MBC Meeting – Bill Castellon

Japanese Black Pines are considered the ‘king’ of bonsai, one of three classic bonsai varieties we work with as bonsai practitioners. At our November meeting we will be doing a deep dive into the fall care that is so important in training JBP into the traditional styles we all love.

Our guest presenter is Bill Castellon, a well-known and respected local bonsai artist and teacher and expert in JBP development, who will lead us through the steps and techniques necessary to shape the trees. We have had Bill previously talk to the club about Spring care, but Fall care is every bit as important and is often given short shrift. The fall is a great time to think about styling Japanese Black Pines; branches to shorten, buds to reduce, needles to pluck — or not — and the ever-important wiring. Bill will show some of his well developed trees and demonstrate techniques on a tree he brings for our raffle.

Even if you don’t currently have Japanese Black Pine trees in your collection Bill’s talk may well convince you they are great trees to work on, very rewarding to develop and the perfect additions to your collection.

Members are welcome to bring their JBP trees for show and tell and for Bill to possibly refer to in his presentation, but he will not be reviewing individual trees. We hope to see you there.