September 20 Meeting and Afternoon Workshop Opportunity – Julian Tsai - Junipers

by Lynne O’Dell

Julian Tsai, a professional bonsai artist based out of Southern California, will be our September 20 club meeting guest speaker working on one of our Kusamura juniper trees. After apprenticing for two years under Keiichi Fujikawa in Osaka he returned to SoCal and now works with private clients, leads multiple study groups in Southern California and shares his knowledge and expertise at clubs and bonsai shows throughout California.

Check out his website at www.justbonsai.com to get a better understanding of his philosophy and see the photo progression of many of his trees. Julian will be one of the presenters at the Pacific Bonsai Expo in Oakland this October.

by Rita Curbow

Intro to Bonsai Workshop - New Format Starts on September 28

The September 28 workshop will be the club’s first workshop with a new format. Members interested in a special Intro session are asked to attend starting at 12:30PM. Those not interested in the Intro session are asked to arrive at 1:30PM. Those attending the Intro session have the option to participate for the entire afternoon if they choose.

Each person attending the Intro session will be given a free copy of the booklet Introduction to Bonsai: A Course Syllabus by Thomas L. Zane of the American Bonsai Society. After a brief talk about the structure of this new program, we will focus on the various Styles that a tree can have within the art of bonsai. Attendees will be able to follow along with this short presentation in the Course Syllabus. Each attendee is asked to bring at least one tree to this workshop. Only styles represented by the trees brought in will be discussed to allow more time for hands-on exercises.

Michael Greenstein will be leading this program with assistance by other members in the club. Refer to additional info below.

You don’t have to have a tree to attend as you are sure to learn a lot by observing and participating in the exercises we have planned for that afternoon. Can’t make the September 28 date for the Intro program? You will receive the Syllabus at your first attendance of an Intro session.

Club Workshops Going Forward

Again, all Kusamura members are invited to attend the bonsai workshop on Saturday, September 28.

Kusamura is working on reorganizing our club workshops that at one time were being offered on a monthly basis. In more recent years, Richard Phillips offered a beginners workshop at his home with assistance from 3-4 other members in the club. A workshop for members at the intermediate or advanced level was offered at St Mark’s Episcopal Church.

Going forward a workshop for all members will be offered on the same day and at the same location. Michael Greenstein will be leading the “teaching” aspect of the workshop. He will need the assistance of other club members who are experienced in bonsai to make this successful. See comments below regarding assisting with this effort.

Location of Workshop

As the workshop will be held at St Mark’s Episcopal Church, the weather will not likely be an issue. We will hold the workshop inside the Fellowship Hall unless certain members of the club would prefer to be outside on a really nice day. There’s nothing to say that part of the group can’t be inside the church while others are in the parking lot.

Date of Workshop - Saturday Afternoon

To be able to plan for attending a workshop, the date of the workshop will be the 2nd Saturday after the club monthly meeting. When that date conflicts with a holiday or special bonsai related event the workshop for that month might be moved to another date or cancelled. For example, upcoming dates will be:

September 28
October - no club workshop (due to the Pacific Bonsai Expo on Oct 26)
November 23
December 28

Schedule of Workshop

12:30PM - 1:30PM “Intro to Bonsai” Portion of Workshop

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 at least an hour. After the special instruction/exercise, attendees will have the option to work on their trees with assistance from more advanced members in the club and can stay for the entire afternoon.

1:30PM - 4:30PM for 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). A rack of chairs will be moved to this side of the room prior to their arrival.

Details of the “Intro to Bonsai” Workshop Portion

Various topics will be offered throughout the year and topics will be repeated as needed. Some topics will be covered at each workshop for those who need it. For example, intro to wiring for members who have no experience will always be offered.

Members will need to bring their own trees but 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.

Members attending as beginners will be given their own copy of the softcover book Introduction to Bonsai: A Course Syllabus by Thomas Zane of the American Bonsai Society. This will enable them to be able to focus on the concepts themselves without having to write it all down at the same time.

We started our tour at Ray’s garden where everyone was blown away by the number and variety of trees. The way Ray had everything organized was really amazing. I think we all learned something new that we want to try in our own garden. I was impressed with how Ray had protected his smallest trees from the animals by simply covering them with a wire mesh basket. The wire baskets were open enough that the plants could still be easily watered and get the necessary sun. In addition to his lovely bonsai, there were lots of yard trees loaded with fruit, vegetables hanging on their vines and a relaxing koi pond. You felt transported to a small oasis in an urban environment.

From Ray’s we moved on to Charlene and John’s house in Palo Alto. Charlene has quite the variety of bonsai and some of them are old trees inherited from John’s father - so truly treasured by both of them with special memories. For many of us it was our first time to see their recent sunroom addition to their house. Sitting in the room you could view the garden from three different sides. The garden was divided into different regions with seating areas where members could relax and enjoy the treasures around them. In addition to the bonsai, there were many art objects displayed on the benches or hanging in the yard trees, such as ceramic bird feeders made by Charlene. Along with the bee houses created by John we were truly surrounded by nature in this garden.

By 4PM we had all made our way to Gordon and Kamryn’s home in Atherton. By then the temperature had cooled and everyone took their time wandering around the shaded area where Gordon’s vast collection was on display. The trees were spread out so that you could view each tree from different perspectives. Like the other gardens Gordon had a wide variety of trees in both size and species.

While most of us had been touring the first 2 gardens, Gordon and Kamryn had been busy preparing for us to show up hungry. For meat eaters, Kamryn had made her famous chili and Christine Weigen and her husband Jeff had been busy at the grill working on the club provided chicken and Italian sausages. For vegetarians and non-meat eaters there was an abundance of different salads and other dishes provided by fellow club members. And most of us finished the day by trying at least one of each of the many desserts. Some even confessed to having 4 of Dave’s oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.

The club thanks the hosts for their generous hospitality and enabling everyone to have a lovely afternoon together. Along with a special shout out to Christine Weigen for being our food organizer extraordinaire and her husband Jeff for being our grill master for this event, kudos to those who stayed and helped with cleanup at the end too.

Fun was had by all.

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: August Tasks

BGLM Volunteer Appreciation Day

by Suzanne Muller

The Bonsai Garden at Lake Merritt is celebrating all volunteers who have donated their time to the garden. Volunteer Appreciation Day in the Bonsai Garden at Lake Merritt is September 2, 2024, Monday, Labor Day. We will open the garden to all volunteers from 11AM-2:30PM to celebrate you. We will provide food and drinks. There will be prizes awarded to those who have the most hours contributed to the garden.

The party will be catered by Ann's Catering from Rick and Ann's restaurant in Oakland. There is a signup sheet located in the garden. We are asking for you to sign your name and select the food type you are interested in eating. (meat or vegetarian). This is for a head count only in order to know how much food and drinks to order. If you no longer volunteer at the garden, but want to attend the celebration, please contact me in order to get your name and food preference added to the list. We look forward to celebrating with you!

Cell Phone: 925-787-1349

Email: queueinteriors@comcast.net

September 20 Meeting and Afternoon Workshop Opportunity – Julian Tsai - Junipers

Intro to Bonsai Workshop - New Format Starts on September 28

Monthly Tasks

BGLM Volunteer Appreciation Day

Recommended Links

Recommended Videos - Exhibitions

Repotting a Collected Coastal Redwood Bonsai

Coastal Redwood Bonsai—First Styling

This IS the KEY to Redwood Bonsai!

Jay's Towering Redwood Bonsai

Creating Redwood Bonsai Steps 1 and 2

Creating Redwood Bonsai Steps 1 and 2

Newsletter Editor: Jenn Tan