List of Meetings and Activities in 2023
Jan. 8 - Meeting at the Asheville Botanical Gardens
Presentation by bonsai professional Daniel Coffey on the development of deciduous bonsai, using trident maples as an example. He also had some small trees for sale.
Note: All members who ordered potting compound materials from the Bonsai Learning Center picked up their orders at this meeting.
PLANNED Feb. 12 - Meeting at Bullington Gardens in Hendersonville. This is the first time we have met at this location. See their website for driving directions:
https://www.bullingtongardens.org/
12:00-2:00 pm: Repotting workshop - the basics. Chris will cover this information at the meeting using his PPT which you can download on the "Tips, Advice, and More" page. If this is your firt repotting, experienced members will be ther to answer questions and help you
2:00-4:00 pm: Everyone bring a tree for any kind of work, including repotting, or just advice and comments.
ACTUAL MEETING: Because of forecast freezing rain and snow, we actually met from 1:30 to 4:00 for the repotting presentation and worked on members' trees.
Saturday, Feb. 18 - Field Trip: Stone and tree-collecting trip to member Greg Hinson's property close to Spartanburg.
Mar. 12 - Meeting at NC Arboretum. (Education Bldg)
Arthur Joura, the Bonsai Curator at the Arboretum, restyled an old Chinese Hackberry. More than simply showing what to do, Arthur explained the thought process behind working with an older, established plant when shaping it to be a miniature expression of a great old tree in nature.
Note: This event was open to the public. BRBS members had a short business meeting starting at 1:00. Arthur's presenation started at 2:00 pm.
Apr. Field Trip to Mountain Meadows Nursery and New Leaf Garden Market. See Stuart Roger's email on March 17th
Apr. 2 Meeting. RESCHEDULED FROM APR. 16. At Bullington Gardens
Hands on session: Wiring and/or initial styling of members' trees.
May 7 Meeting. At Asheville Botanical Gardens
Make Yourself a Kusamono workshop led by Peggy Snow.
Note: This was open only to BRBS members who had paid their dues for 2023.
There were two sessions:
10:30 am - 12:30 pm or 2:00 - 4:00 pm.
Instructions to members:
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Register for one session using email from Chris. Registration deadline is April 1.
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Bring a pot, tools, and wire and moss. Everything else will be provided. Fee of $5 to be paid in cash or by check at the event to help defray the cost of the plants.
May 13 & 14 - World Bonsai Day with club activities at the at NC Arboretum on both days. Club members displayed trees, did demos, and answered questions from visitors.
June 2 through 11 - Our exhibit of "Bonsai as Fine Art" was held at the Blue Spiral Gallery in Asheville with associated activities at the NC Arboretum.
See the "Bonsai as Fine Art" webpage.
July 9 - 1:00 - 4:00 pm. A picnic for members at Peggy Snow's house in Asheville. A BBQ lunch from Louella's was provided for $5 per person.
Aug. 13 Meeting. Woodfin Community Center
"How to prepare trees for a bonsai show and how to judge bonsai." This was preparation for our BRBS show in October when our trees will be judged by our members and also by as by bonsai professional Daniel Coffey.
Members each brought a tree of their own to work on at this meeting, and Chris led of review of the judging guidelines we received from bonsai professional Tyler Sherrod last year. You can download the guidelines here:
Sept. 17. Meeting at the Bonsai Learning Center at 193 Volt Circle in Statesville, NC.
This was a great afternoon at the Learning Center owner with bonsai professional, Brad Russell who presented an informative program. There were also pots, tools, and trees at all stages of development available for purchase. Brad offered club members a $5 discount on soil.
Oct. 8 Meeting - Asheville Botanical Garden
BRBS Club Bonsai Show
This show displayed club members' trees. Its purpose, besides being fun, was to give members more practice in judging trees.
Oct. 14 Workshops
Bonsai professional, Daniel Coffey, will offered two workshops at his studio in the River Arts District in Asheville. https://www.treethepeople.com/
The two workshops were:
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Basic information and styling workshop - Limited to 7 participants. A boxwood tree was provided as part of the fee.
