Bonsai fans never stop learning from each other

LIVE OAK, Calif. -- For Vietnam veteran Pete Logan, practicing the art of bonsai has been therapeutic, helping him deal with some of the problems of his post-traumatic stress disorder.

Logan, who lives in the Felton, Calif., area, has been working with the Japanese art form of miniature trees for about 12 years and currently has about 100 of the plants.

"It's very calming and relaxing," he said.

Around six years ago, he joined the Santa Cruz Bonsai Kai Club which meets twice a month and has been holding annual show for more than two decades.

"You learn something new every day," said Logan, who attended a recent session, which focused on re-potting deciduous trees, trimming and wiring branches, and trimming roots. "You're always learning."

That idea of continuous learning is central to Bonsai Kai's core. In addition to its meetings for members, the club also holds a monthly session, open to everyone, that feature a demonstration on a particular technique followed by a workshop.

Contrary to some misconceptions, bonsai isn't a particular species or type of tree. Instead, bonsai can be practiced with a wide variety of trees. The name itself comes from the Japanese word "bon," which is a small tray-like pot that's typically used in the art of bonsai. The practice itself involves cultivation techniques like pruning, root reduction, potting and grafting to produce small trees that mimic the shape and style of mature, full-sized trees. They can come in different sizes, with a cap of 4 feet in height.

Current Bonsai Kai president, Ron Anderson, says it's a delicate art that can help with stress alleviation. Anderson has a background in law enforcement and practicing bonsai helps him achieve a sense of balance and harmony, he said.

Anderson has been a part of the club, which has about 80 members who range in age from teenagers to those in their 90s, for nearly five years. Before that, he'd always been "really into Japanese gardening." At a bonsai show, he won three of the little trees in a raffle, and pretty soon, he'd been bitten by the bonsai bug. He estimates that he now has somewhere between 100 and 150 bonsai trees of his own.

"You learn most of the information about bonsais from your peers," he said. "And the more you learn, the more you realize how much you don't know."

One of the club's major events is the annual Santa Cruz Bonsai Kai show, which will be held this year on the weekend of March 24-25 at the Scotts Valley Community Center. This year's show, the club's 24th such event, will include daily demonstrations by bonsai artist Katsumi Kinoshita, pots and plants for sale, and an exhibit of various bonsai trees.