🌿 Upcoming NFBC Events
📅 April 13th @ 7pm: NFBC Meeting
Pre-Meeting Help Hour – As usual, the club will be open from 6-7pm before the meeting. In an effort to be of service to all club members, some of our more senior members have been kind enough to offer their guidance the hour before the meeting starts. If you need help with anything bonsai related and have the time, join us and bring whatever material it is you are seeking help with.
Announcements – Treasury update (bank account balance) and brief announcements about upcoming events, including the annual BSF convention. Additionally, we will continue planning/discussing a Spring/Summer soil mixing day. There will also be an update on Club Night at BSF and the various activities/workshops available at this year’s convention!
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.
💳 Membership Dues for 2026
If you have not already, please make sure to pay your membership dues for this year, this month. It is $36.00 and it’s not too late!
You can do so at this month’s meeting either by cash, check, or card. Checks should be made out to “North Florida Bonsai Club”.
We are required to turn in an Active Roster to BSF as soon as possible and being listed as an active member ensures you receive the benefits of being both a member of NFBC and BSF.
Family Memberships are available! (Same cost for multiple members of the same family)
🌱 Soil Not Currently Available for Purchase!
Unfortunately we have reached the end of our soil supply. We still have some (not many) raw materials, but not enough to warrant getting together to mix. If we would like to make soil available year round then we would need to discuss this at an upcoming club meeting.
🌿 Beginner’s Study Group
If you are new, fairly new, or just seeking more bonsai knowledge in general, try out our very first Beginner’s Study Group! Recommended for folks with less than 1 year of experience.
If there are no sign ups this group will pick back up the following month when we have participants. Special arrangements can be made for single participants.
WHEN: (Pending Participant Demand) Volunteers Needed for this Year!
If you would like to volunteer to to facilitate this group, please let us know! You can do so by contacting Kelly Harrison either at the meeting or via email at [email protected] or sending a text to (904)-463-6731.
🌳 Intermediate Study Group
Not a beginner but not ready to call yourself an expert? We’ve got just the group for you!
We welcome any and all participants to come by whenever they can make it. You do not need to be present for every meeting in a single quarter to sign up, but if you wish to take the study group sessions in succession, this quarter’s meetings will be taking place on July 23rd, August 20th and September 17th! With a new session beginning in October!
We will be sending out a reminder the week before each meeting.
WHEN: Wednesday(s) April 15th, May 27th, and June 17th @ Florida Bonsai Nursery (12982 Chameleon Dr, Jacksonville, FL 32223) 6pm-7:30pm
More information available at each meeting by talking directly to Kelly Harrison or emailing him at [email protected] to register/ask questions!
*Important Note*: Alex Stanford will be leading the next three months’ Intermediate Study Group meetings, and they will be taking place at Florida Bonsai!
🌍 Other Bonsai News/Events
National Garden Club Standard Flower Show & Bonsai Exhibit (LOCAL!)
When: April 24th (2-5pm) & 25th (10am-3pm)
Hosted by the Garden Club of St. Augustine
Celebrating their 100th year anniversary
Where: Southeast Branch Library, 6670 US1 South, St. Augustine 32086
Click here for more information
BSF Convention 2026
When: Memorial Day Weekend May 22nd-24th
Headlining Artists: Jesus Brito & Sergio Cuan!!!
Orlando, FL 1500 Sand Lake Rd, Orlando, FL 32809
Click here for info on BSF member special convention rate!
Pay your NFBC dues to get your discounted entry prices when registration opens!
Click here for Schedule Info
Workshop Registration Opens April 15th! Be sure to plan in advance as workshops fill up quick each year.
Click here for Workshops/Critiques Info
Bonsai in the Blue Ridge 2026 Learning Seminars
When: June 4-7th (5-7pm on June 4th, 9am-5pm for the 5th-7th)
Where: Asheville, North Carolina at the North Carolina Arboretum
20 Frederick Law Olmsted Way, Asheville, NC 28806
Hosted by the American Bonsai Society with the Blue Ridge Bonsai Society
Featuring nationally renowned artists: Bjorn Bjorholm, Andrew Robson, John Geanangel, Sergio Cuan, Shannon Salyer, Brad Russell, and Kaya Mooney
$5 General Admission with added costs for workshops, demonstrations and seminars
Click here for more information
U.S. National Tropical Bonsai Exhibition
When: September 5-6th (Saturday and Sunday)
Where: Marriot Houston Westchase: 2900 Briarpark Drive, Houston, TX, USA
This will be the first ever U.S. national show exclusively dedicated to tropical bonsai. Submissions are open now if you wish to exhibit a tree, and discounted hotel reservations at the venue are available now while they last.
