Club News - May 2023

Special Event @ Filoli – Saturday May 20

by Rita Curbow

Instead of our normal Friday night meeting in May, Kusamura will be holding an event at Filoli on Saturday, May 20 from 10 AM – 4 PM. This will be an opportunity for Kusamura to demonstrate the art of bonsai to members of the visiting public at Filoli that may have never known anything about bonsai before. It will also allow Kusamura members to visit Filoli for free.

Activities that day will include the option to observe or participate in bonsai demonstrations in the morning or afternoon, tour the permanent collection of bonsai at Filoli which consists of over sixty trees, tour the Filoli mansion and gardens, have lunch in the Quail’s Nest Cafe, and shop for bonsai related items in Filoli’ s gift shop.

Bonsai Workshops & Demos

There will be two demos where Michael Greenstein and members of Kusamura who volunteer to maintain Filoli's bonsai. Michael will discuss the trees and how they can be improved and answer audience question while the trees are being worked on.

Morning Workshop - 10:30AM to 12:30PM

The team will work on a Lemon hill juniper and a Juniperus chinensis var. sargentii in the Filoli bonsai collection. Other club members are welcome to assist with the work on either tree.

Afternoon Demo - 1:30PM to 3:30PM

During this demo the team will work on a False cypress bonsai in the Filoli collection (and other Filoli trees if time permits).

Bonsai and Kusamono Display

We plan to display several bonsai and Kusamono. Because not every one knows what a Kusamono is, here's a quick definition. The Japanese word translates grass-thing and means everything in nature but the bonsai tree - the understory, the field grasses and flowers. Kusamono can either tell a seasonal story or reflect a habitat. They are planted in a pot, on a stone, on a log or a slab. Kusamono complement and give context to a Bonsai tree while being a distinct art form.

Barbara Phillips will also be creating Kokedama (moss balls) during this event.

Bonsai Pot Sale

There will be a variety of bonsai pots for sale at this event.

Location

86 Cañada Rd, Woodside, CA 94062

Monthly Tasks

Each month there are a number of tasks you need to do to your bonsai – from repotting, to fertilizing to spraying for pests. We have put together a checklist, customized for the San Francisco Bay Area to help you. This checklist is adapted from earlier work by Mitsuo Umehara.

This month: April Tasks

Election of Officers and Board Members for the 2023-2024 Term

by Lynne O'Dell

The following nominations for Officers and Board of Directors for, the July 2023-June, 2024 fiscal year are hereby announced by your 2023 Nominating Committee: Lynne O’Dell, Jenn Tan, and Maryann Hinden.

Michael Greenstein - President (new nomination)

Lynne O’Dell - Vice President (new nomination)

Hal Jerman - Treasurer (continuing nomination)

Idris Anderson - Recording Secretary (continuing nomination)

Barbara Phillips - Corresponding Secretary (continuing nomination)

Marsha Mekisich - Board of Director (fulfilling two-year term)

David Martinez Moreno - Board of Director (fulfilling two-year term)

Maryann Hinden - Board of Director (one year term replacing Michael Greenstein)

Jenn Tan - Board of Director (new nomination)

Gabriel Lobo - Board of Director (new nomination)

Rita Curbow - Board of Director (new nomination)

Charlene Fischer - Past-President

As per our Club Bylaws, we kindly ask if there are any nominations from the membership-at-large at this time. If so, nominations must be sent to Lynne O’Dell by midnight May 14. Nominations from the membership-at-large must specify what nomination by the Nominating Committee is being challenged when they make an additional nomination. Contact Lynne O’Dell if you have questions about this.

Final nominations will be announced on May 15 via email to the club and the nominations must be voted on by midnight May 20.
Swearing in of new officers and board of directors will take place at our June 16 meeting effective July 1.

Message from the President

by Charlene Fischer

Most members are not aware of the behind-the-scenes efforts as we prepare for our annual show. Several people told me they are amazed at how smoothly we can get things ready on Friday night and Saturday morning, working like a synchronized swimming team. This appears like an easy process because of the hard work and planning that is done months ahead by the show chair, Idris Anderson. Assisted this year by Marsha Mekisich with lots of help from Lynne O’Dell on crisis management and Hal Jerman on sales, our show was one of the largest I remember our club pulling off during my memory going back to 1995 when I joined the club.

Many return visitors commented on the variety of trees on display. Mother nature played a part in this somewhat because we were able to show a couple wisteria in full bloom as well as a pink hawthorn and some different azaleas in their splendor. Plus other bonsai on display from a new member (returning after a 20 year hiatus) who showed trees we had not seen before.

Many, many members helped us this year but I wanted to specifically express my gratitude for the enthusiasm and professionalism of Idris, who also appears to have boundless energy; Marsha Mekisich and Lynne O’Dell for stepping in as needed handling unexpected details; and Hal Jerman for facilitating the sales of pots and trees from a variety of entities all requiring collection, storage, pricing and cataloguing. A huge thank you from me and the entire club!

