News

Meeting Activity: Grafting Presentation with David Ruth!

For April we will be continue furthering our bonsai education by learning the general principles and applications behind grafting to improve the quality of our trees. If this is something you are interested in learning then make sure you come out and learn all you can! Furthermore, if you have a tree of your own you’ve been wanting to graft (a donor tree to get your grafts from, grafting knife, parafilm, and etc.) then feel free to bring it along with you and use the time post-presentation to get your grafting done either independently or with help from some of our more experienced club members.

Meeting Activity: BYOT! Led by our Club President, Alex Stanford

For the month of March we will be doing a Bring Your Own Tree night. March in North Florida is a good time to start working on some of those trees that already have, or are starting to wake up. Broadleaf evergreen, Juniper and Deciduous are all perfectly fine trees to bring in to work on at the meeting as long as they have not been recently repotted (especially if there’s been root reduction). Remember, one major insult per year! So, bring your prebonsai and bonsai in for a night of tree work and camaraderie. Let’s kick off the Spring season right by improving our trees and our craft!

Meeting Activity: Club Styling Competition (and repotting/general tree work for those not competing)

For this month’s meeting we will be having our very important Club Styling Competition. For those who may not know, the annual Club Styling Competition is used to decide who will represent our district at the annual BSF Convention. The material this year will be Juniper (procumbens nana) and is provided by the club at no cost to participants. Because North Florida Bonsai Club is the only club in our district, the winner of this competition goes on to represent NFBC at BSF.

Meeting Activity: Tool Use & Care (Some mid Winter Deciduous Tree Work too!)

This January we will be going over an often overlooked aspect of Bonsai…Tool use and maintenance. Both are critical to the horticultural health and achieving the desired aesthetic of your bonsai. David Ruth has graciously agreed to lead this topic discussion. Additionally, we encourage you to bring your Deciduous trees that need some mid-winter work. It will be a great opportunity to exercise some practical applications of what we’ve learned!

The December meeting has long served as our annual holiday party and this year we are continuing that tradition. This is a time for us to come together, reflect on the year and plan for the coming year while sharing a meal together.

Meeting Activity: Fall Juniper Work w/ David Ruth (Bring your Junipers!)

November is here, and with it, fall in Florida! Fall is an optimal time to work on your Junipers and we are fortunate to have David Ruth to walk us through some best practices and tips for making your Juniper the best tree it can be. So, if you’re a Juniper enthusiast, or just Juniper curious, come see what fall Juniper work is all about.

It’s already October, kind of hard to believe! And, with that, comes fall (like) temperatures and changes. Lucky for us, we have club member and talented bonsai artist Josh Brown speaking this month to us about Broadleaf Evergreens and Deciduous bonsai with a focus on seasonal changes and the work that goes along with that. So, if you have a broadleaf or evergreen you have questions about, make sure you don’t miss this one. You’re welcome to bring any broadleaf’s or evergreens for help/guidance during the pre-meeting help hour and after Josh is finished speaking.

Our meeting for August will involve a tie-in to a previous meeting, specifically to November 11th 2024’s meeting, where those of us who opted to participate purchased a tree to take home and develop to be revisited approximately 10 months later. As you may recall, most of us received a Green Island Ficus, while a handful took home a different species (Parrot’s Beak, Brazilian Rain Tree, etc.) and pictures were taken that night with the idea being we would bring them back to review and see what improvements were made and how the tree has progressed and a competition winner would be selected. The time has come to choose a winner for this friendly competition to challenge creativity so if you have been neglecting that tree for 9+ months, you’ve still got a few days to get to work! The plan is to bring those trees back in to take a look at and evaluate progress/give feedback and select a winner. David Ruth has the photos of the tree the night we received them which is what the current day tree will be compared against.