Santa Anita Bonsai Society

Meeting Time and Place Aug 13, 2022 at 7pm
Longo Toyota Meeting Room
3534 Peck Road, El Monte, CA 91731

6pm Board Meeting prior to the General meeting
all members are welcome to attend

Bonsai Notebook

Jason Chan will be our guest demonstrator. He has been with us before, and we look forward to another great presentation. His experience with bonsai spans 18 years. He is a past member of the GSBF board and a past editor of Golden Statements magazine.

Jason and his wife, Renee founded Eastern Leaf in 2004 for bonsai enthusiasts of all levels. They are located in Chino and offer bonsai trees, tools and supplies. Jason supports the local bonsai community with workshops at his nursery and by presenting demonstrations regularly throughout Southern California. See his website at www.easternleaf.com.

President’s Corner

We will be unable to meet at the Arboretum from September 2022 to June 2023 due to construction on the entrance area, including the classrooms. The Arboretum may provide use of Ayres Hall for evening meetings, but no decision has been made. As a result of the construction, it will not be possible to have our Memorial Day Weekend Show at the Arboretum in 2023. We will try to have the Show at the conclusion of the construction or at an alternate site.

Longo Toyota is available to us for meetings at no cost, but we will be looking for alternate sites. If anyone knows of a venue close to the Arboretum, please let me know. We want to keep our meetings convenient for those use to traveling to the Arboretum.

Our club has been in existence since 1961, and I will do everything I can to ensure we continue our regular meetings. We all love the art of bonsai, and our club tradition will endure whatever ups and downs that come along…

Anytime you have any questions please contact Dave & Lorraine at [email protected] ~Dave

Members Corner

Welcome New Members:
Rocio & Mark Brenes
Edward, Albert & Alberto Rangel

• Many changes are happening for SABS. Our locations are going to be creative for the next year. Meeting location and demonstration updates will be posted on our website at www.sabonsai.org

• It is time to refill many of our board positions. Post covid, there are multiple vacancies and we could truly use your help and ideas. We are an entirely volunteer board and try to divide up responsibilities and keep the new ideas flowing.

• If you are interested in helping please contact Dave & Lorraine at [email protected], call Dave at 909 519 5391 and/ or attend to our Aug 13 Board Meeting to find out more about the following positions:

– Vice President: assist with finding meeting locations

– Secretary: record minutes at board mtgs

– Hospitality Chairperson and committee of 2-3: manage our monthly meeting refreshment table

– Members at large: varying assignments including badges, raffle table assistant, photographer and more

• For those of you still receiving the US mail version of this newsletter, better quality photos, club updates and resources are always available on our website.

• Check us out at www.sabonsai.org

Directions to Longo Toyota meeting:
Peck Rd. exit off the I.S.10 fwy just west of the 605 fwy.
The meeting room is downstairs just inside the doorway below the round Auto Club sign on the Longo building.
There is a ramp available if necessary to bypass the stairs.

Thank You To our July Raffle Table Donors

Steve & Judy Anthony, Jim & Helen Barrett, Jerry Banuelo, Sue Cook, Y.S. Farn, Gabriel Gonzalez, Peter Macasieb, Dave Miles, Richard Ryerson, Vic Shelton, Wendy Tsai, Frank Yee

And to all who so generously purchase tickets

July 2022 Meeting Highlights

Our annual road trip to see Peter Macasieb and his collection was a big success. It appeared to be the largest turnout for a meeting this year. We all enjoyed the opportunity to see Peter’s wonderful collection and marvel at his talents for designing bonsai. Thanks to Peter and Marissa for having us at their home and providing ample space for all of us.

Peter started by talking about the development of bonsai trees. He took several of his trees off their benches nearby and told us how each was started and brought to the level of a show tree.

Peter’s demonstration tree was an Itoigawa Shimpaku. He explained his vision for the tree’s design and went to work. He talked about each branch and where it fit in the design and wired every branch into position.

During the break, everyone had a chance to see Peter’s work up close. The completed tree was a beautiful example of his artistry.

Anthony Aguirre was the lucky raffle winner of the tree, and we hope to see it again at a future show.

We had an abundant array of bonsai items on our raffle table, and the ticket sales were a great benefit to the club’s operation. Thanks to all who participated.

