00:05hi I'm Milton Chang of bonsai heirloom
00:09I'm happy to do another QA this week
00:11please send me your questions
00:13I really enjoy doing them so I can be
00:16helpful to you so that you make better
00:19Bonsai to get excited about it Bonsai is
00:22an excellent Hobby and besides it
00:24promotes Community relationship where
00:28people at Bonsai Club share best
00:30practices please send me your questions
00:33and I'll try to answer them each week
00:35and like my video I like encouragement
00:38thank you very much the first question
00:40this week is about moving a bonsai from
00:44warm climate like Southern California to
00:46a cold area like Illinois side interest
00:49I actually went to the University of
00:51Illinois in Champaign-Urbana although I
00:54must say I don't have any first-hand
00:55experience on cold weather bonds out
00:59keeping from what I know from what I
01:02read it's not that big a transition
01:04especially this time of the year when
01:06it's warm just grow them as you are in
01:09Southern California and I'll tell you a
01:11story about Winter in Chicago Professor
01:14Emmett Lees who is the big professor at
01:17University of Michigan who invented
01:19holography I knew him very well and he
01:22actually brought a citrus tree an orange
01:25tree from Southern California to
01:29and what he planned what he did is he
01:32planted a orange tree just outside his
01:36and he showed me a picture of him
01:39opening part of the window with the best
01:42sheet covering the tree outside through
01:46the winter and the tree actually would
01:48in the springtime with flour and bear
01:51fruits for him not very many but he's so
01:53happy to have him so to me then it's not
01:56that big a deal to keep trees in a cold
01:59area although I think it's good practice
02:02based on what I read to move the really
02:05more tender ones or more precious ones
02:07into your garage in the winter time or
02:09cover it with some kind of a plastic
02:12sheets or something to prevent it from a
02:15little bit too much of the direct winter
02:16so it shouldn't be a problem great video
02:19can you recommend the books you like to
02:21read so here are a couple books my Bible
02:24is John nanka's book Bonsai Technique
02:27One and Two they are becoming out of
02:30print and you can get them on eBay maybe
02:33for over a hundred dollars around a
02:34hundred dollars this is an excellent
02:36more recent book Bonsai the artist
02:38living out sculpture by Jack dermatt it
02:42had a preface by Warren Hill who is from
02:45Southern California a director of the
02:48national Bonsai museum for a while it
02:50has excellent photos and you can see uh
02:54of just about all varieties of trees now
02:58there are really two purposes on going
03:01for Bonsai books one is for technique
03:04and I hate to say this but there are a
03:07lot of misinformation there that's been
03:10propagated everybody copying each other
03:12about culture of the bonsai trees I
03:15recommend you listen to YouTube's my
03:19video because I'm really sharing best
03:22practices after making a lot of mistakes
03:24so that's for technique but for styling
03:28they are really two excellent sources
03:30one is are the two shows that I really
03:34think is great one is the annual
03:39the show and then the other one is say
03:42annual show in Japan in Taiwan which I
03:46posted on YouTube every year and these
03:48are really fantastic trees I think the
03:50Chinese are less likely to follow rules
03:54therefore the trees tend to be more
03:56creative i i in fact that's my trees has
04:00the Chinese influence I'm Chinese so I
04:03think that will cover both what you need
04:05in terms of bonsai but aside from that
04:07just YouTube has got a lot of good
04:10photos of what other people did to give
04:13you ideas design ideas the next question
04:16is about how to use is using Grapevine
04:19for Bonsai and this person wrote and
04:23said he started a grapevine tree that he
04:27bought from a nursery I think that's
04:30really too much work it would take quite
04:32a while for that tree to become a uh you
04:37know to have a substantial trunk what
04:39you will find us that there are a lot of
04:41old Grapevine grape vineyard or grape
04:45Nursery that they're going out that are
04:48quitting and they have really old stumps
04:51that you can get and those are great
04:53material for turning into Bonsai I did
04:55couple of those when I started maybe 20
04:58years 40 years ago neither of them made
05:00a I think that uh just not didn't know
05:03how to take care of them but so it's not
05:05necessarily easy but I've seen Grapevine
05:07old trunks with grapes hanging on it
05:10it's really quite pretty what about
05:12foliage feeding or fertilizing I think
05:15that's great idea why not uh feed comes
05:18through the foliage as well from The
05:20Roots then the next question is that you
05:24know I like to use I mean Canada and
05:26like to use native material any
05:28suggestions well I think that's a great
05:30idea if you can find all great old
05:34native material on the other hand
05:36I tend to stick to the traditional
05:38material for Bonsai it has proven to be
05:42spectacular when they mature when you
05:45use a new material that's not proven it
05:47could be hit or miss but on the other
05:49hand why not give it a tray you may be a
05:51Pioneer and then grow them like any
05:53using my soil mix and all that but on
05:56the other hand talk to your local
05:57Nursery man they they may know more
05:59about native trees this viewer requests
06:03that I do some pine trees I will do that
06:07like this is a pine tree I started about
