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For those interested in bonsai in general, consider becoming a member of the American Bonsai Society; an association of individuals dedicate to promoting an interest in the art of bonsai to receive four issues per year and other member benefits. Annual membership is $40. For more information, please contact Gloria Duncan, ABS Executive Secretary, PO Box 351604, Toledo, Ohio 43635-1604; Telephone (734) 848-9207. By David W. Fukumoto, Fuku-Bonsai president & founder Summer 2009 |
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Aloha! Twenty years ago we sprayed defective Benlate
fungicide contaminated with extremely potent herbicides that killed
young crops, stunted old plants, and left long-lasting contamination
that forced us to develop all new crops! It was a very difficult period
and we passed through bankruptcy, foreclosure, and terrible stresses.
DuPont really crippled us and our total net recovery of both the product
liablility and fraud settlements was only about 10% of our losses after
over a dozen years of punishing litigation.
We continue to struggle with under maintained exhibit bonsai and roads and facilities badly in need of repair. But even under these difficult conditions we continued our research efforts and have largely succeeded. We survived and I thank our customers, staff, and community for the great support and encouragement we received! I am very humbled and pleased to announce:
FUKU-BONSAI WILL BE THE BEST SOURCE OF THE HIGHEST QUALITY POPULAR BONSAI THAT CAN BE SUCCESSFULLY GROWN ANYWHERE BY ANYONE! THEY MAKE GREAT GIFTS FOR HOMES AND OFFICES! That’s an impressive statement but it’s true! Our switch to Schefflera arboricola, commonly known as Dwarf Schefflera or Hawaiian Umbrella Tree is making possible a whole new field of POPULAR BONSAI that can be grown anywhere by anyone! It’s taken us 47 years to get here even though we were very close from the very beginning! In 1962 the Fukumotos began training Brassaia actinophylla, commonly known as Schefflera, Octopus Tree, or Queensland Umbrella Tree. Then it was known as the most durable and most common of all houseplants. In 1973, the start of Fuku-Bonsai was featured in two American Bonsai Society Journal articles and Brassaia was well over 95% of our production until we sprayed Benlate. From our very early days, we shared our efforts and progress results including the concept of growing shade tolerant tropical houseplants as bonsai for indoors. In 1979, ABS Journal published a major series of articles titled: “Ficus; An Inspiration for Bonsai for Indoors!” At the time the study was done as a research affiliate of the Harold Lyon Arboretum of the University of Hawaii at Manoa, we theorized that ficus would one day be the “king of indoor bonsai.” Unfortunately at the end of the study we concluded that ficus bonsai required more light than is available in ordinary homes and is more properly classed as “greenhouse bonsai” or as “tropical high-light bonsai.” Care is much easier than traditional temperate climate outdoor bonsai and ficus bonsai is now possibly amongst the most popular bonsai in the United States. But it cannot be grown everywhere by anyone without supplemental light. Jerry Meislik has written an excellent book: Ficus; The Exotic Bonsai and a review and more information is posted at www.fukubonsai.com/MPBF2c.html In 1985 Fuku-Bonsai evolved into a corporation to be the catalyst to own and operate both the 17-acre Fuku-Bonsai Center in upper Keauhou-Kona and the 12-acre Kurtistown export nursery. In 1989 we sprayed Benlate and before the center formally opened in 1992, we had sold out most of the surviving plants and were already struggling. ABS Journal published a major article about the center. In 1994 we were forced into bankruptcy, the center closed, and we were forced to accept an unfair settlement or be liquidated. In 1996 we emerged from bankruptcy and were then able to sue DuPont for fraud. We collected another small amount after over 10 years of additional punishing litigation. Life’s not fair, but we survived and I now can tell the story of those survival years and the series of breakthroughs that made Popular Bonsai a reality. Initially, our goal was simply to find a replacement crop for Brassaia and the first major breakthrough was when we learned how to grow Dwarf Schefflera as small bonsai. It’s easy to grow as larger low quality bonsai, grows rapidly, requires different care, and being superior plant, in 1999, we discontinued all efforts and stopped growing Brassaia.