Upcoming Events

Aug 20-21
John Naka Memorial Bonsai Exhibit (formerly Nanpu Kai)
George J. Doizaki Gallery, 244 S. San Pedro St., Los Angeles, 10a-5p

Oct 1-2
Chino Bonsai Club 2nd Annual Bonsai Exhibit
261 S Junipero Sierra Dr. San Gabriel, CA
9-5pm daily- demos, raffle, auction, vendor & club Sales
Sat 5:30-Dinner reception

Oct 8-9
2022 GSBF Bonsai Rendezvous
Hotel de Oro, Santa Nella, CA.
Check the GSBF website for details

Come Join Us- visitors always welcomed

Next Meeting:
Date: August 13, 2022
Time: 7 pm

Location:
Longo Toyota Meeting Room
3534 Peck Rd.
El Monte, CA 91731

2022 Upcoming Monthly Meeting Dates

Aug 13– Jason Chan
Location: Longo Toyota, El Monte

Sept 10– David & June Nguy
Location: Chino, CA

Oct 8– TBA

Refreshment Schedule

Drinks: bring your own

Aug 13 — Wendy Tsai, Judy Anthony, Manuel Dizon

Sept 10 — Appetizers, Snacks & Desserts
Snacks: Peter Macasieb, Steve Riley, Vic Shelton

Bonsai Notebook

Meeting Time and Place: July 9, 2022 at 6pm
At the Home of Peter & Marissa Macasieb
West Covina, CA

Join us July 9 for what has become an annual tradition. We will take a road trip from the Arboretum to the home of Peter and Marissa Macasieb for our meeting.

Peter will entertain us with a demonstration followed by raffle opportunities from a full table of member donated bonsai items.

The Macasiebs have graciously hosted one of our summer dates for many years, and the club looks forward to this great outdoor experience.

We will start the July meeting at 6:00pm, an hour early, to make good use of the daylight hours. Once again, we will have the opportunity to walk around Peter’s garden and admire his large and diverse bonsai collection and socialize with each other amid the beautiful trees. It will be a fun summer evening.

President’s Corner

Our summer has begun to heat up. The hot days and cool nights bring about tip growth and long internodes in our trees. Junipers are pushing hard and need cutting back to keep them from becoming overgrown bushes. If our trees get too dense, the lack of sunlight on the inside of branches can cause dieback and leave end foliage only, not a good look. Our tree designs depend on foliage close to the trunk to maintain a natural perspective. Cutting back tip growth will encourage shorter internodes and help secondary branching.

Most repotting is stopped before summer months, but some trees can still be transplanted. You can repot ficus material, pomegranates, cotoneasters, wisterias, and pyracantha.

Watch your tree soil, and don’t let it dry out completely in the summer heat and wind. You may have to water more than once a day, especially with shohin and shallow potted trees. It can be a delicate balancing act, but we learn from experience. Enjoy the summer and watch your trees thrive.

As a final point this month, I want to emphasize the importance of our monthly raffles. Besides our show sales table, the raffles are our primary source of funds to cover the costs of meetings and demonstrations. I am very proud of the raffle participation we have with our club members. It helps the club a great deal. Remember that just about anything bonsai related is welcome as a raffle item. I appreciate everyone who has regularly contributed to the raffle and especially those who buy raffle tickets. It all works to keep our tradition alive. ~Dave

Members Corner

• Welcome New Members: Anita & Emmett Downs

• Our summer meetings for July, August, and September at the Arboretum are preempted by summer concerts. We will have alternative meeting places for those months and post locations in the monthly newsletter and on the website .

• We are still in search of a hospitality chairperson and committee of 2-3 who would be interested in helping to manage our monthly meeting refreshment table. Please contact Lorraine if interested in volunteering and/or learning more.

• For those of you still receiving the US mail version of this newsletter, better quality photos, club updates and resources are always available on our website. Check us out at www.sabonsai.org

• Coming soon: the 2022 SABS Memorial Weekend Gallery of photos.

• Anytime you have any questions please contact Dave & Lorraine at [email protected]

Directions to Peter’s

Many of you have already had the opportunity to visit Peter’s Garden and know the way to his home. For the purpose of privacy we are not including directions in this post. If you are a “first timer” and need directions please email Lorraine at [email protected] Directions and street address will be emailed back to you

Thank You To our June Raffle Table Donors

Jim & Helen Barrett, Jerry Banuelos, Mike Kelly, Dave Miles,

Godwin Milner, Jim Pelling, Jason Saito, Vic Shelton

And to all who so generously purchase tickets

June 2022 Meeting Highlights

We received an interesting lesson in the development of saikei, landscape planting, from Jason Saito in June. We have had several artists demonstrate the styling of saikei for us over the years. Each one featured the individual style and interpretation of the artist, and Jason added a great deal to our understanding of the art.

