by George Buehler

Preparations for the 2011 meeting continue. All the instructors are lined up, the preliminary schedule has been set up, Earl has his layout for the exhibit sketched out, and we have started collecting items for the raffle. We have begun looking for suitable demonstration material and are working on contracts for the vendors. Slowly, we are getting things lined up.

I attended the ABS board meeting in Chicago this month, followed by the Midwest bonsai show. I can report that the ABS is now on firm financial ground thanks in part to its membership and some cost controls that were put in place. I would strongly recommend becoming a member if you are not currently one. It would be nice to report to the ABS that 100% of the GLBS members are also ABS members. It only costs $40 per year. You get 4 excellent journals each year that contain local care guides and down-to-earth bonsai articles. Sign up at http://www.absbonsai.org/join/join.html

The MidWest show was great. They have an excellent venue – The Chicago Botanic Garden. The Botanic Garden is a place where you could spend many hours wandering through the various gardens. The building where the bonsai show was held, the Rechenstein building, has a permanent bonsai exhibit, an ideal room for the exhibit, as well as numerous classrooms and meeting rooms. We were told that the attendance was down from normal, but there still appeared to be about 5,000 people coming through the exhibit. There were plenty of vendors and all that I talked to were happy with their sales. Of course there were plenty of bonsai to buy, and almost every type of supplies was available – from pots to accent plants to bonsai jewelry.

The following weekend, I attended the Japanese American festival in Lexington. GLBS had a small exhibit and demo. Ross Clark, Tim Weckman, John Callaway and myself were kept busy all day with questions about bonsai, explanations on how we kept the trees small, and general chit chat. Ken Seis and his son were also there to help set up and to help out. We may pick up a couple of new GLBS members and perhaps ABS members. The weather was cool and windy and much better than last year's 95 degree temperature. Overall it was a good day.

The Thursday before the Japanese festival, John Callaway and I attended the Greater Cincinnati Bonsai Society meeting to watch a demo on making an azalea bonsai. I was surprised to see that they had about 40 members attending this meeting; and, in talking to several of their members I learned this is about a normal attendance. After a short business meeting – and a minor technical glitch with a Mac PowerPoint presentation – the demo started. It was interesting to see another clubs' senior member conduct a demo. Once again, it seems that no two bonsai hobbyists does a demo the same way, and we can learn something from watching others.

Now to this month's schedule. If you haven't already marked your calendar for the Dave Bogan demo, please do so. Dave will be coming to Louisville on September 19. Please read the information about the meeting and Dave's bonsai bio on page one. This will be a first for GLBS. We will have time for dinner first – meeting starts at 5 PM, then Dave will begin his demo. Having known Dave for a number of years, I believe everyone can learn from watching him do his magic on a tree. Our newer members are especially encouraged to attend this meeting since Dave readily shares his knowledge, explains the techniques he uses on a down to earth basis, and answers questions while he works. Of course our senior members are also encouraged to attend since Dave often bends the so called Japanese rules of bonsai to get the style he wants. This should be a must attend meeting – mark your calendar.

The weekend before the Bogan demo I will be attending the International Bonsai Shohin Symposium in Rochester NY. This is the second time that Bill Valavanis will hold an exclusive shohin symposium. It seems that more and more shohin meetings are being held these days. I have heard a number of times that people are moving to Shohin as they get older since these trees are much easier to handle than the larger bonsai. I can relate to that!