President’s Message

Jun 1

June 2025

The month of June is an exciting time for us bonsai enthusiasts, as our trees are now putting on all their new green growth, allowing us to cut back and shape them into a more refined form. I love to go out in the early morning light, checking on my trees to see what needs watering or which trees need to be brought in for spring cutback. Developing a close relationship with what's going on in our bonsai garden is paramount for staying ahead of our plants' health and noticing possible pests that can go unnoticed.

With the weather now turning much hotter, we need to reevaluate what we need to do to protect our trees from summer heat. Last year, in Brentwood, where I live, we had 41 days over 95 degrees. I thought watering three times a day would be sufficient to protect my trees from that direct heat. Not so; my foliage may have looked fine, but unbeknownst to me, my roots were being cooked inside the pot due to the direct sunlight. Yes, the heat built up by the pots can radiate heat, causing your trees to succumb to a very slow and unnoticed death.

This year, I've purchased two large umbrellas that I now open during the hottest times of the day to cover my plants. They're white in color and still allow 50% of the light to pass through. Problem solved!

A Silent Auction You Don't Want to Miss

Since we're well into the month of June now, we all have had a few days to browse through the many potential items we would like to sell for our club's silent auction this coming Thursday evening (June 5th). You name it; all bonsai-related items you would like to pass on to some needy club member will be welcome. Bonsai trees, pots, wire, books, fertilizers, tools, chemicals, stray items—whatever you're not using now can help you earn some extra cash. For all sales, the club receives 20%, and the seller gets the rest. This is a club fundraiser we do yearly, and we need your help and support.

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

The auction begins with a few items on tables to be sold, with a time limit for each round. This means you must be the last bidder on the form at the highest price before the time limit is up. 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 it later that evening. Each round will present new items to be sold until there is nothing left. At that time, you can reduce the cost of your item if it wasn't sold in the first round.

At the end of the evening auction, you must line up in order to pay for all the items you bought. Those of you who sold items that evening will be paid at a later date by John Thompson, receiving 80% of the item's final bid price.

There will be additional auction forms available at the club meeting that evening as well.

Our Third Thursday Workshop Meeting

Our club's beginners program this year is so large that it takes up a good portion of the room, but please be patient, club members who bring in their trees for senior help and advice. There will be tables and chairs available for you, along with the assistance you may need that evening. Our club has never been inundated with so many new members needing experienced help as we are seeing this year. It's great to see, and we're trying to keep up with everyone!

A Road Trip We All Can Enjoy (Saturday, June 21st)

Last year, our club visited a nice nursery near the town of Sunol called Calaveras Nursery. We had a wonderful turnout of 16 members who came away with many nice trees to work on.

This year, we're hitting the road once again to look for good bonsai material we can all enjoy. We'll be traveling further up to the Sebastopol area to a bonsai nursery called Lone Pine Gardens. You can look up their website for an overview of what they produce. I visited the nursery a few weeks ago and was quite surprised by the quality and variety of trees they now sell. Steve, the owner's son, who is now running the nursery, has done a great job and was very attentive to my questions and needs. Many of the trees from the beginners' class this year came from that nursery.

There's a great variety of bonsai available, both completed and for early development; there's something there for everyone.

So plan now to make this trip with us! Even though it's a 1-hour and 40-minute travel time, it will be well worth it. Everyone will need to arrange their own means of travel to the nursery that morning. I plan to leave Brentwood around 8:30 AM and arrive around 10:10 AM. We can discuss having lunch after the nursery visit if you'd like, but remember, traffic going south in that area can get very congested and slow as the day progresses.

Items you can expect to see there: costly completed bonsai, medium-cost bonsai in pots, trees grown in the ground, 4-inch pots of pre-bonsai, 1-gallon plants of all types of pre-bonsai, a great variety of inexpensive bonsai pots, and a wonderful selection of sedum plants.

Leave at: 8:30 AM, Saturday morning, June 21. (We'll meet up inside the nursery for everyone.)

Lone Pine Gardens
6450 Lone Pine Rd.
Sebastopol, CA 95472
Phone: (707) 823-5024 🌳