Hello
everyone. I hope you are all managing
well through the pandemic and chaotic year.
We are not
able to have a club meeting on April 10 but in an effort to move toward
normalcy, the Board is hoping to host
our annual Memorial Day Weekend Show as a live, in-person event. We want all our members to prepare a tree for
display. We will dispense with having a
theme, so pick your favorite tree; multiples if you like.
The Arboretum
does not know yet if Ayres Hall will be open for our use. I made a proposal that we display our trees,
as an alternative, outside the Hall entry doors on the patio area. They liked the idea, but could not approve
our show, inside or out, until they get updated guidelines from the County.
We are hoping
that by the end of May, the pandemic restrictions will be relaxed enough for a
safe and worry-free show. Of course, if
there is anyone who would still be uncomfortable with participation, we
understand.
If you are
open to the idea of a show, prepare a tree (or two), and we will let you know
the show status as soon as we can. The
Board will be meeting to plan the details so we are ready. If you have any questions, call me at
909-519-5391.
Santa Anita Bonsai Society February 2021 meeting is cancelled
Santa Anita Bonsai Society Members,
Greetings to everyone and welcome to a new year, and hopefully new beginnings. There will be no meeting for our club on February 13. I have asked about opening up the Arboretum for meetings, but there is no plan in place yet. Now that we have the vaccines and a lot of illness-related immunities, I am looking forward to us resuming our club schedule.
For now, Baikoen Bonsai Kenkyukai has scheduled a “virtual” 57th Winter Silhouettes Show and Auction on February 6, 2021. It will be shown online. The show will go “live” online with pictures and videos of the trees and a narrative by Tom Lau and Joe Galgoul, followed by an on-line auction. Go to the links below for the show.
Santa
Anita Bonsai Society January 2021 meeting is cancelled
Santa Anita
Bonsai Society Members,
NO MEETING IN
JANUARY
Merry
Christmas and Happy New Year to all. I
hope you have been able to remain safe and well throughout this unique
year.
The Arboretum
called me and said the money we paid for our 2020 meetings would be rolled over
to cover 2021 without additional payments.
Our regular meeting and show dates for the new year are set. We may lose some summer dates if concerts are
scheduled, but I will let you know. The
Arboretum has not projected when we will have access to our meeting room, so we
will not meet in January.
Baikoen will
be putting on a virtual Silhouettes Show and Auction on February 6, to be shown
online. I will provide information as I
receive it.
Santa Anita Bonsai Society September 2020 meeting is cancelled
Santa Anita
Bonsai Society Members,
There will be
no club meeting in September. At this
point, I could probably stop sending letters and repeating this message and
just let you know when we can meet.
However, these letters are at least one way I can stay in touch with all
of you. The Santa Anita Bonsai Society
still exists, and it is important to maintain our common interest in
bonsai. Even though we don’t meet,
taking care of our trees is something we all share in spirit. It is great therapy during the isolation
caused by the virus.
We are coming
to the end of summer and will soon be in the fall season. The beautiful fall colors in our deciduous
trees will put on a show for us to enjoy.
The strong summer growth patterns in most of our trees will begin to
slow down. We can start cutting back on
pruning and use less nitrogen-based fertilizers. Start turning to more potash and phosphorous
feeding, and your trees will love it.
I hope you
have had the opportunity to watch Peter Macasieb’s three-part twisted Itoigawa
demonstration on our website. Peter
shares a lot of great information that is usable on any of our trees. The videos are still on our website for
viewing. Thanks again to Peter, Matt,
Song and Robert for making the videos possible for us.
Santa
Anita Bonsai Society August 2020 meeting is cancelled
Santa Anita
Bonsai Society Members,
The county
has not yet approved the reopening of meeting rooms at the Arboretum, so our
August meeting has been cancelled. I hope
all of you have been able to stay safe and healthy during this long period of
ups and downs with covid-19.
The heat of
summer is here, and watching our trees during the heat is important. Watering in the morning before heat builds up
allows our trees more time to use the moisture before evaporation. When the temperatures exceed 100 degrees, a
second, lighter application of water in the late afternoon can help trees
recover from the excessive heat. You can
always do a basic moisture check by sticking your finger into the soil about an
inch. If it is dry, you should probably
water. Watch for wilting leaves that are
otherwise healthy. Your trees will tell
you when they need water.