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Jason talked about the history of saikei, including the natural styling from bonsai influences and the “not always natural” from Penjing Influences. Jason said he tended to prefer the penjing style.

For his demonstration, Jason used a large rock as the focal point of his saikei and planted bert-davyi ficus material on the rock and at the rock base. He used tufa rock because of its light weight. He started with a shallow bonsai pot and positioned a tall tufa rock just off center. Using mortar and cyanoacrylate, he glued a smaller rock next to the base for stability. To complete the rock formation, he glued a small rock as a ledge part way up the face of the main rock. Jason planted the ficus trees so that the upper tree created depth in the scene with the larger tree at the rock base. He added moss and other smaller plants to accent the trees which, together, resulted in a beautiful landscape display.

David Melitz was the lucky raffle winner of Jason’s saikei.

Upcoming Events

July 2, 2022 Harley Newman’s Bonsai Sale, 1068 El Camino Dr, Costa Mesa, CA 92626
9-10a viewing time. Sale 10-2p

Oct 8-9, 2022 GSBF Bonsai Rendezvous, Hotel de Oro, Santa Nella, CA.
Check the GSBF website for details

Come Join Us

Next Meeting:
Date: July 9, 2022
Time: 6 pm

Location:
At the home of Peter & Marissa Macasieb, West Covina, Ca.

2022 Monthly Meeting Dates
July 9 — Peter Macasieb Location: West Covina
Aug 13 — Jason Chan Location: Longo Toyota, El Monte
Sept 10 — David & June Nguy Location: Chino, CA

Refreshment Schedule
July 9
Snacks & Appetizers
Judy Anthony, Anthony Aquirre, David & Debra Melitz, YS Farn
Desserts
Jackie Zinder, Peter Macasieb, Wendy Tsai

Aug 13 — Wendy Tsai, Judy Anthony, Manuel Dizon

Bonsai Notebook

Meeting Time and Place: June 11, 2022 at 7pm
LAC Arboretum, Palm Room

The June 11 meeting will be at the Arboretum Our guest demonstrator will be Jason Saito, and he will be talking about the history and art of saikei while he demonstrates the creation of a new saikei for us.

Jason has been involved in bonsai for about 10 years now and is primarily focused on saikei, landscape plantings. From an early age, he has had a passion for miniatures including Kokeshi, building small-scale model dioramas, miniatures, and dollhouses. When he began studying bonsai, it led to him creating miniature landscape plantings.

Jason has studied with Frank Goya, Al Nelson, Mel Ikeda, and John Wang.

Come to the meeting ready to learn about and enjoy saikei, and perhaps take one home with you.

President’s Corner

Our Memorial Day Weekend show was a big success. I received many comments about the high quality of our trees, and I know the Arboretum attendees were, as usual, fascinated by what they saw. I am very grateful to our members for sharing their trees, many for the first time.

I also appreciate all the help from members setting up and taking down the show, as well as watching the trees and answering questions throughout the weekend. I hope you all enjoyed the experience.

Thanks to Peter for his very popular demonstration on Saturday. Also thank you to all of our members who worked on trees at our informal members workshop tables and moved around Ayres Hall as docents.The #1 comment was how friendly and knowledgeable everyone seemed to be. Our members are awesome! You sparked new interest in the Art of Bonsai and SABS.

All of you who attended the show saw Wendy & Lorraine working at the sales table throughout the weekend. They were there everyday and did an outstanding job managing all the sales and keeping the room organized.

The sale table was very full, and the sales were a tremendous benefit to the club. Almost all of bonsai items found new homes. Special thanks go out to Doyle Saito, Tom Vuong, Ray Blasingame, Marren Padrones, and Lindsay Shiba for their generous donations to SABS and to the sale table. Membership, the club percentage for sales and donations are what keeps us operational. We have a long history of donating in the bonsai world, and it is what sustains all of our clubs.

The donated cookies, donuts, goodies from 85c and waters were also very much appreciated.

On behalf of the club, I thank you all.

~Dave

Members Corner

– Our monthly meeting raffle table has been fabulous– thanks to all of the members who have generously donated to the table. Please help keep up our club tradition and bring an item(s) to support SABS and buy some raffle tickets. Everyone enjoys going home with trees, plants, pots, tools, supplies, books and even an occasional bag of “bonsai dirt”.

