Page 49 - BSAM 2017 Q4

The SpeciesTe olive, Olea europea, is probably the most classic tree in Mediter-ranean environments. Te species is subdivided into two subspecies: Olea europea ssp. Sativa and Olea europea ssp. Oleaster. Botanically, they are actually the same species, where the frst is the familiar olive that people have cultivated for millennia, and the second is the wild one that bonsaists collect in nature. The Ecotype: UllastreIn the wild olive groves, called “Ullastre” by the Majorcans, the branches have spines, small leaves and the fruits are small and reddish-black. Tese are shrubs or small trees found in the Mediterranean mountains mostly on limestone soils. Tese Ullastre evolved under extreme and particularly austere conditions, but once brought to the riches of bonsai cultivation, prove to be very lush.The Mediterranean ClimateGenerally, the Mediterranean climate is characterized by hot, dry sum-mers and mild, damp winters; this explains in part why in these regions a large number of plants grow and bloom during the coldest season, while they develop slowly or completely cease growing during the summer, when the sun dries the ground and temperatures soar to 50°C. Tis does not mean, however, that all Mediterranean regions present the same kind of climate. Let us remember that the Mediterranean climate is not only found in the Mediterranean Basin but in four other locations around the world: California, Chile, South Africa and Australia. Rugged mountains, proximity to the sea, jagged coastlines of gulfs and capes, can sometimes afect the climate profoundly. In these areas, rains occur mainly in October and April, good times for transplanting. Tis aspect, however, changes in the case of bonsai. As a result of frequent watering, they grow a lot—even in summer—while in winter, growth slows down. In spring and autumn they keep growing if kept in Mediterranean environments. Bonsai cultivation changes, if instead, they are kept in tem-perate climates where they grow from May to September and then stop during the other months where they kept in a cold greenhouse. Sometimes Olive bonsai are kept in heated greenhouses or verandas, living perpetually as tropical trees.Cultivating the Wild OliveTe wild Olive is mostly found in the Mediterranean mountains and depending on the area, it presents very diferent ecotypes. In some particu-larly exposed areas, where the climate is of the extreme Mediterranean type with desert-like features such as in the Balearic Islands, of which Majorca is the largest, Sicily and Sardinia, but also in Andalusia. Here summer tem-peratures can reach 50 to 55 degrees Celsius with an intense brightness of 20- to 30-thousand lux per cm. Tese severe temperatures force the olives into summer dormancy, its metabolism is reduced to a minimum, sometimes with a total defoliation. Tese extreme areas have produced varieties with very small leaves, some as small as 2 to 3 mm in length, and with particularly rugged bark: wonderful characteristics in bonsai. In bonsai cultivation, the Olive is particularly resistant, although para-doxically it loves some regularity in watering and good-quality potting mixes. Pep uses akadama, which in the island’s rainy and cool winters, lessens the risk of root rot. Fertilizers should not be abundant otherwise the quality of the bark is afected: bonsai in pots have a faster rate of growth than in nature and this sometimes is not benefcial to the aesthetics.Te beauty of Pep’s Ullastre Bonsai foliage is obtained by keeping the branches compact by pinching new sprouts every time these grow, leaving 5 to 7 millimeters of new growth. Tis operation continues from February to October.