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Raffle & Auction May 11

Saturday, May 11
Fort Worth Botanic Garden Center
Deborah Beggs Moncrief Garden Bldg.
3220 Botanic Garden Blvd.
Fort Worth, TX  76107

We will have over 70 trees and bonsai items featuring plants from Jackie Paul’s collection/donation.

Starter Trees, special soil, pots, tools, books & magazines, as well as older bonsai trees styled by our members will be featured.  Pomegranate, bougainvillea, mugo pine, large staked procumbens junipers, chinese elms, wisteria, needle pine, redwood, saunders boxwood, tropicals, other junipers, granite garden lantern, dwarf yaupon holly, etc.

The RAFFLE portion of the event features bonsai related items $40 or less.

Raffle Tickets will be $1 and $5 each, or less if you buy multiple tickets.


The AUCTION portion of the event features bonsai related items over $40 and can get as high as $500 for some excellent bonsai trees in pots.

Many bonsai trees in pots will go for less than $100.

10:00-11:00am- Viewing, Raffle tickets sold
               11:00- Raffle begins
          11:30ish- Auction begins

****Cash, Checks, Credit Cards accepted****

Meeting for February 14, Thursday

This meeting will be with Howard and Sylvia Smith and will address the issues of root corrections.  Now that repotting season is in full swing, keep this in mind.  If your rootball is not this full when you are repotting your tree, you should join us at our meeting.

 

If what you are cutting off is not a light color and covered in fibrous root growth, you should join us at our meeting.

 

A most importantly, if after cutting all your lower root growth you are not left with copious amounts of fibrous roots near the base of your tree, you should join us at our meeting.

Fort Worth Bonsai Society meeting
Thursday, February 14th 
6:30pm at the FW Botanical Gardens

Annual Business Meeting

In compliance with the By-Laws of the Fort Worth Bonsai Society, the Board of Directors hereby calls for the Annual Business Meeting of the membership to be held on Thursday, Feb. 28, 2013, at 7:00 pm, at the Botanic Garden Center in the regular meeting room.

LSBF Convention Chronicle #8

Tree Ring Circus – April 11-14, 2013 New Braunfels TX

www.lsbfconvention2013.com

One of the workshops we’re holding will be Texas Natives.  This will actually be a variety, a smorgasbord if you like, of different trees native to the state.  We will have species represented from the other native tree workshops as well as some species that will only appear in this one.  Some of the material includes: Bald Cypress, Cedar Elm, Mustang Grape, Netleaf Hackberry, Mulberry, Fragrant Mimosa, Oaks, Texas Baccharis, Yaupon Holly, Texas Persimmon and more.  Plant material will vary wildly in type and size.  Everyone will choose their own material, but the order in which they choose will be by random drawing.  We cannot guarantee the availability of a certain species, so come to this workshop with an open mind & a sense of adventure!

The Vendor room at this show is going to be huge.  We will have sellers from Texas and other parts of the nation with a large selection of hand-made products (Bonsai, pottery, handmade stands and more!).  On Thursday evening, join us for the Early Bird Reception which will allow those who come early to get the first jump on the Vendor’s tables.  We will be hosting the Emerging Talent Competition at the same time, which should be a fun demonstration of our local skills.

Early registration of only $125 runs until March 15th, so be sure to send your registration in early (when choosing, Checks don’t cost the convention, while credit cards always charge us a fee).  Some workshops are already half full and others are going quickly.  We hope you come to stay for the weekend, but there is also a daily registration available for $30, as well as a daily general admission of $5 (which will get you into the Exhibit, Raffle and the Vendor rooms only).  This is a time when our state Bonsai community comes together for the biggest party of the year, I hope to see everyone there!