– Our May meeting & Memorial Weekend Show brought us many new members and a renewed interest in our bonsai emailing list.
Welcome all to our SABS Club and website (www.sabonsai.org)
New Members:
Ellen Keneshea
Carol Upston
Becky Villansenor & Katherine Ng
Guillermo Padrones
Anthony Aguirre
Radford & Martha Hunt
Lawrence Ponce
Bruce Tsurutani
Cam La

– We are in search of a hospitality chairperson and committee of 2-3 who would be interested in helping to manage our monthly meeting refreshment table. Please contact Lorraine if interested in volunteering and/or learning more.

– For those of you still receiving the US mail version of this newsletter, better quality photos, club updates and resources are always available on our website. Check us out at www.sabonsai.org http://www.sabonsai.org

– Anytime you have any questions please contact Dave & Lorraine at [email protected]

Thank You To our May Raffle Table Donors

Bob Alderette, Jim & Helen Barrett, Jerry Banuelos, Sue Cook, Daniel Deephouse, YS Farn, Ellen Keneshea, Dave Miles, Peter Macasieb, Jim Pelling, Jack Reynolds, Steve Riley

And to all who so generously purchase tickets

Upcoming Events

July 2-3 2022 Vietnamese Bonsai Society 22nd Annual Show, Vietnamese American Temple,12292 Magnolia St., Garden Grove, 9a-5p, demonstrations 1p daily, bonsai sales and auction

Oct 8-9 2022 GSBF Bonsai Rendezvous, Santa Nella, CA

May 2022 Meeting Highlights

Jack Reynolds was our guest at the May meeting, and he gave us an excellent presentation on bunjin ficus. He talked about bonsai as a living art form: we are sculpting trees. The literati, or bunjin, style epitomizes the artfulness of bonsai styling. It doesn’t follow the traditional rules of bonsai, but generally represents a combination of predominately tree trunk space with limited foliage. Using ficus for bunjin styling is not often seen, so it was interesting to watch Jack and learn how to train ficus into bunjin.

Jack said he starts his bunjin as cuttings so he can control the length and taper of the trunk. As the cutting grows, he trims off all the foliage except one or two branches and lets the tree grow to the desired height. Then he focuses on developing pads of foliage, keeping it to a minimum.

Jack was asked about his soil mix for ficus. He said he mixes two parts of pumice, two parts of lava rock (scoria), and one part either orchid bark or fir bark.

He worked on four bunjin styles during his demonstration, and all were donated to the raffle.

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Steve Riley was the winner of two of the trees, and the other two went to Daniel Deephouse and Y.S. Farn. We had an enjoyable evening learning about new material for styling bunjin.

Coming soon to our website www.sabonsai.org…. Check out the Gallery for photos of the display trees and stones at the 2022 Santa Anita Bonsai Society Memorial Weekend Show… Thanks again to all who participated and helped make the weekend a huge success.

Come Join Us

Next Meeting:
Date: June 11, 2022
Time: 7 pm

Location:

LAC Arboretum, Palm Room
301 N. Baldwin Ave
Arcadia, CA 91007

2022 Monthly Meeting Dates

June 11— Jason Saito LAC Arboretum
July 9 — Peter Macasieb at his home in West Covina
Aug 13 — Jason Chan Location TBA

Refreshment Schedule
June 11— Peter Macasieb, Jackie Zinder, Steve Riley, Daniel Deephouse

July 9— Dessert Potluck at Macasieb’s
please bring appetizers & desserts to share with all

Aug 13— Wendy Tsai, Judy Anthony, Manuel Dizon

2022 Refreshment Sign Ups will be available at the June meeting

Bonsai Notebook

Meeting Time And Place: May 14, 2022 at 7pm
LAC Arboretum, Palm Room

The May 14 meeting will be at the Arboretum at 7:00pm. Jack Reynolds will be our guest and will do a presentation on ficus bunjin. Jack is a retired biology professor who taught at Moorpark College. He started in bonsai in 1986, learning on his own.

Jack joined the Sansui Kai Bonsai Club in 1987 and is a past president of the club. He studied with Ted Matson for 25 years and was one of Ted’s first students in 1988. He retired in 2003 and moved to Lake Isabella in 2005. Jack prefers to work with broadleaf evergreens and deciduous trees.

President’s Corner

May is our show month. As I said last month, we have waited two years to return to normalcy, so I look forward to following Baikoen, California Bonsai Society, and the Bonsai-A-Thon to keep up the tradition of bonsai shows.

