Intern. Bonsai Academy in Kastela, Croatia 2013 #1

Past weekend the International Bonsai Academy 2013 took place in Kastela near Split , Croatia. There we have Mediterranean climate. This means no frost in winter, palm trees on the beach. The climate is similar to southern California and northern Florida. Therefore everything can be done on the trees right now, like repotting, cutting, styling, collecting etc.. End of November is a very good time to repot there. Warning: most things can NOT be done now in colder climate.

Marija and Andrija have this mazing collection there and do everything together. During the seminar without much ado we take one tree after the other from more than 100 specimen bonsai and do whatever can be done at that moment. We do a lot of subtle artistic corrections. First thorough tree discussion among there people who have strong opinions. Then a consensus. Then hands on doing what has to be done. The pots often are very dirty full of calcium from the extremely hard local water which is used with a dripping system. This is a cosmetic problem only and can quickly be solved with vinegar and oil or paraffin or silicone.

#1: wild olive, Olea europea sylvestris. We decided about a better position in the pot for this dancing tree. This tree was collected less than a year ago and placed into this pot immediately. Therefore we did not do the position correction now, but will do this in twelve months.