by Earl Ekman

Bonsai artist Matthew Ouwinga will be at our demo/workshop on Saturday, April 15th at 10 AM. The event will be at our usual meeting place - Bon Air Library. Matthew comes to Louisville with both formal training and practical experience in bonsai. Part of his formal training was at the International School of Bonsai founded by Yoshi Nakamizu and his teacher was Junio Kobayashi. According to Matt, Mr. Kobayashi has more Kokofu-en prizes (the top prize of bonsai) than anyone in the world. Matthew worked and studied at the school until he graduated and returned home. Matt also worked as production manager of bonsai at a greenhouse in Palos Park IL. He works on all types of trees including black pines, junipers, maples, bald cypress, ficus, ginkgo, elms and many others.

The demo will start at 10AM at the library and Matt will work on a field grown trident maple. After the demo and some lunch, he will continue with the workshop. You can bring any type tree you would like, but Matt really likes to work on trident and Japanese maples. There is no limit on the number of people who can participate. We hope there will be a big turnout as this is our only master for the year.

If you need material, we can dig tridents or amur maples and bald cypress at Tom McCurry's Okolona Fence Co. at 4615 Knopp Ave. on April 1 (See direction on page 6). Another possibility is to contact Greg Hollander and see what he has, or contact Brussel's Nursery to see what's available. Sometimes the local nurseries have very good material at reasonable prices. Pick up a nice tree and have Matthew help style it for you. The cost of the Demo/workshop will be $20.00

We will have a show at Yew Dell Gardens this year on April 29-30. Set up will be on Friday evening the 28th in the castle. This weekend is the opening of their season, and they will have an open house and plant sale. So there should be a good crowd there. We will need approximately 40 trees and stands. Please send a description of the trees you plan to exhibit to George Buehler so he can make up placards for each tree. The times of the show are 10 Am to 4 PM on Saturday and 12 Noon to 4 PM on Sunday. If you can work any of these hours, please call Gene Sewell at 635-7704.

The location of the garden is on the east side of Crestwood on Highway 146 at Camden Lane. This show is extremely important to the club. It is a great time to promote membership in the club, sell beginner workshops, raffle a tree, and sell a few bonsai. All of these things help finance the club for the current year. Spruce up those trees and get ready for a fun and exciting show. I can hardly wait.

Brussel's Bonsai Rendezvous will be on Memorial Day weekend, May 26, 27 and 28. Quite a few club members are planning to attend this year. If you would like information, please give me a call at 222-7419 and I will send you a complete brochure.

Best regards, Earl