President’s Message
January 2020
Well, club members, we’re off to another challenging new year ahead of us with the pandemic increasing throughout California. Fortunately, we can see relief with the vaccines starting to be distributed and, with that, hopefully the state can start making its way back to normalcy without the restrictions we’re struggling with presently.
I’m always trying to have a more positive attitude throughout these challenging times. After all, we can see the end of this situation with getting back to coming together and having our monthly meeting starting again. I miss seeing everyone. And interacting and sharing our bonsai love together is certainly a blessing we all miss. No one at this time can estimate as to when this can happen, but for sure by midsummer, the reality of this is very possible. So hang in there everyone, meetings will get back to normal! But please, make an effort to take advantage of our monthly meetings online to share your comments and trees with fellow club members that need your love and interaction.
Website and Newsletter Update
A major issue the club is working on at present is with redesigning and updating our club’s website and newsletter. Tung Dao has stepped forward and has taken on this rather challenging assignment that will make for a new look for our club. I’ve been wanting to do this for some time now and since we have a lull in meeting activities it seemed to be a good time to move forward with this. Our club’s major form of communication at present is our newsletter, so check out its new look and enjoy what Tung has done with his talented design work. Thanks so much Tung, you have a great future with graphic design!
Bonsai Updates
It’s nice to see the rains coming back to our valley finally, but we have had a number of nights down in the mid-thirties, a reason for concern with smaller trees in pots that need protection from winter cold. Also, don’t be overly concerned when your junipers start turning an off brown or purple color from green at this colder time of year. It’s normal for this to happen, the plant’s green nutrients in the foliage is returning back to its vascular system branches; this gives the tree better cold hardiness. Years ago, when I saw this starting to happen I thought it was the tree showing signs of gradual death happening. Not so!
The best way to stay active and informed keeping your bonsai knowledge moving forward these days is to take advantage of the various bonsai professionals blogs and live streaming available to us on the internet. Peter Tea, Jonas Dupuich, Ryan Neil, Michael Hagedorn all have blogs or livestreams that you can access for free or sign up for a monthly fee. For $18.00 a month, I subscribe to Ryan Neil’s live streaming on his level two option. With this, I get two live programs a week, one for two hours, and another for a single hour. In my opinion, Ryan is the best bonsai teacher in the States who does it live. I can’t say enough regarding his level of teaching skills that goes in-depth with hundreds of bonsai trees and their issues. Plus, you get access to a library of at least 100 past streams for the past four years of his online programs. This is the best thing going if you want to advance your bonsai skills and be informed of what’s happening with the latest exciting bonsai news.
Hoping that everyone’s Holiday Season was joyous and filled with blessings.