Newsletter – January 2020

Bonsai Notebook

Santa Anita Bonsai Society
Holiday Potluck, Demo and Raffle
January 11, 2020

For Food: Club will provide main dish and drinks. Bring your favorite side, salad or dessert to share

The Raffle: Bring an item for the table

The January 11 meeting is our annual holiday potluck dinner and raffle. As we did last year, we will also have a demonstration. In order to accommodate the dinner and demo, we will start at 6:00pm. The club will provide the main dish and beverages. Everyone attending should bring their favorite side dish, salad or dessert. We still have many donated pots from last year, and this meetings raffle table will feature a large number of them.

Ed Clark is coming from Lindsay, California to develop a small maple forest bonsai for us. The demo forest will be in the raffle. In addition, Ed is bringing 18-20 maple clumps in 4” containers that interested club members can purchase for $12 each. The trees can be used to make your own forest or remain as a clump.

Ed owns the Round Valley Nursery in Lindsay where he propagates Japanese maples, shohin Shimpaku , black pine, and other bonsai material. Before retiring about nine years ago, Ed was a commercial grower of Japanese maples and magnolias for the largest bare-root nursery in the Central Valley area. Ed became interested in bonsai at an early age and returned to it after retirement. He started studying bonsai with the Fresno bonsai club and later with John Naka, Ray Theme, Ted Matson, and David Nguy. He now uses his nursery for the development of bonsai material.

Join us for good food, socializing, a fun demo, and a big raffle table

5:30p Board Meeting Prior to Potluck

Meeting Time And Place:
January 11, 2020 at 6pm
LAC Arboretum/ Palm Room

President’s Corner

We have a full year of demonstrations already scheduled for 2020. Our plans include a special guest from northern California, Jonas Dupuis, for the October meeting. Check out his blog at Bonsai Tonight. Jonas has recently finished a book on bonsai. In order to host Jonas in October, we had to move our regular meeting date from Oct. 10 to Oct. 17, the third Saturday. We hope that by having notice well in advance members will be able to schedule the change and come to see Jonas.

As president, I want to thank our club officers and board members for their commitment to the club. Without them, we would not be able to operate as a club for our great members. These volunteers include; Gabriel Gonzalez as program chairman, Judy and Steve Anthony as our treasurers, Marge Blasingame as our secretary and show chair, Lorraine Miles our newsletter editor, Robert Sencer our webmaster, Jim Pelling as the raffle chairman, and our members-at-large, Ray Blasingame, Mike Kelly, Peter Macasieb and Dick Ryerson. Thank you all for your time and dedication to the Santa Anita Bonsai Society.

~Dave

November 2019 Meeting Highlights

Tak Shimazu entertained us with his bonsai artistry at the November meeting. He brought a beautiful Itoigawa juniper to work on.

The meeting was held at Longo Toyota in El Monte because of an event conflict at the Arboretum. We had a large room that accommodated us very well. It proved to be a good location for potential future use, and the price was right; free!

The juniper Tak brought for his demo was grown from a cutting and had good proportions and branching. He wired the tree to conform to the bunjin style. Peter Macasieb stepped up and narrated Tak’s work , so Tak could work quickly to finish the tree. There was a lot of foliage cut from the tree, and members were encouraged to collect the cuttings to plant for future Itoigawa stock.

Tak cut to make shari (dead wood) on the trunk before the meeting to save time and worked masterfully to transform the material during the meeting. His completed bunjin juniper was an excellent example of Tak’s vision and skill at developing bonsai. It was a real pleasure watching him work.

Jaime Chavarria was the very lucky raffle winner of Tak’s tree. Jaime will be part of a demo for us later this year.

Thank You To our November Raffle Table Donors

Jerry Banuelos, Joe Cervantes, Edgar Fukutaki Family, Gabriel Gonzalez, Gary Lai, Dave Miles, Victor Shelton, Wendy Tsai

And to all who so generously purchase tickets

Members Corner

This is just a gentle reminder that it’s now time to renew your 2020 membership for SABS. Our membership dues are vital to SABS remaining financially viable. The dues for each year are due in January. Past members who have not yet renewed are encouraged to do so at this time. If you joined SABS during Oct-Dec 2019 then your membership is current until Dec 2020. It has been exciting to see how SABS’s membership has grown during the past year. Thanks for your participation and support.

The SABS Newsletter is one of the “perks” of belonging to our club. When your membership is not renewed annually by the end of March 2020 the membership lapses and you are no longer eligible to receive this newsletter directly via email and/or US Mail. The newsletter will always be available on our website www.sabonsai.org

Upcoming Events

January 18-19
Baikoen Bonsai Kenkyukai 56th Annual “Winter Silhouettes “ Exhibition
LA Arboretum, 10a-4:30pm, Sat. night reception at 6:30 pm with entertainment, food, raffle and auction

Jan 31-Feb 2
17th Biennial Shobin Seminar
Santa Nella, CA. wwwCalshohin.org

February 22-23
Annual GSBF Bonsai-A-Thon
Huntington Botanical Garden1151 Oxford Rd., San Marino
7:30am – 5pm, vendors, demonstrations, exhibit, raffle, auction

Come Join Us

Next Meeting

Date: January 11, 2020
Time: 6pm
Location: LAC Arboretum, Palm Room
301 N. Baldwin Ave., Arcadia, CA 91007

Board Meeting Jan 11 Prior to Potluck 5:30p

2019 Monthly Meeting Dates

Jan 11 —- Holiday Potluck & Raffle, Demo by Ed Clark

Feb 8 —- Louis Camerota

Mar 14 —- Jason Saito & Jaime Chavarria

Refreshment Schedule

Jan 2020 — Annual Potluck Dinner Club will provide main dish and drinks. Bring a favorite dish: a side, salad or dessert to share

2020 Refreshment Sign ups will be available at this Jan meeting