I got to the meeting straight from my office, no time to go home first. So, obviously had no camera with me.
Marco worked on 4 trees: 3 shimpakus purchased from the House of Bonsai, and a San Jose juniper (it looked like a prostrata to me). He took each of them to a different stage of development. One of the shimp ended up all wired, pruned, and he even created some shari. All these trees were small-ish, good for shohin and chuhin size. Another shimp was wired but not pruned, another was just cleaned and prepared for styling.
Marco talked a lot, he is a good speaker. He wants to make sure that the audience understands everything that he does, so all questions are encouraged. He also wants people to sit close, in order to see everything. All trees will be auctioned at the next Descanso club event.
From what I learned from him this night, one thing stood out: do not pinch your junipers and cypresses. Marco is against pinching, he recommends very selective pruning with a scissor - even when maintaining foliage pads. Pinching, when not done by a top expert, usually damages indiscriminately all the new buds. The branch ends up with all the buds damaged, often causing it to die, as a result. And if it doesn't die, it will languish for a long time before it recovers. That's because, when we pluck the foliage, our fingers grab everything. There is some good logic in this, and next time I will make sure to leave plenty of untouched new buds, when I work on my foliage pads.
It would have been a nice evening for me, had it not been ruined the end by one of the organizers (the guy handling the raffles). I was just about to leave, but I wanted to check out a little black pine and an olive that was standing next to this guy. The olive was a sorry-looking stump, no styling or anything close to styling. Just a raw stump. And as I was standing there, I committed a major blasphemy:
I touched a leaf on the olive. It was an instinctual move, since I work with bonsai material every day in my garden, as I look at small details on a tree. I didn't even realize that I touched the thing. Beside, I would think that at workshops, demos, and other learning experiences, people are encouraged to experience bonsai in every way, including touching.
Just imagine the horrible offence that I committed: touch a leaf on a stump. The next thing that I saw is that the guy went besirk. He yelled at me, and told me in no uncertain terms that I offended him personally and he will not forgive me for that. "You can't touch leaves" - he shrieked. His face was red and hostile (the real reason for his hatred may have been that I kindly declined to purchase raffle tickets from him).
Since I was on the way out, I quickly apologised and, embarrassed and shocked by the sudden harsh treatment, I left the building. I felt lucky that he didn't punch me in the face. For a moment, anger took over and I felt like returning to the hall and smash the stump in front of the idiot, but then common sense prevailed: I didn't want to spend the night at the local deputy's station.
Nice way to attract new club members, buddy!
(I am not officially a member of Descanso Bonsai Club, but it is right next door, so I was considering becoming one. I also have many trees that I was considering donating to a club. But after this incident, I think I will postpone my membership indefinitely - I would NOT want to be in the same room with this pitbull at every club meeting)
So, for you kids, next time you visit a bonsai show, keep your hands hidden behind your back, or you may get shot by one of those bonsai extremists.