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MAJOR “POPULAR
BONSAI” MILESTONES ● 1973: Fuku-Bonsai was the first Hawaii State Certified Export Nursery and its initial crop featured Brassaia Lava Planting. This was the most durable houseplants with common names Schefflera, Octopus Tree, or Queensland Umbrella Tree. |
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● 1976: Dwarf Schefflera is also commonly known as Hawaiian Umbrella Tree because it was largely introduced by the then young Hawaiian certified export industry. Fuku-Bonsai began growing it in 1976, our early products were primarily medium and large size lava plantings and 8LS8, a potted bonsai in 8" diameter x 2"pots. Somehow Dwarf Schefflera was not affected by the defective Benlate contamination residue and once we realized it was going to be impossible to grow Brassaia to our original high standards, we began greater research on Dwarf Schefflera! |
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● 1992- 1999:
In order to replace Brassaia, it was necessary to learn to grow it as
our smaller popular small and desk size. Dwarf Schefflera Lava
Plantings became our primary crop in 1999 and the Fuku-Bonsai website
www.fukubonsai.com went online to enlarge direct contact with
individuals to enlarge research on a national scale.
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● 2000: Initial feedback encouraged the production of less costly potted bonsai smaller than the Living Sculpture in the 8” diameter pot. Potted Keiki Bonsai was the small size Dwarf Schefflera lava planting with root-over-rock into a pot for more vigorous growth. The lower price made this product more popular than the larger older Living Sculpture. The direct contact with many new bonsai hobbyists increased our efforts to produce still smaller more economical potted bonsai. There was strong feedback for a complete "kit" that would teach the essence of bonsai. |
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● 2001:
Introduction of the potted Premium Keiki Bonsai Workshop Package, the
#8 Conversion Kit, and the Keiki Bonsai Workshop Handbook. This
became a popular item with very strong feedback and many of our most
experienced hobbyists that are part of our study group that are helping
us to research Popular Bonsai joined us in this period. An
extensive amount of information was posted on the website.
Angela Tillman of North Carolina wrote an article for our website (www.fukubonsai.com/3a2g.html) and proposed to use it as the theme of her art class. |
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● 2002:
Introduction of a new smaller line of potted Living Lovable bonsai.
Initially we began with our high-quality "Sumo" styling that was the
basic Fuku-Bonsai training strategy to create heavy trunks with strong
low branches and a multiple apex-arched branched structure for our lava
plantings and potted bonsai. Angela obtained approval by her school board and reported and wrote several chapters starting at www.fukubonsai.com/3a2g1.html. This resulted in the second edition of the Fuku-Bonsai Workshop Handbook and showed the need for a wider range of workshop plants resulting in the development of “Sumo,” “Roots,” and “Hawaiian Dragon” styling concepts. |
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● 2003: Production of “Sumo,” “Roots,” and “Hawaiian Dragon” prepared bonsai stock had already begun a few years earlier and there was a special release to Angela’s second class in which she was also able to formulate a suitable substitute media from materials available locally and that greatly reduced her costs. The report of her second year’s course begins at www.fukubonsai.com/3a2g8.html. A condensed version was published in September-October issue of Bonsai Clubs International Magazine. |
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● 2004-05: Dr. Barry Grayson of New York contacted us and besides a large gift order he designed a special rock-planting bonsai workshop for his garden club which utilized “Roots” Living Lovables which begins at www.fukubonsai.com/3a2i.html. Several other group workshops and a growing number of individual hobbyists reported on their experiences with a growing range of workshop combinations with many excellent suggestions. All of this placed greater emphasis on developing a smaller, younger prepared bonsai stock and the need for complete bonsai workshop packages in which we supply all needed components to create successful houseplant bonsai. |
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● 2006: Ron Davis of Montana took a workshop here and his enthusiasm and creativity inspired more efforts toward developing workshops. His story begins at www.fukubonsai.com/4c3e.html. Extensive feedback by many customers encouraged the creation of the Introductory Workshop Package which successfully ended our quest for the “Bonsai Holy Grail!” Several of our best correspondents were sent trial packages resulting in outstanding photo reports from Ron (www.fukubonsai.com/3a2a2e.html) and from Kathy Alameda of California (www.fukubonsai.com/3a2a2b.html). |
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● 2007: Throughout the year, great efforts were made to improve the prepared bonsai stock in the 2" nursery pots. The goal was to create a lot of character in the lowest 1" above the ground and an ideal compact root system 1/2" below the soil level. The prepared stock is the key to customer success and without any training, these plants would be over 5' tall with no branches! They have stout trunks with taper and strong lower branches from having been pruned several times. They average 3-5 years in training and only about 3" to 4" tall! The compact root system has no tap root with strong surface roots due to at least three root prunings! |
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● 2008-09:
Extensive correspondence with Fuku-Bonsai customers and
study group members resulted in more specific recommendations to create
optimum growth in all parts of the United States. Generally, the same
recommendations dealing with supplemental light, humidity, and
temperature are used for Alaska, Wisconsin-Michigan, Vermont, New
Hampshire, Maine and the cooler northern states. Another set of
recommendations are made for the warmer southwestern states, Texas, and
Florida dealing primarily with increasing humidity and maximizing growth
with higher temperatures and stronger light levels.