The third installment of Peter Macasieb’s twisted Itoigawa demonstration should be up on our website soon, so be sure to check it out. It is a great lesson and worth trying out.
While you are
on the computer, Google “bonsai” and you will find lots of bonsai related info
and videos. You can search “Tom Lau” and
find his bonsai videos that are well done.
There is much to watch to help keep our enjoyment of bonsai
satisfied. The GSBF magazine “Golden
Statements” is available at www.gsbfbonsai.org/Articles.asp?ID=291.
Santa Anita Bonsai Society July 2020 meeting is cancelled
Santa Anita Bonsai Society Members,
Hello to all of you. I continue to miss seeing you all in person and sharing the art of bonsai. I had hoped that a July club meeting might be possible, but the decision to cancel has been made.
The July meeting was scheduled to be held at the home of Peter and Marissa Macasieb. I spoke with Peter, and we agreed it was still too soon to be able to guarantee a safe space for our members to meet. We always enjoy getting together at Peter’s, but the backyard space would not allow for safe distancing and food would be an issue.
Meeting at the Arboretum was a possibility with the cancellation of concerts, however, they have not decided yet to allow it. So, unfortunately, a decision to cancel our meeting was necessary. I hope you have had a chance to view our May Virtual Show. It is still available for viewing on our website. For those of you who did not get the email link to part 1 of Peter’s twisted Itoigawa demonstration, you can see it by going to our website, www.sabonsai.org. Part 2 of Peter’s demo will be posted for viewing within days. Thanks again to everyone who entered trees for our Virtual Show, and thanks to Peter for the demonstration.
Santa Anita Bonsai Society June 2020 meeting is cancelled
Santa Anita Bonsai Society Members,
Greetings to all of you once again. It has been hard to communicate with the Santa Anita Bonsai Society members in writing only. I miss our opportunities to meet in person and hope we can get back to regular meetings soon. Unfortunately, our June 13 meeting has been cancelled. I have asked the Arboretum to remember our club if the facility becomes available in July, and I will keep you posted.
We will obviously have to make adjustments for future meetings, but we will do whatever is necessary to keep our members safe and well.
Thanks to everyone who participated in our Virtual Show. I appreciate the time you spent to set up for your photos and then send them to Robert. Thanks also to Robert Sencer for arranging all the photos and producing the show on the website. We had a beautiful variety of trees, so I hope everyone has been able to view the show. It will remain available for viewing for the immediate future at www.sabonsai.com.
Recently we arranged for a recording of Peter Macasieb doing a tree demonstration at his home. The recording was done by member Matt Mahaffey. Matt edited the demo tape into specific segments for easy viewing. I will notify everyone when the demo is posted and available to see. Thanks to Peter, Matt, Sung, Robert and Gabriel for the work done to provide this demonstration for our members.
We have a unique dual demonstration planned for the March 14 meeting at the Arboretum. Jason Saito and Jaime Chavarria will be talking about and demonstrating the differences and similarities between two distinct styles of landscape plantings; a rock planting (ishitsuki) , and a Chinese landscape (penjing). They will discuss the skills and techniques used to create naturalistic landscape plantings. Both pieces will be in the raffle for members. Jason and Jaime are students of saikei and bonsai master Frank Goya. Jason has been studying bonsai for about 9 years and is primarily focused on landscape planting and ceramics. Besides master Goya, Jason has studied with Al Nelson, Mel Ikeda, and John Wang.
Jaime started studying bonsai in 1991. He worked in a gas station near the Yamaguchi Nursery and met many bonsai masters while picking up their cars for oil changes from the nursery. Sam Nakano gave him his first tree, which he still has, and a few lessons. Jaime joined an all Japanese bonsai club, Bay Cities, as the first non-Japanese member and learned a lot. Later he joined Marina Bonsai Club and met Frank Goya, who he still studies with.
Don’t miss a chance to see this dual demonstration and maybe win a great landscape piece.
