President’s Message

May 1

May 2025

I just returned hours ago from the club's Cherry Blossom Festival show this past Saturday and Sunday. As usual, it was a great time displaying the many trees our club members brought to share with the hundreds of attendees who braved the rather cool weekend. I want to thank those who prepared their trees for display and spent the lengthy days there working on their trees and answering the many questions that people had about bonsai. However, we were all surprised to not see many of our club members take the time to stop by for a few minutes to say hi and see our wonderful display of trees.

Club members, this is a great opportunity to participate in a very special event for us; we only have the chance to show our trees twice a year. I know that those who showed up and presented their trees came away very proud to have done so. At our show this weekend, we had a form asking attendees if they would like to attend their first bonsai meeting, and we now have a list of 31 people who signed up to attend our first meeting in May! Get ready!

This past Thursday's meeting was a very special event organized by our club, featuring the first program of our bonsai beginners school. I have never attended a meeting with so many newcomers eager to be there and excited to get the program started. Juan Cruz, their instructor, was undoubtedly overwhelmed by the size and enthusiasm he encountered that evening. We have had large beginner groups in the past, but never a total of 31 pupils like this! A hearty thanks must go out to Juan for organizing and presenting a program that will help many in our club advance and enjoy this wonderful hobby.

If any of you are wondering how I was able to acquire 31 plants for this school program, I'm relieved to inform everyone that I now have them, and next month everyone will receive their starter tree. This past Friday, I spent the whole day in Sebastopol at a nursery called Lone Pine Gardens, searching and selecting through the many rows of plants. This year, all pupils will have a variety of pre-bonsai material to work with. At the next school meeting, everyone will receive a number when they arrive; at that point, you will go up to the stage and find the container plant that has your number on it. That will be your tree for the school, unless you find others who want to kindly exchange theirs for yours.

Our Program for Our First Thursday Meeting

We are privileged to once again have Eric Schrader as our guest speaker for this month's program meeting. Eric is one of three gentlemen who put on the premiere bonsai show called the Pacific Bonsai Expo, which we have all enjoyed in San Francisco over the past few years. Additionally, for years now he has presented a bonsai show on YouTube called Bonsaify. Eric enjoys working with all kinds of pre-bonsai material, which he presents monthly in his videos. In fact, he has a large growing area in the Bay Area where he grows thousands of container plants that he sells through his website.

We asked Eric to do a presentation on shohin bonsai for this month's club meeting. Many of Eric's videos feature smaller trees, especially how to get started with ordinary nursery stock and develop beautiful, stocky shohin bonsai trees over time. Shohin bonsai requires great skill in its early development, and Eric will share with us his tried-and-true procedures he has used for years.

So make sure you are there at our first meeting in May to check out Eric's shohin techniques.

Our Third Thursday Meeting

This will be our regular workshop program. Bring in the trees you have questions about and let our senior members help you with the proper procedures. Like last week, we must make room for our larger-than-normal beginners school, so be patient, and all things will come together on time.

Have a great month of doing bonsai, everyone! 🌳