Joey McCoy

Convention Chair

Jackie Paul’s Passing

Jackie Paul passed away on December 31, 2012.  Please keep her family in your prayers.  Jackie will be flown to Louisiana Wednesday night and buried in the Paul family plot on Friday with a graveside service only.  The family requests no flowers or donations of any kind.   They only ask that you think of your best memories of her.  Charles and Jackie Paul are both from Louisiana and met years ago while he was in the service.
Jackie has been a long time member of the Fort Worth Bonsai Society and a very enthusiastic bonsai hobbyist.  She had a ‘matter of fact’, yet memorable personality that endeared herself to members of the Fort Worth and Dallas clubs and even to many hobbyists across the state.
The Fort Worth club dubbed her the ‘propagation princess’ because of her habit of taking cuttings home after a workshop and rooting them.  She had a talent for propagation and has donated literally hundreds of small plants back to the club for sale in fundraisers.  She owned over 500 bonsai trees at one time plus all the rooted cuttings and was generous to anyone that visited her back yard.  Many of us in the Fort Worth club own ‘Jackie trees’.  In October, 2012, Jackie donated her entire bonsai collection, tools, and books to the Fort Worth Bonsai Society.  Funds received from the sale of this collection are being set aside in a special fund for a worthy bonsai related project in her name.
On a personal note:
I met Jackie through the bonsai club and we became friends in 2004 as she mentored me on this hobby together.  We were digging buddies for many years and she kept my interest in this hobby thriving.  We went on many shopping/discovery trips together and I have spent countless hours in her backyard potting cuttings and looking at her bonsai trees, each with its own story.  I will deeply miss Jackie and for the rest of my life I will cherish the trees that she has given me.

Mark Bynum

Opportunity to Join With the Bonsai Society of Dallas Saturday, January 5

Guest Artist – Hurley Johnson of Timeless Trees

We start our 2013 programs with our friend and guest artist, Hurley Johnson from the Houston area.  He will be bringing a few friends, one of whom is Alex Leong from the Houston Chinese Bonsai Society.   Did you know they have their very own Chinese speaking bonsai group in Houston?  Alex is a native of Hong Kong and has been a featured speaker at the Houston Bonsai Society for several years, as well as instructor at Timeless Trees.  He has also been selected as a speaker for the Lone Star Bonsai Federation.  He is a carpenter/cabinet maker by trade and also builds wonderful bonsai stands.  We will also have Ken Credeur and Ray Gonzalez here to assist Alex and Hurley as well.

All of their attention will be focused on helping us learn more about the Podocarpus, also known as a Buddist Pine, a subtropical that is quite hardy in our area and only needs moving into winter quarters when it gets into the 20’s.  The podocarpus macrophyllus is from the conifer group and has elongated oval leaves.  It produces yew-like purple fruit, and is a native of Japan, China and Himalayan Asia.  These trees have very hard wood that can take extensive carving to create interesting jin and shari.

Our morning session will feature a mature specimen that Alex will style, while we learn about the proper care and development of the Podocarpus.   After the program we will raffle the demonstration tree, so some lucky winner gets to go home with a new piece to add to their collection. Raffle tickets will be $5 each or 5 tickets for $20.  If you own any podocarpus, be sure to bring them in for show and tell.  I am sure you will be able to get proper care and styling advice from any one of our guests.

We also have an afternoon session which is a workshop for up to 10 attendees beginning at 1:30 p.m.  We expanded the number of seats because we have four instructors so you will get quite a lot of individual attention.  Hurley was also able to acquire more material so there will be lots to choose from.  The workshop is offered on a first come/first served basis for a fee of $49.00 which includes the tree.  Bring your own tools and wire, although we will have extra if you need it.

Please contact Diane Lowe at diane_lowe@live.com if you wish to register for the workshop.  All club members are welcome to attend the workshop for silent observation.

LSBF Convention Chronicle #7

Tree Ring Circus – April 11-14, 2013 New Braunfels TX

Our website is now up and running: www.lsbfconvention2013.com
I hope everyone had a terrific holiday season and got to enjoy friends and loved ones. One of the most enjoyable events for me each year is to see the extended Bonsai family across the state and region at our annual conventions. I can’t tell you how much I truly enjoy them! For our upcoming convention we’ve put together an outstanding visiting artist line up (Walter Pall, Colin Lewis, Erik Wigert in multiple exiting workshops!), but we’ve added additional workshops and funshops with Texas talent that shouldn’t be overlooked, and I’d like to introduce these hard working folks here. Chuck Ware will lead a workshop styling Parrot Beak, a beautiful tropical with a unique flower. Terry Ward‘s workshop will be with the Hillier Elm, a small, tight-leafed cultivar that is excellent for Bonsai. Yvonne Padilla will be working with Natal Plum “Boxwood Beauty”, a variety that has tight round-shaped leaves and will make nice smaller bonsai. Alisan Clarke, trained in Japan, will teach Ikebana, an artform that works with balance, proportion and form. Sheila Ward gives Kusamono a delicate touch, and will lead participants in how to put together one of these beautiful plantings, often a companion to Bonsai, using her own handmade pots. Donna Dobberfuhl, an international sculptor and artist will teach her group how to look at our Bonsai, to find the lines & form, and style them with paper and pencil before cutting – a skill used by all the best Bonsai artists! Bill Boytim a tool and safety expert will have his students learning the best ways to clean and sharpen their Bonsai tools in a hands-on class. We also have Peter Aradi, a national suiseki scholar, who will give a critique and discussion on the Suiseki in the Exhibit. Registration begins Jan 1st, and don’t forget that the cutoff for the early registration lowered rate ends March 15th.
Joey McCoy, Convention Chair