Alex Stanford will be offering paid reservations for those who would like to reserve a seat carpooling to Houston with other bonsai artists, which will offer an affordable method of transportation to/from the show and time on the road to network with other Florida based artists.
Space for trees that you want to bring for exhibit or buy and return home will also be available if riding with Alex.
Vehicle will be a 15-seat van plus a trailer for trees/goods. Alex will be offering the seats up to Kawa club and others as well, so you will likely have the opportunity to network with and learn from folks beyond our own club during the trip.
Contact Alex Stanford via email at [email protected] to inquire about reserving a seat for the trip while they last.
Winter Silhouette Bonsai Show
When: December 5-6th (Saturday and Sunday)
Where: Kannapolis, NC
Registration is due to open some time in January.
Alex will be offering carpooling for this event similar to as described above in the U.S. National Tropical Bonsai Exhibition.
Contact Alex Stanford via email at [email protected] to inquire about reserving a seat for the trip while they last.
🎧 Florida Bonsai Nursery & Supply Now Has a Podcast
The Florida Bonsai Podcast has officially launched with the Pioneer Series featuring Mike Rodgers.
You can check out the latest episode here!
Sponsors
NFBC is looking for new sponsors!
🌼 Seasonal Advice - March
Deciduous Trees –
April is when our deciduous trees shift into full swing, and there is very little room left to hesitate. If you haven't repotted yet and your trees have already leafed out, that window is closed — let them grow, recover, and put your energy into feeding and styling instead. You may have some that still haven’t leafed out, and for those few, you can still repot. I still have a few Hornbeams that are lagging behind the rest, but they are surely on their way to leafing out! For trees that were repotted in late February or March, you should hopefully be seeing new growth pushing confidently now, which is a great sign. For anything that was recently repotted, you should have it in partial shade while it recuperates. If it still hasn’t bounced back from whatever root work was performed, then stay on the safe side and leave it where it is. There is no rush to put it out into more or full sun until you’re sure it is ready.
Resist the urge to prune hard or wire aggressively on freshly repotted trees — let that first flush extend and harden off. It is best to keep the “major insults” limited to one per year!
For collected bald cypress that came out of the ground the last few months, keep your hands off them! I know it's tempting to start carving and wiring when those feathery shoots start pushing — and they do push beautifully — but give that tree its first season to establish. If you have any Cypress that still haven’t pushed, hold onto hope! Each tree is on their own schedule and Baldies in our area can stay dormant all the way to late April and even early May! Just keep them well watered and in partial shade until they show strong signs of life and then you can begin to treat them like their more exuberant counterparts.
Cypress collected in previous years that are healthy and established, however, are ready for styling work. As foliage pads develop, thin them out so light can penetrate and air can circulate. Dense, shaded interior growth is weak growth, and it won't serve you well going into summer. Watch your watering carefully this month. Daytime highs in Jacksonville in April climb regularly toward the mid 80’s, with lows settling in the 60’s at night and during rainy days. That, combined with longer days and rapidly expanding foliage, means water demand is surging. A tree that looked fine with one watering yesterday may need two today — check your soil, not the clock. We have not had a ton of rain (up until this week) so remember, our bonsai need us! We have to be the weather until the weather does what it does!
Conifers and Broadleaf Evergreen Trees –
The repotting window for conifers and broadleaf evergreens is effectively closed, or closing fast. If you haven't gotten to it yet, make an honest assessment: is the tree truly root-bound and suffering, or can it go another season? If it genuinely needs to come out of the pot, do it now and get it done — but understand you're working at the tail end of ideal conditions, and the tree will need extra attentiveness in the weeks that follow. I have had decent success with Superthrive Bonsai, but it is not something you want to come to depend upon if you can avoid it. There’s a distinct difference between what we can get away with in bonsai, and best practices. Always opt for best practices where you can!
Freshly repotted trees heading into April heat need shade protection and careful moisture management.
Junipers that were repotted or worked on in March should be showing new growth tips extending now. April and May are forecast to be warmer than normal with below-normal rainfall for the Jacksonville area. The elevated heat and reduced rain we can expect this spring make it especially important that humidity around your conifers doesn't stagnate — good airflow through open pads helps prevent the fungal issues our climate is prone to producing. If you applied a preventive fungicide spray last month, make a note for a follow-up application on your calendar.For azaleas — many of you have already watched your blooms come and go (or are watching them now). Once the flowers have dropped and that first flush of post-bloom growth begins, azaleas can be pruned back to shape. Don't wait too long, as azaleas begin setting next year's buds surprisingly early in the season, and a late pruning can cost you next spring's flowers.