Lots of Thank You’s for the Successful 2023 Show

by Idris Anderson, Co-Chair ‘23

Our 2023 show succeeded in offering both experienced and novice members an opportunity to present a few of their best trees in a formal Japanese display. It was wonderful to be all together again at Addison School—what a beautiful space for beautiful people and their beautiful trees! First, some statistics:

77 displays of trees were on the floor and the Barbara Phillips educational display of Kusamono and Kokedama.

2 trees were on loan to us from Filoli House and Gardens’ Bonsai Collection. Special thanks to Jim Salyards for granting permission for us to show, the first time ever.

29 members displayed at least one tree.

5 of the 29 members were members who showed for their first time.

Displays of trees in memory of beloved longtime members Jane Iki, Barbara Shahinian, Hap Thompson, and Jim Thompson. Thank you for their photographs, Charlene Fischer.

2 trees became bonsai in the 1960s: a trident maple created with Yuji Yoshimura and a 100 year old white pine.

300-350 visitors, from various estimates, attended the show. Gordon Deeg was responsible for directing our way on Sunday afternoon a busload of bonsai enthusiasts from Sacramento.

9 small dogs escorted visitors.

Record sales of bonsai material.

As a “Teaching Club” we wanted to include opportunities for visitors and members to learn more about bonsai, and so thank you to:

Michael Greenstein, our Headliner and longtime loyal member of Kusamura with extraordinary expertise, shared his experience and styled and discussed the nuances of juniper. The very healthy shimpaku was raffled off.

4 docent tours of the show were conducted on Saturday and Sunday by Christine Weigen, Steve Iwaki, Michael Greenstein, and Idris Anderson. Visitors learned about individual trees, their histories, and bonsai techniques.

Sunday’s demonstration by Barbara Phillips, along with Jenn Tan and JC Zhang, enlightened us all about Kusamono and Kokedama. Their display in the show and their demonstration took tons of hours of creative thought and preparation. A number of the plantings illustrating the demo and the ones prepared before our very eyes were raffled off to the delight of our visitors. Richard Phillips was an engaging, amusing, and informative MC.

Barbara Phillips along with her crew, especially Maryann Hinden and Austin Nick, were in the Children’s Corner helping visitors of all ages create accent plants to take home.

Idris Anderson updated the red-dot booklets keying the language of bonsai to specific trees—for visitors to learn about various bonsai styles, techniques, and terminology.

We are always amazed at how generous our members are with their time. The tasks always get done! Many volunteers were there for all three days. It was especially gratifying to see the enthusiasm of the newer members, showing their trees and volunteering for any and every kind of task. Extra thanks to the following who headed up special teams:

Charlene Fischer and Marsha Mekisich: our Show Curators for floor design, tree inventory, aesthetics of placement and set up, ably assisted this year by Sean Morris and David Moreno.

Hal Jerman, tree and pot sales, with various special assistants including John Mekisich, Katherine Glassey, and Ed Poggensee.

Ren You, Steve Jensen, and Christoph Dressel picked up and returned show materials from the shed at Lynne O’Dell’s house.

Jenn Tan and JC Zhang, reception.

John Mekisich and Jenn Tan, flag and sign placements.

Dave Curbow and Christoph Dressel, all things tech, with special assistance from David Moreno for background music.

Dave Curbow special thanks for web design on Kusamura’s Members Only Online, including the new sign up feature—tons of hours of work.

Melinda Murray, Richard Murray, and Steve Jensen, Members Room, hospitality and food.

Lynne O’Dell and Katherine Glassey, benefit drawings.

Richard Phillips along with Bang Vo, photography. Every tree was photographed in house this year.

Christoph Dressel, Charlene Fischer, Sean Morris, and Lynne O’Dell: storage facilities for show materials throughout the year.

Marsha Mekisich, Co-Chair, publicity and general advisor.

Idris Anderson, Co-Chair, key grip and gripe department, more of the former than the latter.

Special thanks to Jeff Downing and Melinda Zschietzschmann of Addison School for their endorsement of our show and assistance with details. We hope we can build on our relationship with Addison and continue there next year.

Extra special thanks to Lynne O’Dell, our Show Co-Chair last year, and to Charlene Fischer, our President and Show Chair for many years — for on-call advice and support throughout the year.

Final Statistic: The take down including strike was accomplished in record time this year. We clocked out with the custodian at 5:30, 30 minutes before our deadline. The kind, able, responsive Custodian, Tony was very helpful!

Yes, it was a lot of work, but we had so much fun getting to know each other better, beaming proudly, and talking Bonsai!

Below are photos of a few photos from the show. We'll have more online soon.

[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id="113" gal_title="Newsletter - May 2023"]