Shem Kendrick Added Modern At-Home Bonsai to TreeStuff Webinar Series

Summary: Shem Kendrick of Coastal Arbor Care in Savannah, Georgia, added Modern At-Home Bonsai to the TreeStuff Webinar Series, with ISA CEUs, March 18, 2021.

A set of bonsai tools (left to right): leaf trimmer; rake with spatula; root hook; coir brush; concave cutter; knob cutter; wire cutter; shears (3 sizes); Wednesday, June 13, 2007, 15:51: Sage Ross (Ragesoss), CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons

Shem Kendrick of Coastal Arbor Care in Savannah, Georgia, added Modern At-Home Bonsai to the TreeStuff Webinar Series, approved as International Society of Arboriculture (ISA) continuing education units (CEUs), March 18, 2021.

The ISA Board Certified Master Arborist and Tree Risk Assessment Qualification (TRAQ) credentialee broaches modern bonsai as Coastal Arbor Care owner-operator and southeast Georgia-mentored bonsai hobbyist. The 121-minute TreeStuff webinar considers bonsai (from Japanese 盆栽, [tree] planted in container [tray]) conserving the pre-planned “art of growing ornamental artificially dwarfed trees/shrubs.” Native trees derived from bonsai or local nursery stock or developed from seed-sowing, seedlings planted atop tiles or diggings in woods least defy bonsai developmental demands.

Excessively, stubbornly large leaves exclude such trees as London plane (Platanus x acerifolia) from bonsai enactments effected by low soil volume and pruned roots and shoots.

Fine-sized woody-plant features above ground follow from ramification (from Latin rāmus, branch and facere, to do or make) schedules to foster branched-out development by frequent pruning.

Large-aggregate akadama (red-ball earth, from Japanaese 赤玉土) root-refining without, shoot-ramifying with large-aggregate diatomaceous earth, lava, pine bark and pumice guarantees oxygen- and water-balanced soil. Building interiors sometimes harbor bonsai woodies among their houseplants even though bonsai plants have to have full sun outdoors, with partial shade during the hottest hours. The online video-sharing, social-media YouTube platform includes such bonsai-informative channels as Bonsai Mirai, with a 250-hour library of tutorial videos, Herons Bonsai and The Bonsai Zone.

Shem Kendrick joined insignificant strays into the unique unit of a bonsai forest for the last two-thirds of Modern At-Home Bonsai for the TreeStuff Webinar Series.

When buds develop and when new-growth stems redden respectively kindle the best root-pruning, root-refining work and the best branch-pruning, branch-ramifying work on bald cypress (Taxodium distichum).

Linking with local practitioners leads to the luckiest labors with bonsai-loving bald cypress, black pine (Pinus thunbergii), Japanese maple (Acer palmatum) and trident maple (Acer buergerianum). Odd-numbered bonsai, whether all dwarf jade (Portulacaria afra), all Japanese garden juniper (Juniperus procumbens) or mixed as examples, makes bonsai forests less monotonous than even-numbered plantings. Anchored roots and shaped canopies necessitate wire nudged through holes drilled in planting slabs even as sideward-navigating roots and thickened trunks need plantings underground-niched atop tiles.

Muck-O akadama dust, long-fiber sphagnum moss and peat moss offered Shem Kendrick optimum walling for intact plantings on Modern At-Home Bonsai for the TreeStuff webinar series.

Penjing (from Chinese 盆景, tray scenery) predecessors of petite-proportioned bonsai presented petite-proportioned woody plants alone; with plants, rocks, water; or within built, natural, peopled landscapes.

Modern questers of penjing quintessence and of quintessential bonsai queue quaint, quirky shrubs and trees into drain-holed containers and pots and onto drilled-hole slabs and trays. Bonsai forest plantings respond to regular rehydration by spray mist from reduced canopy to rounded base and to year-round residence with area ferns, grasses and mosses. Georgia swamp ferns, grasses and mosses, similar to species specific to each arborist, serve as water filters, share good looks and support sideward- and surface-spreading roots.

Hawaii Five-O’s Adam Noshimuri (Ian Anthony Dale) tackled bonsai gardening just three years before Shem Kendrick transforms TreeStuff Webinar Series trainees into Modern At-Home Bonsai arborists.