The effect of light and fertilizer plays a key role in long-term success and Fuku-Bonsai now includes a sample supply of difficult to obtain Nutrient Granules. With such a high success rate in all parts of the United States our goal to develop “Popular Bonsai” has been achieved.
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We have updated our mission: “Fuku-Bonsai will be the best
source of the highest quality popular bonsai that can be successfully
grown anywhere by anyone!“
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THE CHALLENGES AHEAD! As the developer and premier source of Popular Bonsai, we produce a full range of products in three general product lines:
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● HAWAIIAN LAVA PLANTINGS.
These were
our first highly successful products that grow slowly with the roots
protected by the lava rock. They are the easiest care and the best for
gifts. Over the years, we’ve learned how to provide a tiny amount of
nutrients using a weak dilution of liquid plant food added to weekly
saturation water. We’ve now found an easier way and include sample
packets of Nutrient Granules with each plant and expect each to bring
joy for many, many years! While the economical small size is the most
popular, larger sizes are better values and increasingly lava plantings
are being ordered with conversion kits for superior growth. The large
size and the #17 Conversion Kit makes a spectacular True Indoor Bonsai! *** Go to GiftList #1 - Hawaiian Lava Plantings
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● POTTED BONSAI.
Whereas Lava
Plantings was once the majority of our production, there is a clear
swing to potted bonsai and over 50% now enjoy training and faster
growth. Besides the economical Living Lovables, larger older Living
Sculpture in 8” diameter pots and Custom Collection in 17” oval and
larger pots are semi-trained. Older specimen bonsai include some that
are now over 30 years in training. Fuku-Bonsai’s extreme culling
practices assure that our oldest plants are also genetically superior
plants and that develop more character each year. Thousands of bonsai in
early stages of training in new designs and styles that may take a dozen
or more years before they will be first offered for sale. So Fuku-Bonsai
will continue to be a source of the most innovative styling concepts and
exceptional True Indoor Bonsai even into successor generations. *** Go to GiftList #2 - Potted Bonsai
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 QUANTITY DISCOUNTS AVAILABLE FOR GROUP OR CLUB WORKSHOPS! |
● BONSAI WORKSHOP PACKAGES. Although it is possible to utilize any of our lava plantings or potted bonsai with either of the two conversion kits with our other accessories and create a huge variety of workshop packages, marketing efficiency demand that we efficiently develop a limited number to sell economical to individually to widely scattered hobbyists just starting out and in larger quantities for group workshops. We’ve created a full range of workshop packages but will continue to improve the Introductory Workshop Package which features a 3-5 year old prepared Sumo bonsai stock in a 2” pot, a 5” pot and eight other components including a 2-year supply of Nutrient Granules. For an isolated individual hobbyist or large groups, this is the ideal kit to create your first bonsai!
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Fuku-Bonsai is now developing a series of Advanced Workshop Packages and
in the process of writing a new advanced workshop handbook.
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The Fuku-Bonsai Website is
the largest and most respected bonsai website in the world that would
print out to over 1,000 pages. As you can guess, we're
bonsai fanatics that are committed to teaching and helping isolated
individuals throughout the United States to learn and teach bonsai. Sometimes the best way to learn bonsai is to teach bonsai! That's what happened to me as I was asked to be a substitute teacher for an evening adult education class! Learning bonsai in isolation is very difficult and as you can see from our website, many are getting private one-on-one assistance who are willing and able to correspond, take photos, and submit photo-stories to share with others on our website. I invite those really interested in learning to contact me to join our Fuku-Bonsai Study Group and to share their experiences. In the past 15 years, we've made HUGE progress and are now confident that anyone anywhere can be successful and that POPULAR BONSAI is now a reality! The best economical value is the purchase of a Introductory Workshop Package that includes all needed components and teaches innovative techniques. It will teach you the basic common sense principles of bonsai and give you the actual three grades of potting media to provide ideal growth. There's a lot of information and we're just an email away. But the key to success is our premium prepared bonsai stock that has been professionally pre-trained for 3-5 years under ideal growth conditions. I'm sure you'll be impressed with the quality that a skilled professional bonsai nursery can supply that will advance you 5 to 10 years into a satisfying hobby! The purchase is probably the best way for you to get started! Check us out and please spread the word! Regards, ~~~David (david.f@www.fukubonsai.com) |
