President’s Message
March 2024
March is a beautiful month to me, signs of our trees pushing their new growth, with swollen new buds, and emerging leaves bursting out. Yes, spring is slowly showing its face for us bonsai enthusiasts. This will probably be our last chance to repot trees or move them into new appropriate bonsai containers. And with the plentiful amount of rain we have received this year, we can expect to see healthy, vigorous growth in the coming months.
With our club's growing attendance in recent months, it's always a wonderful thing to see so many club members bringing in their trees for guidance and support for managing this new growth. So stay tuned everyone, our club plans to bring you programing this year that will hopefully answer all your questions about bonsai techniques in order to help you gain that needed confidence to go along with your increasing knowledge.
I would like to encourage everyone who attends our meetings from now on to please stop by our entry table and sign-in with a self-written nametag to apply to your attire. This has been a real blessing for us club members who are faced with new names we need to learn and remember. We want to learn everyone’s names! So please, be patient with us as we exercise our brain cells.
Our First Thursday Program
For March, we'll be presenting to our club a new bonsai professional by the name of Adam Toth (IG: @adam.jp.bon). He is eager to share his bonsai knowledge with us and his approach to making shohin size trees. Adam was bitten by the bonsai craze at the age of 27, searching for whatever help he could find in the Bay Area. Thankfully, Jonas Dupuich was able to enlist him to do a variety of job at his bonsai nursery as he was expanding his facility. From that, Adam realized he needed a more full-time program to gain the knowledge he aspired to, and was moved to eventually accept a full time apprenticeship program at the Taisho-En Bonsai Nursery in Japan.
Now, three and one half years later he's back in the Bay Area, with the official Shohin certificate he earned. Adam is one of only two Americans who have earned this certification, presented by the Shohin governing organization of Japan.
We are proud to have him speak to us about his enduring love of bonsai and those special skills he has attained from the years working in Japan. But beyond shohin, Adam has also worked with many larger trees at his nursery, and will be happy to answer questions about them as well.
Whether you currently have shohin and would like some personal help regarding development, or have been aspiring to build a shohin size bonsai tree, and would like some pointers about how to choose a suitable tree and then how to proceed, I'm sure Adam could help you with a few suggestions.
Our Third Thursday Meeting and Workshop
In addition to our regular workshop program that evening, Juan Cruz will be starting our beginner’s bonsai class for members who have signed up and paid their $10.00 fee. This is always an exciting evening, with the class taking over the front portion of the room where our board meeting had taken place. There is a portable computer screen on wheels that is available in the room adjoining ours if Juan needs that.
All enrolled members will receive a 1-gallon tree that will be the subject of the continuing monthly class. Many of our more senior members may be asked to work with those in the beginner’s class and their trees when Juan can't handle all the questions.
What should all class members bring with them? Pen and paper for notes, whatever tools and wire you may have. Also keep in mind, you will be taking home your tree, you will need to care for it over a three-month period while the class lasts, and thereafter, since it will be your tree to keep. Juan will let you know which class nights your trees will need to be with you. 🌳
Previously
February Tree Improvement Program