Meeting Time And Place: March 14, 2020 at 7pm LAC Arboretum/ Palm Room
President’s Corner
Members voted at the February meeting and selected “conifers” as our 2020 show theme. This choice provides us with many tree options including pine, juniper, cypress, and spruce, to name a few. Now is the time to pick a tree or two and prepare them for the May show. You can always enter multiple trees and also trees other than theme trees. The important part is sharing our work with the public who pass through Ayres Hall and always enjoy the show.
We are in the middle of repotting season. Most trees don’t need repotting every year, but the timing can vary. Some say every three or four years, but trees will often tell us when it is time. If water stands on top of the soil and doesn’t drain steadily, it is time for root pruning and new soil. If a tree isn’t quite as healthy looking as it has been over time, repotting may bring back its vitality. If the roots are pushing a tree out of its pot, it is definitely time for a repot. A healthy tree that drains readily should be fine for another season. Keep track of repotting dates, and let the trees tell you when it is time to repot.
~Dave
February 2020 Meeting Highlights
Louis Camerota joined us in February to share his second lesson on the care of azalea bonsai. This year Lou talked about repotting. He said, as a general rule, to start repotting narrow-leaf azalea varieties in February and larger leaf varieties in March. Lou recommended repotting every three years, but to let the tree tell you when (sounds familiar!).
He said the tree branches are a mirror image of the root system, so if there is no new growth, it is time to repot. If growth is only on branch tips, repot. Finally, if water doesn’t drain or drains slowly, repot.
When repotting, Lou suggested removing about 50% of the roots from the bottom of the root ball and to cut flat across the bottom. He advised not to hollow out the bottom as we do with other tree types. Lou said using a metal root rake can easily damage azalea roots and to use a bamboo chopstick to gently comb out roots.
Lou uses Kanuma soil exclusively for his azaleas and recommends it above any other soil mixture. He said the acid level of Kanuma is just right for azaleas. He also talked about water ph levels and said 5.5 to 6.2 is ideal. He uses “ph down” to lower high ph levels. Lou said he uses a 5-5-5 organic fertilizer in tea bags placed on top of the soil. Lou brought several young azaleas for our raffle, so members had a chance to win a well cared for azalea to develop as Lou continues sharing his azalea secrets in the future. Thanks Lou for another great lesson.
Thank You To our February Raffle Table Donors (And to all who so generously purchase tickets)
Jerry Banuelos, Joe Cervantes, Edgar Fukutaki Family, Y.S. Farn, Peter Macasieb
Welcome New Members
Matt Mahaffey Andrew Nguyen
Members Corner
It is with much sadness that we share the passing of long time bonsai enthusiast and SABS member Joe Cervantes on Feb 11, 2020. Joe will be always remembered by many of us.
Jan – March is SABS membership renewal time. Thanks to all for your participation and support. It has been exciting to see how SABS’s membership is growing. Our membership dues are vital to SABS. Your dues enable us to maintain our relationship with the Arboretum, offer monthly meetings, and amazing demonstrators. Our Annual Show every May is filled with our member tree displays and a members sales table with a huge variety of stock, rocks, pots, ceramics, supplies and much more. 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.
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
If you have a knack for writing or an event/ story to share please contact Lorraine at LMiles6455@gmail.com before the 20th of any month to be included in the newsletter.
Upcoming Events
March 21-22 California Bonsai Society annual show at the Huntington Botanical Center 1151 Oxford Rd., San Marino, three demonstrations each day at 1:00pm, reception Saturday at 6:00pm.
Come Join Us
Next Meeting Date: March 14, 2020 Time: 7pm Location: LAC Arboretum, Palm Room 301 N. Baldwin Ave Arcadia, CA 91007
2020 Monthly Meeting Dates
Mar 14 — Jason Saito & Jaime Chavarria April 11 — Al Rivera May 9 — Tom Vuong
Refreshment Schedule
Mar — Marge (drinks) D. Melitz, J. Pelling. P. Macasieb, L. Miles April — Marge (drinks), J. Pelling, E. Jee May — J. Pelling, E. Jee
2020 Refreshment Sign ups will be available the March meeting
The February 8 meeting at the Arboretum will feature long-time member Louis Camerota. As you recall, Lou is an expert at raising and training Satsuki azalea bonsai. Lou’s beautiful azaleas have been awarded “Best of Show” in our club shows. Last year Lou talked about the first of several stages in the preparation of azaleas. He talked about the critical use of leaf removal to stimulate new growth, and he also shared his ideas on fertilizing and watering. This time he will talk about repotting, and Lou is bringing several small azaleas for the raffle table. Lou started working with bonsai in 1990. He learned about training Satsuki azaleas originally from Dwight Goins, a former student of Khan Komai. He also studied with Marty Hagbery and currently studies with David Nguy. Join us in February to continue learning about the development of azaleas.