06:1015 years ago and you can see it's really
06:12growing the needles are growing very
06:14nicely I'll show you how I cut it back
06:16to shorten the needle you can see the
06:18needles are really pretty uniform and
06:20pretty short it just improves over over
06:22the years the next one is how to survive
06:25the trees that you dug up from the wild
06:28how to do a yamadori I will show you
06:32today actually later through a yadori
06:35what I call tang and cheek instead of
06:37Yama which means Mountain I do a yard
06:40Dory which means stuck a tree from the
06:42yard and many of you can have two the
06:44same so I think that would be a good
06:46example no different uh later I had zero
06:50luck zero luck uh with the California
06:52Juniper I used to go out with Harry
06:54hirao to take trees about maybe 40 years
06:58ago none of them survived because
06:59there's so little roots and you'd really
07:01have to treat them with care what I
07:04would recommend today based on what I
07:06learned over the years is to plant them
07:08in those proven mix for cuttings which
07:11is one part in perlite one part in
07:13vermiculite and planted purely in that
07:16and water it every day or every other
07:18day and I think your survival rate may
07:20be quite high on the other hand be
07:23cognizant of the fact leave some
07:25spectacular tree in nature for other
07:27future generations to enjoy that's why I
07:29rather do the yadori because it's from
07:31my garden turning into something you
07:34know just ordinary into something
07:35extraordinary so are encouraged to do
07:38that and I will show you some video
07:39there oh this is to say when to chop up
07:42a deciduous tree for Bonsai and also for
07:45repotting I would say any time of the
07:47year there's General belief and that's
07:49by and large true for playing safe is to
07:53repot and cut up trees in in the fall or
07:57in winter months or early spring because
08:00that's when trees are growing vigorously
08:02you're less likely to kill a tree but on
08:05the other hand repotting and
08:07digging up a tree I think the trick is
08:10to compensate the root loss with the
08:14cutting off as much branches as possible
08:16so that the leaves doesn't dry out the
08:19tree so to speak I've seen peop China
08:21they they do massive replanting they
08:24would dig out trees a massive tree with
08:27a little Ruble in any time of the year
08:29because they cut back the trees trunks
08:31so tremendously it looks so ugly but
08:35then it grows back in time So my answer
08:38to you is that the preferred time is
08:40spring and in the fall and the winter
08:43time but you know in Spring and fall I
08:46think that's the best uh actually
08:48anytime if you take care about the
08:51compensation of the roots loss preserve
08:54the moisture by keeping your plants in
08:56the shade until they started growing one
08:58quick question was how many trees do I
09:00have I would say I have 50 pretty nice
09:05trees that are in pots maybe 50 that are
09:08in growing pots that are really nice
09:10even better than these and then I have
09:12hundreds growing in the ground and in
09:15the nursery pots I enjoyed the growing
09:17process I have never sold my tree so far
09:20and I want to tell you that I started
09:22Bonsai heirloom to in fact make trees
09:25available because I think there are a
09:26lot of material that are not very good
09:28out there that discourages people from
09:30continuing Bonsai but it takes time to
09:33grow these trees so look out for the
09:35offering we'll make and I think you'll
09:37be pleased with what we have to offer
09:39that was a great video I enjoy the
09:41content which you do the same Maple and
09:44from what age about breaking branches to
09:46to create interesting features well you
09:49can break the trees anytime they will
09:52heal over so for example a juniper the
09:56branches are pretty stiff if you have a
09:58branch that's going this way and you're
10:00trying to make it go that way it's
10:01nearly impossible frankly if you
10:03carefully you you you cut a little bit
10:05first and then you start to break it you
10:08actually break the trunk maybe a quarter
10:12the branch Will Survive and then you get
10:15it like as if the branch is drooping
10:19down by a weight of the snow it looks
10:22very very natural but in time let's say
10:25in couple years it will not be
10:27noticeable at all that you broke it in
10:29Federal Hill very naturally and one of
10:31the Impressions I've created is I don't
10:33do wiring and do only clipping clip and
10:37grow it's not quite true I will do
10:39wiring I do the the clip and grow
10:42because I found pulling a branch down
10:46string is much more natural because how
10:49the French troops with weight on the
10:52other hand if I'm preparing for a show I
10:54really don't have time for the branch to
10:57go into too few other area I want so I
10:59will do wiring but do it judiciously and
11:02if you do it don't believe what they say
11:04keep it keep it for a year or two remove
11:06it about I would say months or two
11:08you'll find that the branch will stay
11:10put and then it will grow out naturally
11:12again you can so it's a combination on
11:14clip and grow and wiring you know
11:17frankly every technique is good use it
11:20in your kit toolkit to maximize the
11:24result why not right so enjoy your
11:26Bonsai do clip you like my video I do
11:30need the encouragement and I need the
11:32subscription so please subscribe to my
11:35video so that I will send follow-on
11:37video a video notices to you so that you
11:40won't miss the good stuff okay thank you