Tropical Trees –
April is the month your tropicals have been waiting for — and honestly, so have you. With overnight lows now consistently settling into the mid-to-upper 60s and daytime highs climbing into the mid to high 80s by month's end, we have finally crossed the threshold that tropical trees need to thrive. This means the repotting window you've been holding off on will soon be fully open. Ficus, bougainvillea, Fukien tea, and similar species can all be worked on this month, but you’re also in no rush. If you can hold off for that sweet spot where night time temps are consistently in the 70’s but day time temps aren’t scorching hot then your plants will be all the more grateful for it. More sensitive species like buttonwood should be given more time as they thrive in those days where we as humans do not — give them until you've seen a solid stretch of warm nights (high 70’s-80’s) before doing any root work.
For trees you're repotting now, the usual post-work protocol applies: keep them shaded for the first week to ten days, mist the foliage regularly, and ease them back into full sun gradually. Don't rush that transition — a tree that just had its roots disturbed doesn't need to be fighting sun stress at the same time whether it’s tropical or not.
On the fertilizing front, April is the time to shift gears. Assuming you’ve been keeping them nice and warm in a greenhouse, tropicals can be fed monthly during the winter-to-spring transition period, but once the growing season is fully underway, they can really benefit from moving to a weekly feeding schedule. If your tree is healthy, putting out new growth, and hasn't been recently repotted, now is the time to ramp up. A higher nitrogen formula — something in the range of NPK 10:6:6 — is well suited for spring, when you want to encourage strong foliage and shoot development. As always, never fertilize a tree that has just been repotted or is showing signs of stress — let it recover first.
Pest pressure will also be picking up in earnest this month. The flush of tender new growth that makes April so exciting is equally exciting to scale, spider mites, and aphids. Make a habit of flipping leaves and inspecting bark when you water — catching something early in April is infinitely easier than dealing with a full infestation come June. Also, keep an eye out for signs of pest activity, as you may not always see the pests themselves. Soot like mildew can be a dead giveaway you’ve got some variety of sap sucking critter that needs treatment. Imidacloprid is a time tested pesticide that can eliminate or greatly weaken most pests that plague our trees, and for the more stubborn pests you can couple that with intermittent foliar sprayings of horticultural oil to treat the more stubborn invaders.
Miscellaneous –
If March was about momentum, April is about execution. The weather is starting to cooperate, the trees are moving, and there are no more excuses to delay the work that needs doing. The window between "comfortable spring conditions" and "relentless Florida summer" is not as wide as it feels, and it has a way of closing faster than you expect.
The biggest topic this month — for tropicals and temperates alike — is fertilizer. If you haven't already ramped up your feeding program, now is genuinely the time. Trees that are healthy, well-established, and actively pushing new growth are ready to be fed, and feeding them well now will pay dividends all season. For your Deciduous trees where refinement is your main goal, wait until the first flush hardens off before really laying on the fertilizer. Otherwise, you run the risk of ending up with long stretches between nodes and really large (albeit healthy) leaves that work against what you’re trying to achieve.
Think of spring as a high-nitrogen moment: that extra nitrogen drives the lush shoot and foliage development you want to see early in the season. A higher-nitrogen formula applied consistently through April and into May can help build the kind of canopy density and vigor that carries a tree through the summer heat in good shape.
One important caveat worth repeating: fertilizer is not a cure for stress. A weak or struggling tree needs proper recovery conditions first — feeding it harder will not wake it up and may make things worse. Reserve the heavy feeding for trees that have earned it! If something in your collection looks off, diagnose before you fertilize.
The forecast for April and May is trending warmer than normal with below-normal rainfall and that has two practical implications. First, your watering schedule will need attention — reduced spring rain combined with rising temperatures means pots can dry out faster than you might expect for this time of year. Combine that with the heavy winds we’ve been seeing and that’s a recipe for leaf burn before it’s even gotten truly hot. Check your trees daily and don't rely on rainfall to do the work for you this month. Second, the drier conditions may actually favor some of your work — repotting and root pruning into drier ambient conditions can reduce the risk of fungal issues during recovery.
The summer is not far off. Every good decision you make in April — timely repotting, consistent feeding, staying ahead of pests — is one less problem you'll be managing when the heat arrives and your margin for error shrinks considerably.
🌿 NFBC Membership
- Membership is $36 for the year 2026
- Dues can be paid by cash, check or card
- Please pay your dues as soon as possible for the year 2026!
- Visitors are always welcome at meetings and events