Meeting Time And Place:
Feb 8, 2020 at 7pm
LAC Arboretum/ Palm Room
6pm Board Meeting Prior to General Meeting
President’s Corner
I want to start by apologizing to everyone for the confusion involved at our January meeting. We successfully held our annual potluck holiday celebration, but those attending had to endure a terrible parking situation. Also, I know many of our members arrived in the middle of the parking chaos and returned home. Again, my apologies to all.
I did not learn about the Arboretum’s extension of their “Moonlight Forest” show until the afternoon of the meeting date. Our room was still scheduled and available, so we had our meeting. Thanks to all who managed to get in with food and extras, including our demonstrator. Ed Clark, and to our board members who helped navigate the logistics. The Arboretum has apologized to me for the lack of timely notification, and we will work together to avoid any repeat of last month.
Don’t forget that February also includes the annual Bonsai-A-Thon at the Huntington Botanical Center. There will be many venders, demonstrations, an exhibit, raffle , and auction. See “Upcoming Events” for details.
~Dave
January 2020 Meeting Highlights
The January meeting was our club’s annual potluck holiday celebration to welcome the new year. The food was plentiful and good, and the raffle table had an abundance of bonsai pots and related items. Our guests were Ed and Linda Clark who traveled from Lindsay, CA to be with us. Ed was a commercial grower of trees for the nursery market in the Central Valley before retiring. He now grows bonsai material on his property.
Ed brought Japanese maple whips, 1-2 years old for his demo. He quickly planted a maple forest with the trees while talking about the propagation and care of the young trees. He planted the trees randomly with the intention they be moved around later into a traditional configuration, once the trees developed more differences in their sizes. Ed made examples of maple forests and put both in the raffle.
He also explained that the young tree trunks would fuse together into one trunk if wrapped together tightly. He displayed several pictures of the potential for a single tree if developed from the fusing process. Ed demonstrated the process of wrapping a clump of maples together. He wired individual trunks in the group to position them for the future outline of a single tree. He put several of these maple clumps in four inch liners in the raffle along with the forests.
Everyone enjoyed Ed’s presentation, and many took part in another opportunity. Ed brought a large number of additional four inch liner maple clumps that he made available to the members for a very reasonable price, and members purchased almost all of them.
Thank you to Ed and Linda for being with us at the potluck. It was a wonderful evening for socializing, food and bonsai.
Members Corner
Barbara Wright has been a member of Santa Anita Bonsai Society for many, many years. Some of you may remember her. Each year as she renews her membership, she sends a generous donation and updates us on life in Middleboro, KY. This year she sent along a photo. This is Barbara with her Ginkgo tree which she styled with Melba Tucker while in California. When moving it this past Nov 2019 to be displayed at her home church the top was broken. She now is looking forward to using it as “a start” for her next Ginkgo. Thank you Barbara for sharing and being such a true bonsai enthusiast and longstanding SABS supporter.
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
March 21-22 Annual California Bonsai Society Show at the Huntington Botanical Center more details next month
Come Join Us
Next Meeting Date: February 8, 2020 Time: 7pm Location: LAC Arboretum, Palm Room 301 N. Baldwin Ave., Arcadia, CA 91007
Board Meeting Feb 8 prior to General Mtg 6pm
2020 Monthly Meeting Dates
Feb 8 —- Louis Camerota Mar 14 — Jason Saito & Jaime Chavarria April 11 — Al Rivera
Refreshment Schedule
Feb — Marge (drinks) , J. Anthony, D. Deephouse, F. Yee Mar — Marge (drinks) D. Malitz, J. Pelling. P. Macasieb April — Marge (drinks), J. Pelling, E. Jee
2020 Refreshment Sign ups will be available the Feb meeting
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
