puffing, most of the roots got squished into the pot. The tree has pretty much recovered from the ordeal and is now awaiting styling.
A fine cascade juniper is on display from the collection of Ruben Guzman, a long time member of EBBS who recently passed away.
Linda Soliven is fostering a pine tree which has very interesting deadwood. By removing small strips of wood, Linda gave the remaining deadwood a twisted form not usually seen on pines.
The tour ended with the Daimyo Oak. The story of this tree begins in the mid 1860’s when President Lincoln sent an emissary to China. In 1863 on his way back to the United States, the emissary stopped in Japan where he was given an oak bonsai tree which he brought back to the United States. He purchased a considerable tract of land for his home on the peninsula which now includes the city which bears his name, Burlingame. The tree remained in his family for many years and then passed into the hands of a second family. From them it fell into the hands of a Japanese bonsai artist who gave it to the collection. Over the years it had been neglected and the immediate objective was to restore it to good health. Clearly this has been accomplished. The city of San Mateo has requested cuttings from the tree for planting in the city. This tree appears to be the tree which has been cultivated for the longest time as a bonsai in the United States.
After the garden tour was completed the attendees enjoyed good fellowship and refreshments supplied by the club. The evening was a less formal event than the usual meeting and was enjoyed by all. The members left with the warm fuzzy feeling that they had truly frolicked in the park.
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