A cold rain and cooler temperatures have finally ushered in our dormant season. Now you can get your late fall early winter bonsai chores underway. By now deciduous trees should be bare. Now is the time to study the bare structure and make the big cuts and styling changes before the sap starts running again. Yellowing leaves should be removed by cutting at the base of the leaf leaving some petiole as insurance against an early leaf out. Some elms and others left in full sun in our warmer areas may be refusing to go to sleep. Try moving to a cool shady part of the yard. Last night we had our first chilling night of the season where the temperature drops below 45 degrees. This is important for crab apples and other fruiting trees’ spring performance. Old pine needles can now be removed from black pine. On regular black pines pull the needle up and out, on cork bark pull down carefully so as not to strip bark. To be safe needles can be scissored off at the base. While dormant weather give us license to make big cuts and bends some trees become more brittle this time of year so proceed with caution. Branches should be massaged gradually before attempting big moves; Raffia applied with wire bracing helps this process.

The November elections saw three new members join the BSSF board, Diana Lum, Joe Nersveen and John Pennington have all signed on to help plan the direction of the club in the coming two years. At our last board meeting for 2006 the new members joined the current board to discus our show plans for next spring.

We have happier news from the Garden Show staff. Our display area will be expanded to 576 sq. ft. While this is still diminished from our past exhibits and without a sales area we are confident that each of our members will be able to display one tree. Now is a good time to start determining which of your trees you will put on display for the March 21 show. Our January and February and March workshops will be available to assist you in preparing your trees for show. Our March general meeting which is 10 days prior to the show opening will be a chance to show off your good work in a pre-show display and discussion about the art of bonsai display.

To address the loss of our sales area and to assure fund raising we will be holding a one-day sale on a Saturday following the show, hopefully in early April, in our regular meeting space in the County Fair Building. Members can sell all bonsai related materials with no price or container restrictions. We will need all club members to participate and welcome your input as we plan this new event. Date and additional information to come.

I look forward to seeing all of you at our annual holiday potluck. Bring a favorite dish to share with other club members and guests. The club will be providing some beverages and a baked ham this year. In addition to all the good food and company we will have three special raffles. A free raffle assures that everyone goes home with a prize. Continuing our tradition begun last year we will be holding a special raffle as a fundraiser for the curator’s fund at the Collection North. All precedes after expenses go to help fund this critical position. Lastly we will have an exclusive raffle of an aged Kingsville boxwood. Tickets will be held only by those members who participated in the docent program at the Collection North since last February when we began a monthly commitment to provide docents for the third Saturday afternoon shift. Those who participated in that or on other days of the month will be given one ticket for each shift they worked. A list of those members and their posted scheduled days is printed in this newsletter. Please check it for accuracy. If you have scheduled days in December that have not yet posted to the site let me know. We will continue this program in 2007. Please continue to support the Collection North by volunteering to docent. The Garden is especially needing people for December. Check the website for available openings.

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