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Advanced workshop - Limited to 5 participants who brought their own trees to work on with evaluation and guidance from Danny.
November 12: Woodfin Community Center
Annual BRBS pot luck dinner and auction. A good time had by All!
December 2 & 3: Everyone was encouraged to go to the Winter Silhouette exhibit in Kannapolis, NC. Admission was free: https://www.winterbonsai.net/
No regular club meeting this month.
BRBS Meetings and Activities in 2023
When watching any of the video recordings below, you can make the video display full-screen on a Windows machine by clicking in the lower right-hand corner while the video is running. On an iPad, click in the upper left-hand corner.
January - Daniel Coffey
Discussed and illustrated the development of a 35 to 45 year-old trident maple he bought in 2016 in Japan: its movement from the ground to training boxes to bonsai pots. Its development included root grafting. He answered questions about the use of microrhyzomes and safe use of lime sulfur.
There is no recording of our session, but check Danny's website: https://www.treethepeople.com/
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February - Chris Pazoles on Repotting
. . . and everyone bring a tree to repot.
This was our first meeting at Bullington Gardens.
Chris reviewed what to look for and think about when deciding whether and how to repot deciduous and coniferous trees. The main goal is good root development.
His presentation can be downloaded from the Tips, Advice, and More page under "Repotting."
BRBS Meetings and Activities in 2023
When watching any of the video recordings below, you can make the video display full-screen on a Windows machine by clicking in the lower right-hand corner while the video is running. On an iPad, click in the upper left-hand corner.
January - Daniel Coffey
Discussed and illustrated the development of a 35 to 45 year-old trident maple he bought in 2016 in Japan: its movement from the ground to training boxes to bonsai pots. Its development included root grafting. He answered questions about the use of microrhyzomes and safe use of lime sulfur.
There is no recording of our session, but check Danny's website: https://www.treethepeople.com/
.
February - Chris Pazoles on Repotting
. . . and everyone bring a tree to repot.
This was our first meeting at Bullington Gardens.
Chris reviewed what to look for and think about when deciding whether and how to repot deciduous and coniferous trees. The main goal is good root development.
His presentation can be downloaded from the Tips, Advice, and More page under "Repotting."
BRBS Meetings and Activities in 2022
When watching any of the video recordings below, you can make the video display full-screen on a Windows machine by clicking in the lower right-hand corner while the video is running. On an iPad, click in the upper left-hand corner.
January - Click below to see the recording of Jonas Johnson's presentation on building grow boxes and display and outdoor stands.
Jonas discusses different kinds of woods and other materials to make grow boxes last as long as possible, kinds of wood and construction techniques to make beautiful wooden pots that will last 30 years, and different designs for garden stands and exhibit stands.
February - Click below to see the recording of Sage Smith's presentation on propagating deciduous bonsai. (The screen is black while he is being introduced by Stuart Rogers. The broadcast is on Sage's phone.)
Sage demonstrates planting seedlings through small holes in a plastic square so roots will grow above the plastic--where you want them--as well as below. Several trident seedlings can be planted through the same hole in the plastic to create a multi-trunk tree. Also, at the end of the session, notice the wonderful nebari developed on a black pine growing in the ground.
In March, we met at the Etowah Golf Club Pavilion. The overnight temperature in Henderson County had been 14 F, and we started inside the pavilion with propane heaters wearing masks, but then decided it was warmer outside in the sun, and we shed our masks--hopefuly, for the rest of the year.
In April, we met again at the Etowah Golf Club Pavilion for a presentation by Rob Wallace on matching the best pot to a bonsai and a first examination of the members' trees available for inclusion in our World Bonsai Day exhibit at the NC Arboretum in May. Also some trees and pots were available for purchase from Sage Smith, Rob Wallace, and other members .
Peggy Snow was given a small gift in appreciation for her years of service as President of the BRBS.
Inside view of Rob's gas and wood kiln.
You can download Rob's presentation on matching pots to bonsai here:
May- Our solo exhibit at the NC Arboretum for World Bonsai Day, 2022.
