Bonsai Notebook

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

Upcoming Events

February 22-23
Annual GSBF Bonsai-A-Thon
7:30am – 5pm, vendors, demonstrations, exhibit, raffle, auction
Huntington Botanical Garden
1151 Oxford Rd., San Marino

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