WHAT TO DO IN DECEMBER

PREPARE FOR SUMMER!

(Ed.- I’m only partially joking with that headline. I’ve only been involved with bonsai for 7 years—so I’m a long ways from being an expert in anything other than killing perfectly healthy trees. But, one of the things I’ve learned is this; if you have the time, take the time. Clean your tools, do sketches of how you want to style your trees, put together or set up a workbench. Do it now, because you won’t have the time to do it in the spring, when the weather’s nice and you have 500 hundred other things to do, like your children’s 499 soccer games and cut the grass.)

SAD stands for Seasonal Affective Disorder, a seasonally recurring depression brought on in some people by a lack of daylight, and lasting from approximately November to April. Symptoms include feelings of sadness, anxiety, lethargy, difficulties in awakening in the morning, drowsiness during the day, social withdrawal and weight gain. Note that these symptoms occur in the absence of the usual holiday triggers—hangovers from too much eggnog, overeating, jet lag, shopping till you are dropping, etc. Typically the cure is to have the patient sit in front of a bank of full-spectrum artificial lights for extended periods of time, often daily. There are alternative treatments available to the bonsai-obsessed individual:

Grow bonsai indoors under artificial lights. Spend time in that room, soaking up the light while you administer to your trees. Make especially sure that your trees are getting enough water. (The higher humidity may help your skin, too!)

Read books on bonsai, also under some good, strong lights.

Clean and sharpen all your tools, also a task to be done under high light levels.

Wire your pines—see below.

Shop for supplies. This can get you away from the dreary, high density shopping chaos called a mall.

Study your trees. Experiment with sketches to determine a styling direction.

If you are going to wire your pines, here are some tips:

First of all, since you don’t want to be digging up overwintered trees in the middle of a snowstorm, decide which ones you are going to work on, and keep them protected above ground somehow, until you’re ready to work on them. That means several other decisions will need to be made early on.

Choose your weapon; copper or aluminum. Aluminum is easier to use, cheaper, easier to find, easier to correct and remove. Copper looks better, holds better, can be used in smaller diameters and is historically more appropriate.

Be careful with crossing wires; it looks sloppy and can girdle branches; both wires must be removed if removing either wire, setting you up for additional rewiring.

Choose your wire size by taking a 5-6 inch length and push down on the branch you’re trying to wire. If the branch moves, the wire will hold it; if the wire bends, you need to upsize.

-Jim Hagan