VANCOUVER ISLAND BONSAI CLUB

May Newsletter

May 17, 2010

Newsletter Highlight ——————————

Meeting Programs 1 Sooke Potholes 1 MallShow 1 Field Day 2010 2 3 My Florida Vacation 4 Advertisers 5

Monday May 17 2010 … Show & Tell (Silent): Bring in your showy azaleas, as well as examples of Trees grown from cuttings. Also your Mall Show finds. Topic: Create an Arctic willow from a cutting. Our guest speaker, Jane Tice from Glendale Gardens, will give us step-by-step instructions and a demo on propagating trees from softwood cuttings. Afterwards, each per-son attending will be able top prepare his or her own Arctic willow cutting and plant it to take home in a “pop bottle greenhouse”. Please bring your own clear plastic pop bottle (2 litre) if you can. All other materials will be supplied. Raffle Table: We will have our usual raffle, please bring in your donations. Coming in….. June 21 - Show & Tell: (Silent): Conifers—Admiring new foliage on coni-fers. Special guest artist Tak Yamaura will demonstrate the styling of a bonsai.

Our Next Two Meetings: Monday May 17, 7:30 pm Monday June 21, 7:30 pm

Garth Homer Society Auditorium

813 Darwin Avenue Victoria, BC

2010 VIBC Officers

President Bob Taylor Past-Pres Randy Kowalchuk Treasurer Judy Horsland MallShow Coordinator Vacant

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Sooke Potholes

There is an open house at Bob’s at the Sooke Potholes every Sunday after-noon. Go to the 2nd parking lot and ask attendant. Bring the kids, snacks, come swimming, and talk bonsai. Look for the white mailbox.

Annual Hillside MallShow

Our annual show is being held once again at the Hillside Shopping Centre

Date: May 7, 8, and 9th

Come and see the wonderful bonsai that will be on display, watch the ongo-ing demonstrations, and of course browse through the sales area and find that next treasure. There will be trees, books and lots and lots of pots for sale.

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2010 Field Day

Thanks to all the members who came out to our annual field day. The weather co-operated and we all had a wonderful time. Thanks also to the members who came early and stayed late to set up and take down all the tables and chairs.

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Tips on Choosing Bonsai and Pre-bonsai from Nurseries

By Mark Paterson

Most plants can become bonsai. So when going to a nursery it is a mistake to ask “how do I find a po-tential bonsai?” Rather the correct way of thinking is to understand how to purchase the minimum amount of plants to get maximum returns in our bonsai collection and our bonsai education. In your average nursery, like Cannor Nursery or Russell Nursery, there are about 2000 plants that can checked for their bonsai potential. In late spring there are more, in the late fall there are less. Two to three times a year the plants are turned over and there are entirely new plants available. Some rules of thumb to follow to find a plant that will look very bonsai-ish in less than two years are: 1 in 400 trees has decent bonsai characteristics 1 in 1000 trees look good for bonsai 1 in 5000 trees you want to keep and show off 1 in 20 000 trees is a potentially great bonsai There are very few trees that have been grown in a commercial nursery that would make world class bonsai without more work than the original growers had done. Understanding these numbers should take the edge off our urgency to buy. It should increase our urgency to look.

So when we go to the nursery, on a disciplined day we ask ourselves “do we need this plant for a pro-ject that we already have or we can come up with right now?” If we have a specific idea in mind and we find exactly that tree then we have won for the day. However, some of us just want to buy something to play with. We may think about experimenting with root cutting, wiring, potting, or any other number techniques. We may be eager to try to grow a new species. However, it is important that even for experiments, we should try to use respectable quality bonsai stock - our experiments may work! The valuable lesson to learn from senior members, and the reason for the nursery purchase itself is this: Don’t buy anything that will take longer to bonsai then it will take to find something that will compete for and replace the original. So these tips are ways to avoid the longest to correct faults - trees that pass these guidelines should last a long time on your shelf. This is the reason advanced techniques are advanced. It is because there is no reason to use them un-til you find something that is good enough for your shelf except for that one thing - a graft, a mega-bend, or whatever. We all know what a super fantastic bonsai looks like, our reasons for not buying these is cost! But what is our compromise?

Nursery Crawl

Our annual club nursery crawl will be held on Saturday May 29th. All those wishing to go shoul;d meet at the Royal Oak Cannor Nursery, 4660 Elk Lake Drive, at 10:00 am. There will be a short discussion and then we are off and searching!

Cannor Nursery Royal Oak - 10:00 am Elk Lake Garden Centre - 11:00 am

Marigold Nurseries - Noon Russell Nursery - 1:15 pm Coffee to be served

Peninsula Nursery and Bonsai - 2:15 pm

See you there!

Art Gallery Volunteer Needed

A member is needed to help water and maintain the Club’s Bonsai Display at the Art Gallery on Moss Street. If you would be able to spend 15 minutes once a week at the gallery. Please talk to Jane P.

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SALMOND ASHURST LAWYERS NOTARIES PUBLIC

• We Look after Seniors Needs with Compassion and Integrity

• We Assist in Preparation of Wills, Powers of Attorney, and Health Care Agreements

• We assist Executors in Obtaining Probate of Estates from Beginning to End

• We Accept Appointments As Executors Where Appropriate and as Well Will Act As Attorneys Under Pow-ers of Attorney

Please call us at 250-477-4143 for a consultation • Robert J. Salmond

• Derek E. Ashurst

• Victoria Pitt

• Jill McCarthy