by Earl Ekman

On Sunday, August 22nd we will have our next demonstration and workshop. The Demo starts at 11 AM and the workshop at 2 PM. Both will be at the Bon air Library. Our featured artist is Mary Madison from Homestead Florida. She works primarily on tropical plants and she will bring an assortment of material with her. If you prefer a certain type of tree, say a buttonwood, call Earl Cormney and he can arrange it with Mary.

It is an honor to have her as our guest master as Mary is always in demand. She appears at many national shows and conventions and countless club meetings. Her many years of experience styling bonsai trees guarantees you will leave the workshop with a beautiful tree.

Thanks to the efforts of Earl Cormney, we were able to get Mary. Earl is a good friend of Mary and made all the arrangements. If you have questions, call him at 452- 6280. I want to thank Earl for all his effort in making this possible.

On July 28th the Board of Directors met and set up a schedule of events for this coming year. 2005 is going to be a great year for our bonsai club. You will be hearing more about it in the near future.

Our bonsai newsletter continues to get better every month and some of the articles are outstanding.George Buehler’s article on watering bonsai is one of the best I have ever read. George put a lot of time and research into that article. John Callaway and Amberly Stitzel submitted an article on Brussel’s Rendezvous and made it sound so good several of us are going to join them at Rendezvous 2005. Midge Goeth continues to research and write “More Than Just Tofu” She always gives us some great bonsai information. It’s a real pleasure to have so many talented members.

This is the time of year we have to watch for pests and insects on our trees. Spider mites, scale, Japanese beetles, aphids, mealy bugs are just a few of the things we have to watch for. While reading an old BCI magazine, I discovered an article written by Dave DeGroot on how to control the pests and insects we find daily. I think you will find it extremely helpful.