From The President December 2005

It is again the season to examine your bonsai collection to evaluate what you have accomplished in the past year or two. For me, the past two years have been a time of tremendous growth in my trees and in my love of bonsai. While I have been working as president my trees have benefited from my dedication to the art. I have bought many trees and my yard has become ever more filled as I started 40 pines and 40 oaks from seeds. For me the time has come to start selling some of the material that I don’t find to be enchanting. In the coming months I will be repotting trees into bonsai containers and cleaning them up in preparation to sell at the Cow Palace, a sort of weeding process if you think about it.I am glad to have had the opportunity to lead the club and I will be continuing on as Vice President for the coming year. John Edwards will take the club forward as president; in his hands I believe that BSSF will continue to grow and prosper as it has in recent years. Our program scheduling for the coming year has already begun and we will be having John Boyce in January to give a talk on Bunjin style trees. This will be followed in February by a program with Tim Kong on planting trees on stones and slabs. Then, in March, Jim Gremel will return to do a program on transforming young juniper stock into “Yamadori style” trees. In April we will be offering the two-part Bonsai Basics course in addition to our normal programming.

But before any of that, please don?t forget that coming very soon, Dec 10th and 11th, will be the first ever BSSF show at the Asian Art Museum. If you haven?t already signed up for docent duty, see John Edwards; or if you don?t want to get in for free just come down to the museum to visit the display. We will be set up in the lower area adjacent to the gift shop.

Many thanks to Kathy Shaner for her fine work on repotting our logo tree into its new pot. John Edwards and I shot photos of the new composition and Rebecca Williams used them to make a new logo for the club. J. D. Durst has set us up with a local embroiderer, who will be adding the logo to some new happi coats. But, even better, is that we can have the same embroidery put on any item that you like for a small charge. So, if you would like a new happi coat, or some other item, contact JD. Members who plan to docent at the Asian Art Museum are strongly encouraged to have a happi coat (new or old.)So, as the year draws to a close, make your way down to the holiday party to enjoy the company of your fellow club members. You never know what you may walk away with, be it a little gem of knowledge or a little door prize. Then get yourself psyched up for the year to come and all of the great possibilities for the improvement of your trees.

Tags: Demonstrations, Repotting