NFBC Bonsai Events February 8th NFBC Meeting @ - North Florida Bonsai Club

NORTH FLORIDA BONSAI CLUB
                       February 2021

 NFBC Bonsai Events
• February 8th NFBC Meeting @
  7pm
 • Trident Maple Root over Rock
   demonstration
    • The demo tree will go home with one
      lucky member
 • Preparing Maple Seedlings & Wiring
    • Each member will go home with 2
      seedling maples to start their own
      similar project

• March 8th NFBC Meeting @ 7pm
 • Azalea presentation

                                                Florida Bonsai Events

      A RoR trident maple featured on the       • BSF Convention registration
      website bonsaitonight.com. The Artist,      opens February 13th
      Jonus, maintains an excellent bi-weekly
      blog that I highly recommend.

January Meeting
This month’s meeting will be a two part program using trident maple seedlings.
  1. The primary focus will be on creating a Root over Rock (RoR) bonsai with
     some trident maple seedlings that were prepared for this work over the last
     year.
     Those of you who have been in the club for 5+ years will recognize this
     program as an homage to Paul Katich and his years of cultivating root over
     rock and root over ruin maples. For those who might not be familiar with
     Paul he documented his RoR process at
     https://www.bonsainut.com/threads/root-over-ruin.1564/
     The demonstration will focus on how to start a RoR composition. The
     program will also include a timeline of RoR maples that have been in
     development for between 1-15 years to illustrate the process.
     The maple used in the demonstration will be raffled off to
     one lucky winner.
  2. To encourage everyone to try a similar experiment the
     club has purchased 100 seedling maples to be used for
     this and other projects. Everyone who attends will get two
     seedling trident maples to take home and experiment with.
     To start everyone along we will be borrowing a page from
     Michael Hagedorn’s book bonsai Heresy. We will be
     adding movement to these trees while actively avoiding “S
     curves.” …
     It’s harder
     than it
     sounds!

Soil Mixing
Thank you to all of those who participated in the soil mixing event. We had a good
                                     turnout with about a dozen people there to
                                     help. The process went really smooth and in
                                     just under two hours we set a record with 50+
                                     buckets of soil made. We
                                     should have enough soil
                                     for a while and if anyone
                                     needs a bucket for
                                     spring repotting please
                                     let an officer know or
                                     contact Mike Betts
                                     directly to arrange a time
                                                      to pick
                                                      some up.

All active members should have received their copy of the Florida Bonsai
Magazine from BSF in January. For those that haven’t seen it (or had it sent to
their SPAM folder) you can follow the link below.
https://thefloridabonsaimagazine.com/2020/12/10/florida-bonsai-magazine-winter-
2020/

BSF Convention
                        Details are beginning to be released for the 2021 Bonsai
                        Societies of Florida Convention. The convention will be
                        held Memorial Day Weekend (May 28-30st) at the Orlando
                        Hotel and Convention Center which is not far from the
                        Orlando International Airport.
                        One exciting revelation about this year’s convention is that
                        it will be the first bonsai convention to have an all-female
                        cast of artists. The headlining artist is Jennifer Price who
                        we hosted in June 2019 as part of the BSF visiting artist
                        series. This should be a great convention!
                        More information will be available beginning February 13th
                        on the convention website https://www.bsfconvention.com/

                                 Seasonal Advice
February means deciduous trees may start showing signs of “waking up” from
winter. You will soon see buds beginning to swell and open for spring. That is your
sign that the trees balance of energy has moved out of the roots and back into the
core of the tree. This indicates it’s a great time to repot most deciduous trees.
Conifers and broadleaf evergreen trees can now be safely repotted, trimmed and
wired. If you do any real aggressive bending it is a good idea to protect the trees if
temperatures drop below freezing. However, protection should not be necessary
after a normal repotting and routine trimming.
Tropical Trees – It’s still not their time yet. Leave them alone.

                               Bonsai Classifieds
If you have something you are interested in selling/trading please send pictures
and contact information for inclusion in future newsletters.
 NFBC Membership
   - Membership is $36 for the year
   - Visitors are always welcome at meetings and events

Soil
  - The cost is $25 for a five gallon bucket. Please contact an officer a few
    days ahead of time if you would like to have a bucket brought to the next
    meeting.
Bonsai Supplies
  - Tristan has wire for sale in multiple sizes.
Trees
  - Josh has pre-bonsai ficus and elms available. Please contact him at
    joshuareubenbrown1@yahoo.com to schedule time to come take a look.
Vendors
  - American Bonsai Tool (www.americanbonsai.com) is providing our club a
    10% discount on products. Use the coupon code ‘NFBC10’ at checkout.

                                      NFBC Officers
                           Tristan Kincaid         President
                           Bruce Washington        Treasurer
                           Jami Jenkins            Secretary
                           Josh Brown              Website