In cooperation with the NC Arboretum and its Bonsai Curator Arthur Joura, our club provided demonstrations of work on trees and displays of bonsai on both Saturday and Sunday to celebrate World Bonsai Day and promote the art and practice of bonsai in our region..
In spite of a few rain showers on both days, hundreds of visitors came to the Bonsai Pavilion during the weekend. We received membership applications from 13 new club members, ranging from beginners to a few with over 40+ years of bonsai experience.
BRBS members provided:
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Service as "docents" to answer visitors' questions while members worked on their own trees and answered visitors' questions
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Provided pine, juniper, or maple bonsai trees to create a display of four stages of bonsai development: for each species of tree. The stages were--roughly: (1) starting material with no bonsai development yet, (2) after initial wiring and prunng, (3) a bonsai after several years of development, and (4) a show-ready bonsai
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A display of bonsai pots.with a presentation on how they are designed and made.
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A large poster describing the origin of World Bonsai Day and the contributions of Saburo Kato to bonsai.
The following members contributed trees and/or time and effort, and Chris Pazoles kept the whole thing organized:
Rebecca Ayres, Jean Crosson, Rocky Hinnenkamp, Jonas Johnson and son, Jon Kidder, Felix Laughlin, Judith Nourse, Chris Pazoles, Stuart Rogers, Rennis Rouse, Troy Schmidt and son, Chris Sealy, Mike Sellers, Peggy Snow, Tom Snow, Bob Thatcher, and Rob Wallace
More photos from our World Bonsai Day 2022 exhibit appear on the Photo Gallery page.
In June, we met at the Asheville Botanic Gardens to work on members' trees with the aid and advice of experienced members. Many people brought trees for initial styling that they had bought on the field trips in May and June to local nurseries.
In July, Tyler Sherrod discussed "How to Judge Bonsai" with a large and enthusiastic group of members. We will each practice doing this at our private club show in September, with each member both contributing a tree to the exhibit and judging all the exhibited trees.
You will need Tyler's presentation:
In August, we met at the Etowah Golf Club Pavilion to work on wiring members' trees after watching a short presentation by Rebecca Ayres on really good wiring techniques . Her presentation can be downloaded from the PPT icon below:
Jeff Aldridge bought this Japanese Snow Bell in Japan 26 years ago. 'Notice the fruit.
In September, we held a "practice show" at the Aseville Botanical Gardens. Each member contributed one tree to the exhibit, The trees were divided into three groups for ratings, and each member rated all the trees in one group using the standards discussed with us by Tyler Sherrod at the July meeting.
Overall scores were calculated, then Troy Schmidt, Peggy Snow, and Rob Wallace discussed each tree in one of the groups and its ratings.
This event was a great success, and we expect to repeat it next year.
October: Jennifer Price Events: Saturday and Sunday, October 8th and 9th
All events on both days were held in the Education Center at the NC Arboretum.
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“Elegant Redesign”: On Saturday, October 8th from 10:00 am to 2:30
Jennifer Price restyled a tree belonging to the NC Arboretum bonsai collection and chosen by the Curator, Arthur Joura.
There were two events sponsored by our club on Sunday, October 9th.
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The first was a workshop. Each participant carried out the initial styling of a Sekka juniper with Jennifer's help. This workshop will be held in two sessions, each limited to eight participants, so everyone had a good share of Jennifer's time. The workshop fee was $90, which included the cost of the tree
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For Our regular BRBS Meeting from 2:00 to 4:00, Jennifer provided consultations and ideas for future designs on members' trees. The session was called “Tree Inspiration” -
In November, we had our annual pot luck luncheon--with too much good food as usual--and a silent auction of books, tools, and pots.
We reviewed our activities this year, our increased membership, and our activities next year, including another club exhibit with demos at the NC Arboretum for World Bonsai Day in May and our exhibit in June at the Blue Spiral 1 gallery in Asheville.
This was our last regular meeting for 2022. Please go see the Winter Silhouette Exhibit in Kannapolis December 3 and 4 if you can.
