July 2024

Here we are in the middle of the year already, and if you haven't noticed, our outdoor temperatures are exceeding what I would normally call comfortable (over 100 degrees here in Brentwood). For the past five days now, watering has become a three times a day occurrence for my bonsai collection. Keeping them hydrated and well positioned within my backyard is a daily activity now. But everything seems to be handling the heat okay, and I'm up for the challenge! I hope that everyone in the club is on top of this heatwave, and using the watering hose as well!

On June 22nd, our bonsai club arranged a nursery road trip for everyone that met at the Calaveras Nursery close to the town of Sunol a few Saturdays ago. We all gathered out front, waiting until everyone arrived, and to my surprise, we had a total of 18 members that showed up! This was quite an invigorating experience—everyone all dressed up, ready to explore the nursery grounds for pre-bonsai material they could find and bring home. I personally had a great time, along with JT, helping everyone that needed assistance or had questions regarding what to look for and where in the large nursery grounds they might find those certain plants. What a great day for everyone, even though the weather was quite warm, that didn't stop everyone from getting the trees they wanted and checking out at the register up front. And for the grand finale, the owner of the nursery asked us all to stay together for a picture he wanted to take. And thanks to everyone that showed up that morning, and hopefully you've enjoyed the trees you were able to pick up and now bring to club meetings.

This past Wednesday, our bonsai club was asked to participate in a special event put on by the Seibo Ku Kai Bonsai Club. The event is called their club's annual "Style-Off", where three Bay Area clubs put together a bonsai styling team that are presented with a tree each and have 1.5 hours to complete its styling in front of a room full of local club members. The three clubs were Seibo Ku Kai, Kusamura, and Midor—each team was presented with a black pine tree that was completely unstyled and about 2 feet high. Midori's team was made up of Juan Cruz, Christian Sierra, and myself. Needless to say, we went to work vigorously—after analyzing the tree's potential—with a plan that brought about a finished black pine we all were very proud of to present to everyone in the club. All three pines from each club were very well done, but you might say our team felt we had the best tree at the end! By the way, JT won our styled tree by having the winning raffle ticket to take home. (Lucky dude!)

A Silent Auction To Remember!

Since we're well into the month of July now, we all had an extra week or so to browse through the many potential items we would like to sell off for the club's Silent Auction this coming Thursday evening on July 11th. You name it, all bonsai related items you would like to pass on to some needy club member will be welcomed. Bonsai trees, pots, wire, books, fertilizers, tools, chemical sprays, things you're not using now, and earn an extra amount of cash to boot. For all sales, the club receives 20%, the seller gets the rest. Yes, this is a club fundraiser we do yearly, and we need your help and support!

Well, once I've selected the items I would like to sell, what do I do then? With this newsletter, a silent auction form must be downloaded to be filled out for every item you sell or group various items together with one price. You set the price for every item you sell, if the item doesn't sell in the first round, you have a chance to reduce its price later.

Silent Auction Form

The auction begins with a few items to be sold, with a time limit for each round. That means that you must be the last bidder on the form at the highest price before the time limit is over. If you're the person with the winning bid, grab the item along with the form and keep it until you need to pay for its cost later that evening. Each round will present new items to be sold until all there is nothing left. At that time, you can reduce your items' cost if it wasn't sold on the first round. At the end of the evening auction, you must line up in order to pay for all items you bought. Those of you that sold items that evening will be paid at a later date your 80% of the item's final bid price.

There will be available additional auction forms at the club meeting that evening you can use, but get there early in order to have time to fill out the forms.

So remember to bring cash or check if you plan to be the highest bidder!

For Our Third Thursday Evening Workshop

This will be a regular normal workshop program, with everyone bringing in their bonsai trees for support and help. I believe that Juan has now completed your beginners class, but I'm sure everyone will need additional help and we will be there for you that evening and many meetings to come.

Have a great month of July doing bonsai everyone!🌳