by John Callaway

I'm writing this on what (hopefully) should be the last day of freezing temperatures. I've been itching to get out and work on my trees. I must admit, I did cheat and have already repotted 2 trees. With the warmer weather coming, I should be able to repot the rest any day now.

We had a very good turn out to the "Make Your Own Soil" workshop. I believe everyone that attended left with a good amount of soil. If you were unable to attend or prefer to make your own soil, we will be receiving another large order of lava rock early to mid-March. If you would like to be notified when this is available, please let me know. Otherwise, we will have several bags available for purchase at future meetings.

As of this writing we've not yet made the dig at Greg Hollander's. The dig had to be pushed back to the 24th due to weather. If weather forced another reschedule someone will be making a special trip to bring back the pre-tagged trees and have them available at the next meeting.

On March 17th, the club will welcome Dana Quattlebaum from Brussel's Bonsai Nursery. He will be giving a demonstration/workshop starting at 10am at the Bon Aire Library. This is a "Bring Your Own Tree" workshop; however, we will have a limited amount of material available for purchase at the time of the workshop. If you have not yet signed up, please do so. You can let me know via phone or email. We would like to have an accurate count by March 8th, so please respond by then.

The Greater Louisville Bonsai Society will once again be having a Spring Show at Yew Dell Gardens on April 28th and 29th. I'm mentioning this early so that everyone will have plenty of time to select their best tree and do any cleanup that may be required. If you have never shown a tree before I would like to encourage you to do so this year. I'm also thinking about having an informal show prep meeting a few days before. More details will be in next month's newsletter.

There are still a number of people who have not yet paid their dues. Please have them paid by the next workshop, March 17th.

I would like to encourage every member to think about the bonsai chores they have ahead. If you are planning on doing something interesting, I would encourage you to let the club members know and offer to open your home to spectators and/or participants. On that note, I will be repotting March 3rd and March 10th, starting at 10am at my home. If time permits I will also be doing some grafting on a Japanese Black Pine. All who are interested are welcome to attend. If you like, bring a tree and some soil and join in on the fun. Please email or call for directions.

Thank you,
John