President’s Message

March is when the Bay Area starts seeing our first signs of spring weather, and with that, new growth starting to appear on our bonsai trees. Yes, the yearly life cycle of plants once again comes to an exciting rebirth. Much of our winter months has been filled with the busy processes of repotting our trees that need new soil and possibly a new pot to show off a developing tree’s now dynamic features.

The warmer weather that pushes new growth will also push us to keep up with our yearly bonsai responsibilities as they start increasing this time of year. Yes, an exciting time of year for us all, that will keep us busy with our trees throughout the coming growing season.

Spring is a important time of year for many bonsai club shows, so please be sure to check out the schedule of events in this newsletter to catch all that is happening in the Bay Area.  

March Programs

Our first Thursday meeting this month will feature Eric Schrader, a San Francisco based bonsai teacher who shares a monthly YouTube program with his many followers entitled Bonsaify. Please check out his entertaining and informative monthly blogs that you can click on to see a variety of bonsai topics.

Eric will be speaking to us on the subject of developing deciduous bonsai, and will be bringing in some trees for us to see how he has developed them over the many years he has enjoyed them. Eric feels that you can develop your deciduous trees at an early stage of development progressively, but also be refining them at the same time. Deciduous trees are different from our more commonly seen conifers; they need a different way of training throughout their growth. Listening to Eric's style of development and technique will encourage us all when trying our hand at these beautiful bonsai trees we all see in bonsai magazines.

So make a point of being there this first Thursday meeting, and if you have a tree you would like to bring in for Eric's observation and suggestions, please do so.   

Our Third Thursday meeting will be a standard workshop, bring in your trees to work on and get advice from seniors members who can give you some good ideas for the future development of your trees.

Sneak Peek at April  

April’s first Thursday meeting will be devoted to pines. Jonas Dupuich, a noted bonsai professional in the Bay Area will be sharing his many years of experience with pine development. Also, Jonas wants you to bring in your pines for his critique and suggestions.

Have a great month of March doing bonsai everyone!