by George Buehler

1025 - See what this means below.

I want to remind everyone that Julian Adams will be holding a demo/workshop on Sept 13th at the Bon Air Library. Julian will present a lecture at 10 AM entitled "Pines Are Easy". The afternoon workshop will be a "Bring Your Own Tree", where you can work on a tree of your choosing and gain a tremendous amount of styling and care advice. The cost of the workshop is $45 payable in advance please. Julian may bring some additional material to purchase.

Julian is an excellant speaker and teacher.  He is quite knowledgeable and does a great job passing on that knowledge to others.  Julian was first introduced to bonsai in 1970, and his bonsai experience has grown through years of study.  He is a board member of the National Bonsai Foundation as well as a former vice president of the American Bonsai Society.  His current occupation is owner/operator of his own bonsai business, Adams' Bonsai in Lynchburg VA.

School has started for the 2008/2009 year which means that it won’t be long before the deciduous trees start turning color. Not long after that it will be time to put our 'babies' to bed for their long winter’s nap. I bring this up because we all need to start planning where we're going to put the trees this fall. Is the same place available that we used last year, or do we need to find another location? Do you have enough mulch on hand to cover your trees? Check out Dave Bogan's article on page 4 on preparing a space and your trees for fall.

Ross Clark, a regular contributor revisits bonsai folklore on page 2.

1025 – As I write this (which is late by the way) 1025 is the number of days left before the ABS/BCI 2011 symposium starts here in Louisville. I know you are saying to yourself 'that is a lot of days left'. Yes 1000 days seems like a long time away. However, with all the little details that need to be addressed, it is definitely not many days. My major concerns at this point are threefold: we need to get our teachers lined up - John C; we need to get our vendors set up – Earl C.; and we need to ensure that we have the hotel filled – all of us. This weekend will be filled with demos, workshops, and instructional classes. The days will start early and end late. Our committee members will be doing those last minute emergency things that I’m sure will come up. So I hope that many of us will plan on staying at the hotel. This will help with the number of rooms that we had to guarantee, will allow all of us to get a quick shower, save on gas traveling back and forth, and give us additional time to get those emergency things done. PLEASE plan on staying at the hotel for at least several nights. Put it into your budgets now and it won’t be so bad when the time comes up.

The 2009 ABS symposium will be in Boise Idaho June 11 -14. I hope that several of you will join me in attending this symposium. There will not be a 2010 symposium. Therefore, this is the last opportunity for our committee chairmen to see how these symposiums work. Both Delta and Southwest both fly into Boise with a single connection - at least now anyway. The Boise committee has arranged with UPS to pack purchases (including trees) and get them shipped. For us in Louisville, this means that if a tree is purchased, it could be back in Louisville by the time we get back. One day prior to the start of the convention, there will be a collecting trip. The area chosen has ponderosa pines among others that apparently are ideal for bonsai. If you want to add a ponderosa to your collection, this is the time to do it. Also, after the meeting, there will be a white water rafting event. This should be an educational and fun-filled experience. Hopefully, I will see you there. You can get additional information at http://absbonsai.org/seminars/ABS2009/main2009-5.html or see me for registration flyers. For those ABS members, the Boise committee has set up a raffle where you can get a free registration to the Boise symposium (a $260 value) for enlisting a new ABS member. See http://absbonsai.org/free-reg.html for details or give me a call.

Speaking of the ABS, we have a few GLBS members who have joined the ABS. It would be nice if more of you also joined. The cost is $40 per year. For this you will receive 4 journals filled with excellent articles (one of the articles is a series on regional care of trees which is extremely helpful), access to the ABS forum (where you can get a plethora of information), and of course discounts on books and pamphlets from the bookstore.  Since the bookstore is in my basement, there is no shipping charge.

On another note, we need to get more members for the GLBS. When we get members at the beginner workshops, we need to make sure that we keep them. I know that several of the people who signed up for membership ‘lost’ their trees and apparently lost interest in bonsai. We need to follow up on the mentor program that Midge set up several years ago. If we help these new people, hopefully we can keep them interested in bonsai and ultimately keep them interested in the GLBS.

OK, I'll get off my 'soap box' and close this diatribe by thanking those of you who have helped make this newsletter a success by sending in articles, or ideas for articles. Keep growing and mothering your trees.