Mural of bonsai (penjing; penzai), created 706 CE, on Tang Dynasty tomb of Prince Li Xian (653–684 CE) represents earliest, extant evidence of miniaturized gardens: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

A set of bonsai tools (left to right): leaf trimmer; rake with spatula; root hook; coir brush; concave cutter; knob cutter; wire cutter; shears (3 sizes); Wednesday, June 13, 2007, 15:51: Sage Ross (Ragesoss), CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bonsai_tools.jpg

Mural of bonsai (penjing; penzai), created 706 CE, at Qianling Mausoleum, Shaanxi Province, Northwest China, on tomb of Li Xian (Jan. 29, 655-March 13, 684 CE), formally known from 675 to 680 as Crown Prince Zhanghuai of the Tang Dynasty, represents earliest, extant evidence of miniaturized gardens; a court-attired servant carrying a bowl containing a rock garden with red-flowered (left) and green-budded (right) leafy miniature flora is depicted in Courtiers and Guests, also known as Courtiers and Foreign Envoys, the ink and color on plaster wall mural adorning the eastern wall in the middle of the passage to the tomb, as described by Robert J. Baran in "Dwarf Potted Trees in Paintings, Scrolls and Woodblock Prints, China -- Up to the Song Dynasty (to the year 960 C.E.)" on his Magical Miniature Landscapes website: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tang_dynasty_penzai.JPG; Robert J. Baran, "Dwarf Potted Trees in Paintings, Scrolls and Woodblock Prints, China -- Up to the Song Dynasty (to the year 960 C.E.)," via Magical Miniature Landscapes @ https://www.magiminiland.org/Paintings/Chinato960.html#Courtiers; Robert J. Baran, "Dwarf Potted Trees in Paintings, Scrolls and Woodblock Prints, China -- The Portrayals," via Magical Miniature Landscapes @ https://www.magiminiland.org/Paintings/ChinaPortrayals.html

For further information:

"Aohe Mea Make I Ka Hewa; Make No I Ka Mihi Ole: No One Has Ever Died for the Mistakes He Has Made; Only Because He Didn't Repent." Hawaii Five-0 2010: The Eighth Season. Los Angeles CA: Paramount Pictures Corporation, April 6, 2018.

Chan, Peter. 1998. Bonsai Master Class. New York NY: Sterling Publishing Co., Inc.

Chan, Peter. 2018. The Bonsai Beginner's Bible. London UK: Mitchell Beazley.

Coussins, Craig. 2006. Bonsai Master Class. New York NY: Sterling Publishing Co., Inc.

Gilman, Ed. 2011. An Illustrated Guide to Pruning. Third Edition. Boston MA: Cengage.

Hayes, Ed. 2001. Evaluating Tree Defects. Revised, Special Edition. Rochester MN: Safe Trees.

Kendrick, Shem. 18 March 2021. "Modern At-Home Bonsai." TreeStuff > Webinars > Webinar #136.
Available @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryMkpFwO-6k

Marriner, Derdriu. 16 May 2020. "Trent Dicks Alerted TreeStuff Webinar Attendees to Spotted Lanternfly." Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2020/05/trent-dicks-alerted-treestuff-webinar.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 29 December 2019. "Pruning Cuts Applied Ably, Appropriately Are Best Management Practices." Earth and Space News. Sunday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/12/pruning-cuts-applied-ably-appropriately.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 27 October 2019. "Tree Pruning Systems Answer to Best Management Practices." Earth and Space News. Sunday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/10/tree-pruning-systems-answer-to-best.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 8 April 2018. “Chinese Juniper Shrubs on Hawaii Five-0 2010's Aohe Mea Make I Ka Hewa.” Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2018/04/chinese-juniper-shrubs-on-hawaii-five-0.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 7 April 2018. “Bonsai Gardening on Hawaii Five-0 2010 Episode Aohe Mea Make I Ka Hewa.” Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2018/04/bonsai-gardening-on-hawaii-five-0-2010.html

Oshima, Megumi; and Hideshi Kimura. Miniature Moss Gardens: Create Your Own Japanese Container Gardens. Tokyo, Japan; Rutland VT; and Singapore: Tuttle Publishing, imprint of Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd., 2017. Translated by Leeyong Soo from Japanese Koke No Aru Seikatsu, Nitto Shoin Honsha Co., Ltd., 2012.

Sunamori, Satoshi. Moss Ball Bonsai: 100 Beautiful Kokedama That Are Fun to Create. Tokyo, Japan; Rutland VT: Singapore: Tuttle Publishing, imprint of Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd., 2020. Translated by HL Language Services from Japanese Kokedama to Koke Sodatekata Note, 2014.