Club Potting Party Season Continues

by Lynne O’Dell

Kusamura members will gather at the home of Christoph Dressel one more time to repot donated trees that we will use for the very important fundraising component of our budget (sale at our show). Members are asked to donate trees from their collection or nursery stock. Members who do not have trees to donate for repotting are welcome to consider a cash, pot or tree donation to the club at the time of our April Club Show. We have a committee that has purchased trees for members to work on. Members need not come to all dates nor stay the entire time however this is an opportunity to learn from each other and shmooze with each other. At the last potting party, we repotted at least 30 trees and about 25 members attended. New members who got special instruction and repotted over half of the total trees that were done. Several of the trees were also purchased by members that day, so this will be an opportunity to have first pick of this year’s sale selection.

by Rita Curbow

Monthly Club Workshop Update

If you have never repotted a bonsai or are still learning the process, we have two upcoming events where you can get help. First, the club potting party on Saturday, February 8 where we will work on club-owned or newly donated trees. Then on February 15, from 10AM-1PM, Intro Workshop members will have an opportunity to repot one of their own bonsai trees under supervision at the home of Lynne O’Dell. Soil, aluminum wire, screening and tools will be provided. Please bring your ABS handbook and any tools you have. We will be working outside. You must sign-up by Wednesday February 12 to attend. Email Lynne at lynnemo@gmail.com to sign up.

Dates for Upcoming Workshops

Saturday, February 22: Styling
(the Saturday after our Friday night meeting - it’s a short month)
Please note that Styling is a different topic than Styles. For those with an ABS Syllabus, please review chapter 6 “Styling the Tree” and bring your copy to the workshop. Attendees will be able to participate in three unique hands-on styling exercises that we think will be both challenging and fun. Special shout out to JC Zhang who has helped us create the sketched bonsai for these exercises. Saturday, March 29: Show Preparation This will include last minute wiring, styling and top dressing the soil before show time. When "wiring for show" we want the wire to be at a minimal and less obvious, so we’ll show you some tricks. The club will provide some top-dressing options but feel free to bring your own, too. All members who need help with preparing their tree itself are encouraged to attend this session.
Saturday, March 29: Show Preparation
This will include last minute wiring, styling and top dressing the soil before show time. When "wiring for show" we want the wire to be at a minimal and less obvious, so we’ll show you some tricks. The club will provide some top-dressing options but feel free to bring your own, too. All members who need help with preparing their tree itself are encouraged to attend this session.
Saturday, May 24
“Intro to Bonsai" topic to be announced, but save the date.

Schedule of Workshop

12:30PM - 1:30PM “Intro to Bonsai”
For those new to bonsai or who want to brush up on basis bonsai techniques, special instruction will be offered starting at the beginning of the workshop and running for about an hour. After the special instruction/exercise, attendees will have the option to work on their

1:30PM - 4:30PM Open to all members of the club

Members at the intermediate or advanced levels who aren’t assisting other members in the beginner’s level are asked to arrive starting at 1:30pm. They will setup on the side closest to the main entrance (near the closet with tables).

Refreshments at the Workshop

Feel free to bring refreshments to the workshop to share with fellow members. And don’t forget to bring bottled water for your personal use.

Details of the “Intro to Bonsai” Workshop Portion

Members should bring trees that can be worked on in that time of year. Club wire will be provided for beginners as needed. Some club tools will also be available, but members will be encouraged to purchase their own set of tools eventually in order to work on their trees at home, etc.

Setup and Cleanup at the Workshop

The club kindly thanks everyone who helped with setup and/or cleanup at the end. Your assistance makes a world of difference for the organizers of these events.

ABS “Intro to Bonsai” Syllabus

If you did not attend an “Intro to Bonsai” workshop in the past and have not received a free copy of the ABS Syllabus being used, please contact Michael Greenstein via email at michael.greenstein@comcast.com. Note that you must be a Kusamura member to participate in these workshop

Friday, February 21 Club Meeting -Valerie Monroe- 3-Point Display Tips

by Lynne O’Dell

In preparation for our April Club Show, Valerie will give us tips on bonsai display focusing on the artistic pairing of a bonsai tree, stand and accent plant. We have previously covered pairing a pot with our tree and also the ins and outs of creating an accent plant. Valerie will engage us in a participatory evening to help us with the next step of selecting a stand and accent plant for the tree we will be showing in April. Instead of our usual show and tell, Valerie will use selected member trees to parse the many decisions of display.

Valerie Monroe has an extensive breadth of bonsai teaching and leadership experience spanning 40 years including caretaker of private collections, individual and group workshops, and has given workshops at GSBF conventions. Her expertise covers a wide range of deciduous and conifer species. She has been a strong leader at San Mateos SBBK and has spoken at Kusamura a number of times.