Bonsai Club Christmas Pot Luck Dinner & Chinese Gift Exchange

Thursday, December 13, is our annual Christmas Party and Potluck Dinner.  We will start a little earlier than normal, so bring in your food by 6:30 pm.  Be sure and bring your own serving utensils.  The club will provide meat so bring in vegetable dishes, salad dishes, and dessert dishes.  The club will also provide drinks, paper goods, and plastic utensils.

After we eat, we have a Chinese Gift Exchange that is a load of fun.  Bring a wrapped or sacked gift around the $10 range. It does not have to be bonsai related, but many are. We will draw numbers to begin the event and the fun begins.  You do not have to bring a gift, but you certainly can stay and watch.

Also bring in a deciduous tree that has lost its leaves and shows off its branch work as decorations for the tables.  Many trees look better in the winter according to John Miller.

Today’s Dig at Jackie’s Home

Many of our members met at Jackie Paul’s home to help her and her husband clear their backyard of plantings in preparation for new landscaping.  In a win-win situation, the Fort Worth Bonsai Society was able to collect many many salable specimens that will help our club.  We so appreciate the Paul family’s generosity to our club and we wish them the very best.

Here are some pics of just a couple of our club members.  I was too busy working to think of taking pics earlier.

 

IMG_8485

Club ‘Thank You’ Dig at Jackie’s House

This Saturday, Dec. 8

Through the years of her bonsai hobby, Jackie Paul was constantly sticking cuttings into the ground and letting them grow.  All of them that are left have been in the ground over 5 years and are prime for bonsai training.  All we have to do is dig them up!   Here is a list of trees:

4- upright procumbens juniper, large
3- pomegranate
2- mugo pine, nice
6- spreading procumbens juniper
3- shimpaku juniper
10+ dwarf crape myrtle
32+ Kingsville Boxwood, 1” diameter
numerous other small plants
1- large Japanese Maple

Charles, Jackie’s husband, is interested in getting his back yard back to lawn, so I made  this deal with him on behalf of FWBS.  We will dig up all the trees in one day, smooth out the soil ready for sod or seed, and remove the trees, etc., from the property.  This will include removing any edging and the cedar bonsai monkey poles that are there.   In exchange he will not hire a crew to dispose of all this stuff!  I got him to wait as long as I could, so this is the day.

The trees will belong to the club, but those of you who participate can take home one of the nice Kingsville Boxwoods and perhaps some other items.  Plan to spend 3 or more hours to accomplish this task.  Of course, the more of us there, the sooner the job will be completed. A sack lunch for yourself may come in handy.  We will have bottled water and cokes available.
Plan to bring the proper tools for digging trees (sharpshooter shovel, hand trowel, clippers, etc.) and for moving and smoothing out soil (rakes, shovels, buckets).  Nursery pots of various sizes will be helpful to put plants in.  Larger clay pots will be useful also.  Cellophane wrap and duct tape may just be the thing for many of the trees.  A wheelbarrow or a wagon will be useful to cart items to the front.

This event is a ‘Thank You’ service project for Jackie’s family and, with a little work, we will benefit also.  Jackie’s donation of her bonsai collection has netted the club over $10k so far. That amount will be greatly increased as we sell off these nice trees over the next year.  I hope to see every member support the club this Saturday.  Come whenever you can. I will be there around 8am., but 9 am is fine.

Happy Digging,
Mark Bynum, president

P.S.  We will once again need foster homes for many of these trees.  These trees will also be for sale at discounted prices for FWBS members in attendance.

Paul Residence :
6028 Worrell
Fort Worth, TX  76133

Call Mark Bynum if you need directions or updates at 817-437-8936.