December is a great month to work on trees. By now your deciduous trees should be leafless, if not cut remaining leaves off leaving the leaf stem, or petiole, on so not to stimulate early spring growth. Before cutting off leaves make sure your tree is truly deciduous and not a broadleaf evergreen like live oak. With the tree bare and dormant you can make styling decisions for next year’s growth and cut out unwanted branches. Be sure to clean up the cut with a sharp knife and apply cut paste to seal the wounds. On conifers such as pine and juniper now is a good time to apply heavy wire or cut large branches. In semi dormancy with short cool days these trees will recover better. December is also the time to apply a dormant spray against pests.
Please plan to attend our annual holiday pot luck party. Eveyone is encouraged to bring a favorite dish or beverage to share with other members. The club will be providing a baked ham and some libation.
Additionally we will be holding several raffles to disperse lots of bonsai related materials to the membership. Nineteen members who volunteered as docents at the Collection North this past year will each receive one raffle ticket for each shift served. The prize is a very nice black pine. Additionally we will have a fund raising raffle for the Curator’s Fund at Collection North featuring many special items. This raffle begun by Tim Kong several years ago has very successfully distributed quality bonsai items and materials to our members as well as supporting the work of Kathy Shaner at the Collection.
Saturday February 2 we will be holding another Bonsai Basics workshop led by Tim Kong at his home. We will have a sign up list at the December 13 meeting.

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