Membership Dues for 2025

Help keep the club going strong by renewing your membership today! Club membership dues are $45 for a single membership or $55 for a family membership. New members who joined Sept through Dec 2024 are also considered paid for 2025.
Renewal online is very easy, visit Kusamurabonsai.org and then look in the Membership tab to find the Renew Membership page. This will let you submit the payment using PayPal, Venmo, or a debit or credit card.
Additionally, Hal Jerman should be able to take checks or credit card payments in person at the February meeting. Please make your check payable to Kusamura Bonsai Club.

Welcome New Members

The club kindly welcomes Jennifer Beck, Estefi Pisciotta, John Peery, and Jacqueline Lin who joined in January.

2025 Annual Show Update

by Idris Anderson, Show Chair

We have again booked Addison Elementary School in Palo Alto on Friday, April 25 for show set up and on Saturday and Sunday, April 26-27, for the show.

Kusamura’s Annual Bonsai Show gives members an opportunity to take stock of their trees and choose two or three favorites that they’d like to share with each other, family, friends, and the public. Our show is well-attended and beautiful, thanks to Kusamura members pitching in as usual. We look forward again to this satisfying and enjoyable annual gathering—and the fine attention to preparing our trees to show their best.

Our newer members, who may never have been to a show or participated in creating one, will be amazed! We need your help too! Show will include trees in development as well as developed show trees. We encourage all members regardless of level to participate in any way you feel comfortable.

Show Hours for Visitors. Bring Friends and Neighbors. Give them a postcard or flyer invite!

Noon to 4PM Saturday
11AM to 4PM Sunday

Please Help with Publicity: Tell all your friends, family, and neighbors (and dentist and others whom you encounter) about our show. We urge you to make a post in your neighborhood’s Nextdoor events internet site. We will have postcards and show flyers at our February and March meetings for you to share with others and/or post in neighborhood shops. You can access digital copies of these when we send you the email BLAST later this month and in the next newsletter.

Our 65th Annual Show will include the following components:

A formal display of trees including stands, accent plants and scrolls (when available and appropriate).
Outdoor sale of donated and consignment trees, pots and stands.
Children’s Corner (contact Andy Mayhew if you’d like to help out).
Saturday: demonstration by our headliner, Sam Tan, at 1PM. Live auction of the tree to follow
Show critique by Sam Tan at 3:30PM on Saturday
Sunday: styling three bonsai from donated trees demonstration Charlene Fischer, Lynne O’Dell, and Gianne Souza. Richard Phillips will be our MC. Live auction of trees to follow.
Doctor Bonsai crewed by Gordon Deeg and others.
Tours of the show by club member docents at Noon and 3PM each day
Benefit Drawings for trees and pots and other items, both days during demonstration

IMPORTANT NOTICE: EMAIL BLAST

Look for THE SHOW BLAST in your email late February or early March. Save this email. You will need it. It will include all show information, including quick (direct) links to the following.

Submitting your Trees (fill out form)
Select and Sign out Stands (photos and fill out form)
Signing up for Show Tasks (fill out online) Signups also available during the March meeting. Be an early bird! We encourage all to sign up for something each show day. There are more slots than we have members so think of signing up for two, three, four or more slots. We need you, new members! A number of us are at the show full time all day Saturday and Sunday. We camp out! Good chat and good food provided all day. If you have any trouble signing up, contact Katherine Glassey at klglassey@gmail.com or 650-799-3690, or Idris Anderson at idrisan@gmail.com or 650-504-1518 and we will slot you in.

Other Resources you will have access to:

How to Prep your Tree (pdf) Check all the information here. Minimal requirements: tree should be in a bonsai pot, not a flower pot. Pot should be clean, tree should be groomed and ready to show.
Descriptions of Show Tasks (pdf)
Form for Consignment Sales (fill out form)
Show Flyer (pdf)

Our March newsletter will also provide links to these forms and pdfs.

Members Only

Gentle Reminder: All members are encouraged to donate two trees or bonsai related items for the club sale. Donated items must be a value of $25 each or more. New or first-year members are not required to fulfill this club obligation. Donations help cover show expenses, the largest item of our annual budget.

Tree Placement

Much thought goes into the placement of trees. We thank Charlene Fischer and Sean Morris, our show curators, for their excellent visual aesthetics and diligent attention to all presentation matters. When you arrive on Saturday morning, we ask you to place your own trees on the table space determined in advance by the curators. Information you provide on the tree submission form (height and flow to left or right) will help us set up more efficiently. The show curators will make these tentative designations and then will adjust/rearrange the trees for the best visual presentation of the show as a whole.

