Meetings: Posts
BSSF General meetings are on the second Thursday of the month at 7:30pm. The members’ workshop is the following Thursday, 3rd Thursday of the month at 7pm. BSSF Board meetings are held on the Fourth Monday at 7pm. All of the meetings occur in the Hall of Flowers (Strybing Arboretum) at the corner of Ninth Ave and Lincoln Way. Enter through the parking lot at Tenth Ave and Lincoln and walk along the south side of the building to the club room.
by Eric SchraderGary Tom on Juniper and Bonsai over the years
May 11th: May 2006 General Meeting
For the third leg in our trinity of Juniper programs Gary Tom treated attending members of the May general meeting to a discussion of his thirty years of experience in growing junipers in San Francisco. Gary is a long-time club member and has dedicated much of his yard to the developement of Juniper bonsai from nursery stock.
Gary's talk centered on his experiences through the years: At age thirteen he started by reading the venerable and ever-useful Sunset garden books "Bonsai... read more »
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Tags: Fertilizer, Junipers, Tree Care | No Comments »
by Eric SchraderThe Iron Bonsai Challenge
Apr 13th: April General Meeting Notes
Tim Kong was the chairman for an evening of Juniper styling at our April General Meeting, the Iron Bonsai Challenge. Five teams of trained-professional bonsai artist transformed some old gnarled bushes into some old gnarled bonsai. This un-biased reporter happened to be in on the action and can say with authority that the results of my team's efforts were by far the superior bonsai... read more »
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Tags: Demonstrations, Junipers | 1 Comment »
by Eric SchraderJim Gremel Whips Some Junipers Into Shape
Mar 9th: March 2006 Program Notes
For our March general meeting Jim Gremel was on hand to conduct a workshop on small Juniper stock. Jim, who is well known for taking pliable young material and bending it all around into interesting shapes, brought along examples, large and small, of what he has done in ten years of training in the "yamadori style". Jim's technique involves putting copper wire of an appropriate size onto the long whips of shimpaku (juniper) and bending it into coils or snakes or any other twisted shape that comes to mind... read more »
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Tags: Demonstrations, Jim Gremel, Junipers, Wiring, yamadori | No Comments »
by Eric SchraderTim Kong Demonstrates Alternatives to Pots
Feb 9th: February 2006 Meeting Notes
It was with his usual flare that Tim Kong started off our February program by introducing us to a little-known but fantastic bonsai potter named Sue R. Pipe. He explained that this potter worked over a hundred years ago and made some fantastic pots that are just waiting to be dug up from under all our houses, (and that they have a fantastic 'patina.') After this introduction Tim went on to say that the title of his program was 'Getting off the pot... read more »
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Tags: muck, Repotting, stone plantings | No Comments »
by Eric SchraderJohn Boyce Demonstrates the Bunjin Style
Jan 18th: January Meeting Notes
BSSF started the new-year off with a talk from longtime member John Boyce about the intricacies of the bunjin treatment. Bunjin, also called literati- after the intellectual elite who lived simple lives of contemplation, are elegant and deceptively simple compositions that rely on few elements to portray much.
While there are many trees in the wild that can serve as models for the designs of bunjin bonsai, for many people it is also helpful to study the forms of trees that the literati created in scroll paintings both from Japan and China... read more »
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Tags: Bunjin, Demonstrations, Junipers | No Comments »
by John EdwardsNovember General Meeting
Nov 21st: On November tenth the club held it's second series of workshops with Marco Invenizzi. The two four-hour workshops beginning at noon attracted several members who brought in trees to work on with Marco for a fee. Additionally other members arrived during the day to observe and learn.
Marco's approach is to work with students to design the best look for your tree and then to execute the design with his assistance... read more »
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Tags: Marco Invenizzi, Workshops | No Comments »
by John EdwardsOctober General Meeting notes
Oct 26th: At our October general meeting Tim Kong and Steve Jang led a repotting workshop. The club provided ample amounts of Tim's general repotting medium. Tim and Steve spoke to the basics of adding screen and tie down wire to your pots as well as choosing the right pot for a particular tree.
Junipers and flowering trees are okay to repot this time of year and quite a few members took advantage of the evening and the cumulative experience on hand... read more »
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Tags: election, Repotting | No Comments »
by John Edwards2005 Club Auction and Upcomming Programs
Oct 13th: September 2005 General Meeting Notes
Our annual September auction was a great success for those seeking new material to work on and for the club's treasury. Many thanks especially to John Boyce for his auctioneering acumen and to all members and friends who donated items for the benefit of our club.
This past month also saw the completion of this year's part two of the Bonsai Basics Class.
Not everyone who attended the first class came to the follow up repotting class... read more »
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by John EdwardsAugust 2005 General Meeting
Aug 23rd: At our August meeting Jay McDonald presented a program on training field grown flowering trees as bonsai. Two flowering plums and a deciduous pomegranate were the subjects of the demonstration. Jay emphasized strongly that these trees are grown for their profuse spring bloom and that the challenge is to develop an attractive tree preferably with and old appearance to serve as a scaffold for this delightful annual springtime event... read more »
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Tags: Demonstrations, Fruiting Trees, Jay McDonald | No Comments »
by Alex LoughryJuly Meeting Notes
Aug 3rd: Doug Phillips' Olive Demo
Doug Phillips gave a demonstration at the July meeting on how to develop olives from cuttings. His talk covered how to develop excellent root and branch ramification. These techniques can be used on many different types of trees. The tree?s branches mirror the tree root system. For a tree to have nicely developed branches the root system needs to have the same ramification... read more »
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