Mary Madison Lecture/Demo

By Lola Curtis

(This article first appeared in the July 1990 issue of the GNOBS newsletter)

A marvelous tree for Bonsai is the Buttonwood, and if you didn't know this fact before Mary Madison's Lecture/Demo at the GNOBS's June meeting, you certainly did afterwards. Buttonwoods and Mary are both native to the Florida Keys. Mary arrived in New Orleans after driving from Homestead, Florida with her assistant/ daughter Terry in a van packed with Buttonwoods and a variety of tropical Bonsai material, as well as some beautiful coral rock slabs. Collecting in the Keys is hot and miserable work, but Mary demonstrates that the work is worth the pain. GNOBS members seemed to agree, as they bought out most of her stock before the program even began.

As Mary began her demonstration, she chose a beautiful large coral slab about 2-1/2 feet long and varying in width from 1 foot to 5 inches. With this slab and 5 buttonwoods she would design a scene "as she sees it" in the Keys. After trimming, the trees were planted into the "muck" (Is this some new technical term?) that had been packed onto the slab. The group was styled into a windswept pattern. While Mary worked she fired Buttonwood facts at us.

-- Buttonwoods like heat and root easily when the weather is hot.

-- Buttonwoods love water, and cannot be overwatered.

-- A newly collected Buttonwood has thick leathery leaves because of living in an environment of salt water. New leaves that haven't had to deal with the salt problem grow thinner and softer.

-- Buttonwoods require soil that is alkaline in nature.

-- Deadwood is often a key feature on Buttonwoods. Scrub the deadwood with a wire brush to clean and remove pests. Wood carves well, but is very brittle and won't bend. Use full strength Orthorix Lime Sulphur Spray on deadwood, repeating the procedure after a few days. Let dry in full sun.

-- It is nearly impossible to determine the age of a Buttonwood. They can add 3 to 4 growth rings in a year.

Following completion of the planting, it was raffled, with the winner being a new member, Lynne Gegenheimer.

Lynne and five others, Donna Banting, Henry Denoux, Carly Reinhard, Robbie Baham, and Lola Curtis participated in the workshop which ran the following day from 9-12. Each person worked on either slab plantings of Buttonwood, or tropicals of their choice. Most of the material had come from Mary's "van supply house." Henry brought in his own Buttonwoods for restyling. Each participant left with a Bonsai that they could be proud of, and were convinced that "a marvelous tree for Bonsai is the buttonwood."

August 2003 Note: Lola Curtis has contacted me to correct an omission from the above article: 
"Mary Madison said that buttonwoods do NOT handle pesticides well. People killed trees because that fact was eliminated." 

Copyright © 1989, 2003 by the Greater New Orleans Bonsai Society. All rights reserved.

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