New This Year: We will be providing a QR code on the display card for your tree if you have provided, on the tree submission form, a Story of the Tree, its history or any other information about the tree’s development. You may also upload photos of the tree in progress. Provide dates for the photos. The QR code and information available there is optional, but we encourage you to participate in this new way to inform our curious visitors.

Also New This Year: The stage will be a hospitality area, with tables, chairs, tea and cookies for our visitors. Richard Phillips will be providing his educational posters for visitors to view. We will add this Hospitality area to sign ups. Mainly your duty will be to chat with visitors, answering questions, and re-suppling the tea and cookies. Please sign up for a shift. We are also looking for someone to set up this area.

Many, Many Thanks (and more to come) to Paticia Lee and Manshu Verma for all the countless (endless) hours they have put into the new website and new QR code system. So many details they have been creating and attending to. They are our go-to NEW IDEA team!

Deadlines and Timelines

• Please fill out the tree submission form two weeks before the show, that is, by Friday, April 11.

• Friday night setup begins at 5PM when tables are delivered. The show layout will be nearly the same as last year.

• Friday night pizza at 6PM for those who help with set up.

• Consignment trees (and filled out consignment form) should be brought Friday evening when you come to help with set-up.

• First dibs members-only presale of donated and consignment trees and pots on Friday evening.

• Saturday 8AM-9AM: Bring your show trees no later than 9AM; show begins at Noon.

• Sunday 9AM-11AM Trees to be photographed

• Coffee and pastries available for members both mornings at reception desk.

• Saturday and Sunday lunch for members and their families 11:30AM-2:30PM.

• Sunday STRIKE at 4PM; celebration and raffle after show take down.

ALL hands on deck for Friday night set up and for show take down (strike). It’s fun when we all work together, taking part in making our show spectacular! Oh, and did we say we are serving pizza on Friday!

Recap of our January Meeting with John Thompson (JT) on Oaks

by Idris Anderson

It’s always good to have an expert like JT give a presentation to our members. He’s especially known for his work with oaks, and he had so much good information for us, as he talked about his own experience and responded to all (!) the trees that members brought in. He was most generous with his time and expertise.

Here are some of his many comments.

Every kind of oak species is different, and can require different development and care.
It’s best to have many oaks in different stages of development to watch how they develop.
Oak, unlike other trees, will branch out rather than have a central branch. They can also develop sub trunks.
Tree #1: a cascade oak. The top had been damaged, so energy was going into side branch.
Once you have taper and bulk, you target certain branches you want to develop. Then maintenance stage.
When you collect a tree, it may be many feet high but you want some branches low down. Allow branches to run long and wild to develop taper on primary branches. This in effect means you are reverting back to an earlier stage of development.
No two oaks are alike. Each will grow differently. Their goal is to get big and make other little trees. Bark will be different. Deadwood: you do not want on an oak. Junipers have resins that preserve deadwood. Oaks do not have resins; they will fall apart when they are dead. Wood deteriorates so quickly that it’s hard to have jins. Uros, that is, the belly buttons where a branch has fallen off, are common. Typically around the nebari, roots go into the ground like fingers; you don’t want to see the fingers.
When can you work on a tree, you want to see/wait for some bushy growth, with runners and then hardened off leaves. How to shorten internodes.
Water issues: Too much. Too little. When water pools on the surface, not good.
Fertilize: lots of fertilizer for developing trunk.
Pest control. Oaks are plagued by fungi and insects.
Ways of cutting: Pruning, Pinching—only for the young stuff.
Wiring: takes a long time for juniper and pines to set, but not on oaks; can leave wire on until they cut in a little. If wires are removed too soon, branches will spring back to their original position.
Advice on Hal’s cork bark two-year-old oak: cut way back. He did it before our eyes!
Auxins gather in growing tips, so cutting off the tip pushes energy for growth lower on the tree
Around the Winter Solstice, after autumnal equinox, oaks focus reverts to interior development. Chlorophyll production begins again in the spring. Better not to fertilize until after spring growth has hardened off, but now (early spring) is a good time to graft and to prune.

Diagrams on Pruning and Oak Branch Development were really helpful to illustrate how oaks can ramify with good pruning.

Then JT went around to all the trees we brought and gave particular advice. Information that came out as a result was particularly helpful and informative, so many new insights into oaks, their development and care.

Monthly Tasks

Each month there are a number of tasks you need to do to your bonsai – from repotting, to fertilizing to spraying for pests. We have put together a checklist, customized for the San Francisco Bay Area to help you. This checklist is adapted from earlier work by Mitsuo Umehara.

This month: February Tasks