President’s Message
April 2024
April is truly a wonderful month for bonsai, spring is in the air, our bonsai trees are now putting on their new growth and our annual Cherry Blossom Festival bonsai show is finally here! This will be a very busy month for the Midori Bonsai Club and the new members who have signed up for our beginners bonsai class given by our own Juan Cruz. This past third Thursday meeting our club experienced probably the largest attendance we have ever seen since I have been involved with the club. And what a joy it has been seeing so many new interested members all excited about learning and developing their own bonsai collections. Our club's board of directors have seen the need for these folks who are new to bonsai to get the training and hands-on experience that will keep them moving forward with developing programs over the next few months. So stay tuned everyone!
April Meetings
With so many new members having the need to further their bonsai knowledge and hands-on bonsai skills we decided that our first Thursday meeting will be entitled Learning to Cut Back New Foliage. Juan Cruz will be leading this program, helping those who have purchased new trees in the beginners class to start cutting back and working with the existing foliage their trees currently have. Learning to develop branches and foliage on various types of trees is a learned art and it takes time and patience to visualize how a proper branch is developed and shaped over time. Juan will give everyone a hands-on demonstration on how starting at an early stage of development with your trees will eventually determine the character and style of your trees years later. It's easy to be intimidated for many to get started with bonsai tools working on your first tree and we have all faced this issue in the past. However, with Juan’s assistance, I think everyone will get the information and guidance to be willing and confident to move forward.
For our Third Thursday meeting, Juan Cruz will be continuing the beginners class once the club announcements have concluded. This will be followed by our monthly workshop for those who have brought in their trees for guidance and direction by senior members. This is an exciting time of year working with the new growth of our trees. But please be patient, often times it's best to allow that growth to just happen, allowing the tree to gain its additional energy with time, and then cutting back that new growth once the foliage has hardened off. This is especially important if your tree is young and in early development.
Cherry Blossom Festival
Saturday and Sunday
April 27 & 28, 2024
Quinlan Community Center
10185 North Stelling Rd
Cupertino, CA 95014
Saturday: We need to be there at 8:00am for our display set-up
Show times: 10:00am to 5:00pm each day
This is a fun two-day show for our club, where hundreds of local residents view our display of trees asking questions about them and our club. But first, we must make sure that we have the necessary bonsai trees and are organized with the necessary display backgrounds transported and set up for the show.
We will need 10 different trees for each days display. This includes display tables and accent plants when space is available. I will be passing around at the meetings a sign-up form for those who have trees for the show. Even if you don't have a tree for the show, please make an effort to stop by and say hi and enjoy all the festivities going on throughout the building and outside park.
In addition, tables will be set-up in our area for club members to bring in their trees to work on throughout the day. Attendees are always interested in what we are doing with our bonsai trees, and have questions about how old they are, a common question.
We all work very hard each year caring for and grooming our bonsai trees, and this is a wonderful opportunity to show off our hard work to people who are really appreciative of the art of bonsai we all practice. So club members, please support this wonderful opportunity this month! 🌳