A show entry form is included with the mailed newsletter and also available to the email recipients. There will also be extra forms available at the May meeting. The form includes sign-up times for being a docent throughout the weekend.
Monitoring the trees as a docent provides a great chance to witness the public interest in the show and answer questions about bonsai from people who are curious about the art form.

We will talk about the sale table at the meeting and cover the use of the sales slips and sale list used by our members. We have a simple process that is easy to follow.

Please plan to help with show set-up on Friday, May 27, at 12:00 noon. The more help we have, the quicker we get it done. Thanks in advance.

I hope all our members will consider entering a tree and come to the show to enjoy the long tradition we have with the Arboretum during the Memorial Day Weekend.

For those members entering trees, planning to sell at the sales table and/or willing to volunteer for set up, takedown and being a docent the form is included with this newsletter. Please complete and return this form on or before May 20th.

Call me if you have any questions.

~Dave

Members Corner

How to use the SABS Complimentary Badge for our 56th Annual Memorial Day Weekend Show :
There will be an Arboretum employee stationed at the Ayres Hall gate to check for SABS club identification for free entry to the show.

A blank identification badge is printed in this newsletter for you to cut out and use. We will have clear plastic badge holders at the show for use with the paper ID badges. We will also have the paper ID badges and holders available at the May meeting and at the show set up day on Fri. May 27.

For those of you curious about eliminating scale on foliage– Ted Matson recommends Ultra Pure Oil. Another helpful “Ted hint” for greening your trees to be show ready is to apply Humic Acid to the soil/ roots. Both of these products can be easily found online.

If you were fortunate to attend our Jan mtg- the Azalea Workshop with Lou Camarota, and take home an azalea or two… now is the time to be tagging the solid color flowering branches to be ready for Lou’s part 2 demo in Jan 2023. Mine is blooming and I am excited. All of that “plucking” seems to be popping this spring…. LM

Our raffle table has been fabulous– thanks to all of the members who have generously donated to the table. Please help keep up our club tradition and bring an item to support SABS. Everyone enjoys going home with trees, plants, pots, tools, supplies, books and even an occasional bag of “bonsai dirt”. Please bring items to share.

For those of you still receiving the US mail version of this newsletter, better quality photos, club updates and resources are always available on our website. Check us out at www.sabonsai.org

Anytime you have any questions please contact Dave & Lorraine at [email protected]

Thank You To our April Raffle Table Donors

Bob Alderette, Jim & Helen Barrett, Sue Cook, YS Farn, Mike Kelly, Dave & Lorraine Miles, Marren Padrones, Wendy Tsai

And to all who so generously purchase tickets

Welcome New Members

Steve Riley
Rick Naber
Barbara Wright

April 2022 Meeting Highlights

The April meeting was a great learning experience for everyone in attendance. Our guest, Ted Matson, did a wonderful job with his tree critiques, and he also provided advice on the future development of the trees. Members were able to stay in their seats as Ted moved around the room carrying each tree to show up close what he was talking about. His process was very helpful.

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Ted’s years of study and time spent curating the GSBF collection at the Huntington was on display all evening. He had such an amazing understanding of the growth habits and care needed for each tree. He moved effortlessly from tree to tree explain the unique details of each. Ted held everyone’s attention and answered questions continuously.
Whether you brought a tree or not, the information shared by Ted was very worthwhile. We went home with thoughts about improving our own trees. We are all learning as we go with the bonsai art form, and Ted helped clear up some of the mysteries.

Upcoming Events

May 28,29,30 Santa Anita Bonsai Society 56th Annual Bonsai Show, Memorial Day Weekend
LAC Arboretum 9a-4:30p daily, exhibit, sales table, demonstrations

Come Join Us

Next Meeting:
Date: May 14, 2022
Time: 7 pm

Location:
LAC Arboretum, Palm Room
301 N. Baldwin Ave
Arcadia, CA 91007

2022 Monthly Meeting Dates
May 14 — Jack Reynolds LAC Arboretum
June 11 — Jason Saito LAC Arboretum
July 9 — Peter Macasieb at his home in West Covina

Refreshment Schedule
May 14 — Hubert Llanes, Matt Mahaffey, Steve Riley
June 11— Peter Macasieb, Jackie Zinder
July 9 — Dessert Potluck at Macasieb’s

2022 Refreshment Sign Ups will be available at the May meeting