Marin Bonsai Club

Here we get a sneak peek at the workshop of our VP of Shows, Jay McDonald as he works his magic on a Korean Hornbeam.

This Chinese Wisteria was air-layered by Bill Sullivan, my first mentor, back in the 1980’s. I acquired the tree as partial payment for the cosmetic remodel of his kitchen – that was back in 2000 or 2001. This tree was featured in the new edition of Sunset Magazine’s ‘Bonsai: Illustrated Guide to an Ancient Art’, 1994. I also acquired two other trees that were featured in the magazine.

Bill was considered the grandfather of Marin County bonsai, and was instrumental in starting our show at the county fair. He was the show chairman since Marin Bonsai Club showed their art at the fair, a job which I took over after Bill passed me the reins.

This Wisteria’s truly been a joy to own and show, not one year has it not bloomed profusely like you see in the picture. Not only does it flower well, the fall color and the winter silhouette makes it exciting to own. A true all-season viewer.

• Jay McDonald

All it takes is a lot of time and a whole bunch of skill. Here’s a ‘before’ shot of Jay McDonald’s fluffy Japanese Larch, a deciduous conifer.

Jay spent 7 hours plucking needles prior to his recent all-day wiring marathon/workshop with visiting bonsai professional Bjorn Bjorholm (http://www.bjornbjorholm.com/).

In this case, ‘all-day’ = 10 hours of wiring!  Fortunately, Jay estimates he won’t need to unwire this tree for two years.

Almost tragically, this tree lost two important branches about 3 years ago. Jay unwired the tree then and grew new branches to fill the vacancy left behind.  Jay’s effort has really paid off!