McCANDLESS TWP, Allegheny County - Gardeners like plants - big ones, small ones, fleshy, flowery and woody ones.

Members of the Ingomar Garden Club hosted Ralph Dukstein, master gardener and bonsai enthusiast, to share his love of miniaturized trees during a presentation Wednesday at the Northland Public Library.

Dukstein has spent the majority of his adult life indulging himself in the hobby, with the usual breaks one often takes to marry and raise children. "Bonsai has been known to cause divorce in a family because you pay more attention to the trees than the spouse," said Dukstein with a laugh.

Until this spring, when he and the spouse who outlasted his hobby moved into a retirement community, Dukstein had been a forest ranger, artist and proud papa of more than 70 bonsai trees.

A gardener all his life, he'd worked with bonsai for the past 25 years after his interest was rekindled. He spent about six years during the 1990s as a volunteer at Phipps Conservatory in the Oakland section of Pittsburgh caring for the horticultural facility's bonsai collection.

Moving to an apartment meant his trees had to find new homes.

"Most went to members of the Pittsburgh Bonsai Society" at prices many considered to be a giveaway, he said. Prices for established bonsai often begin at hundreds of dollars and rise toward the thousands. Yet, when you consider the time and effort put into them on a daily basis, it's understandable, he added. "There is no such thing as instant bonsai."

During his presentation, using a borrowed bonsai he had once owned, Dukstein offered do's and don'ts and reasons why and why not when it comes to plants and planting materials, pruning, wiring and placement of the specimens.

When it comes to trimming the fine, fibrous roots, Dukstein has one rule: Don't.

"The plant is nourished by the fibrous roots, which are fed by the leaves." The main root is what supports the tree and can be trimmed to fit the plant into the pot. To compensate for the shorter main root, the tree should be wired into the shallow pot that will be its home.

He also recommends not using soil sold in bags marked "bonsai soil." Instead, he advocates making your own mix of rotted pine bark and crushed baked clay. The composite planting medium doesn't hold water at all, which is part of the reason a bonsai requires watering often as much as twice a day.

"Bonsai are really meant to be outside," said Dukstein. "The biggest mistake is putting a bonsai in the house. The second biggest mistake is putting bonsai in the garage over winter. They need to cycle through the seasons."

Wintering a bonsai tree in simple: Stop watering it around late October, sit the pot on the ground touching the soil, mulch up to the edge of the pot, let the snow cover it, and make sure the critters don't have it for a midwinter snack.

A well-balanced fertilizer of 20-20-20 should be applied once a month during the growing season.

Shaping a bonsai can be done either by pruning or wiring, and it takes at least five years of either or both before a bonsai begins to take on the shape the gardener has in mind.

"You have to let the branches grow or the trunk won't increase in size," Dukstein said, adding that anything on the underside of a branch should be trimmed away so the branches can be clearly seen. "You must consistently clean

off

insignificant growth."

Always trim away crossing or rubbing branches as they will damage and die, anyway, Dukstein

sai

d. When trimming the leaf- or needle-laden boughs, always cut between the leaves, not the greenery itself - or what you'll get is leaf matter with brown edges.

The ideal shapes for the foliage are defined clouds or layers with a view to the interior of the bonsai. "You can spend hours and hours doing this. You don't have to have patience doing things you like."

"No two are alike. This is a living work of art," said Dukstein.