Our 2025 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:

• Charlene Fischer, our curator, reports that 27 members presented 70 displays which included two mini tokonoma displays plus five shohin displays and two tables of 13 kusamono from Barbara Phillips, Christine Weigen, and Jenn Tan.

• A large Colorado spruce and a large maple group were on loan to us from Filoli House and Gardens Bonsai Collection. The spruce had been recently donated to Filoli by Kusamura member Janet Refvem. Special thanks to Jim Salyards for granting permission for us to show these trees.

• The Kusamura Logo Tree, which was donated some years ago by Kusamura member Tom Refvem to the Bonsai Garden at Lake Merritt, was on loan to us for the show, thanks to Gordon Deeg.

• Eleven of our Bonsai were over 35” tall providing a nice balance to the medium and smaller sized trees throughout the room.

• The new QR codes were discreet yet provided a number of interesting histories and stories. The most visited story with 32 visits was for the Kusamura Logo Tree presented by the Bonsai Garden at Lake Merritt, second most visited was Steve Iwaki’s Alligator Juniper and Marsha Mekisich’s Dwarf Japanese Cedar, each with 15 visits. Several other stories were visited throughout the show. Big thanks to Charlene and Manshu Verma for making the new QR codes possible. This made the production of the display cards this year more complicated and time-consuming, but even with this extra work, Charlene made it happen.

• Over 400 visitors attended the show, 412 by the official count through the front lobby. We know that some others came in through the back doors. We had a number of visitors from other bonsai clubs in California, plus two friends of Idris from Chicago and Virginia. And many friends and neighbors and family members! So glad they came.

• Six small dogs escorted visitors. But there was also another very small dog in a comfy carrier tucked almost imperceptibly in my neighbor’s arms.

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

• Sam Tan, our headliner, at his demonstration on Sunday not only talked us through his styling of a large juniper bonsai, originally owned by Stephanie North, but also provided a show critique, from which we all learned. The juniper was auctioned off by John Mekisich. Carlos Sanchez was the lucky bidder. He knows he got a bargain for this fabulous tree.

• Sunday’s demonstration by Charlene Fischer, Lynne O’Dell, and Gianne Souza, with Michael Greenstein as MC, enlightened us all about all things bonsai. The trees, which were taken from the donated trees at potting parties, were not high-end pre-bonsai material, but that was the point: to demonstrate to members, and especially to those who are new to bonsai, that ordinary material can become extraordinary when good bonsai techniques are put into practice. The three trees were auctioned off to a crowd of fascinated attendees. John Mekisich was once again our auctioneer.

• Andy Mayhew along with his crew were in the Children’s Corner helping visitors of all ages create accent plants to take home. He had 16 kids come through on Saturday and an additional 14 on Sunday. Thanks to Aida for swinging by Plant and Pottery Outlet in Sunol to get some extra pots and having her daughter-in-law bring some extra succulents from her yard.

• We thank Gordon Deeg for his extraordinary trees, for bringing the logo tree from the east bay, and for his service as Doctor Bonsai. He was very busy.

• Three docent tours of the Show were conducted on Saturday and Sunday by Christine Weigen, Michael Greenstein, and Steve Iwaki. Other members became impromptu docents for visitors who asked questions and wanted to know more. Visitors learned about individual trees, their histories, and bonsai techniques.

• We were grateful to see so many members helping with the set-up and take down. New members learned the ropes, uh, the PVC schemes, quickly and participated with enthusiasm. Many members, new and old, signed up or showed up to take on any and every kind of task. Many were there for all three days. Our sign-up roster was more complete than ever! There were so many of us this year. BIG THANKS!

Extra thanks to the following who headed up special teams:

• Charlene Fischer and Sean Morris, our Show Curators for floor design, tree inventory, aesthetics of placement and set up, ably assisted again this year by Marsha Mekisich. Charlene’s assignment of places for trees, in advance of the Saturday morning rush, facilitated the setup this year and made it possible for members to set their displays in place as early as Friday evening, a first for our club.

• Lynne O’Dell, along with Steve Jensen, stepped up to take charge of lunches, coffee and donuts, and kept us well-hydrated and nourished in the Members Room. It was all so delicious! Many members also provided desserts for our enjoyment Lynne enlisted our visitors from Chicago and Virginia to help out in the members room. Jenn Tan once again was our pizza delivery specialist, along with all her other duties, especially in Reception. JC Zhang took charge of the new hospitality area, supplying Japanese goodies and tea and Asian décor.

• Hal Jerman and his sales team, especially John Mekisich and Katherine Glassey, worked almost non-stop before, during, and after the show opened and closed. Michael Greenstein once again assisted Hal in pricing trees. Hal and Lynne O’Dell priced many boxes of pots.

• Paticia Lee deserves special thanks for redesigning our web presence and made it possible to provide direct links for our members to sign-ups, show prep, and tree submissions—tons of hours of work.

• Christoph Dressel, Mark O’Brien, Lynne O’Dell, and Steve Jensen picked up and returned show materials from storage areas at Lynne O’Dell’s house.

• Sean Morris brought the club-owned stands from Sean’s storage. And somehow, thanks to several members, the stands were taken away on Sunday.

• John Mekisich secured gift certificate donations from Wegman’s Nursery, and Katherine Glassey secured gift certificates from Lyngso and Hassett Ace Hardware of Palo Alto. These gift certificates, along with other items, were door prizes at our demos on Saturday and Sunday. We are grateful to these garden suppliers for sponsoring our show.

• This year Idris Anderson finally realized our dream of new backdrops, new tablecloths, and runners for the entire showroom. Last year we had all new backdrops and PVC frames, tablecloths and runners for the right (courtyard side) of the floor design. This year Idris sewed all the new white backdrops for the left side of our show area, so that now the entire room has new backdrops, tablecloths, and runners. Lynne O’Dell helped with cutting the new runners and backdrops, and Katherine Glassey sewed all the edges of the runners. Many thanks to The Board for approving funding for this project. The show has never looked more elegant and refined.

• David Keenan and Jeff Burch were leads on assembly of new backdrops at Friday night set-up. The set up was accomplished in record time.

• Jenn Tan and JC Zhang at the Reception desk were multi-tasking with all their experience and knowledge.

• John Mekisich and Jenn Tan placed flags and other signage.

• Dave Curbow took care of all things tech. JC Zhang provided Japanese background music.

• Katherine Glassey and Gianne Souza handled the door prize drawings.

• Aaron Alvarez Mendoza, our photographer. along with Charlene Fischer, Marsha Mekisich, Christine Weigen, David Keenan, Bang Vo, Manshu Verma and others managed to photograph our trees on Sunday morning, though it took much longer than usual because we had so many trees.

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

• Katherine Glassey for pinch-hitting for Royal Hansen for publicity. As carry-over from last year, the club’s show was featured on On-Line Palo Alto, no doubt a significant factor in the number of visitors we had from the community.

• Idris Anderson, who corralled the talents and sweat equity of our membership, who tapped many shoulders, who booked things, made calls and emails, ran herd on other things, detected gaps and plugged them, now thanks everyone who made it happen. Any glitches along the way (and there were some) are entirely her responsibility.

• 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 Charlene Fischer, Lynne O’Dell, and Hal Jerman—for extraordinary above-the-call-of-duty service and on-call advice and support throughout the year. All three were non-stop busy on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Charlene found not a single moment to grab some lunch on Sunday. She was handling the shuffle of trees to the photographer, then before she could turn around, she immediately was working on a tree in the club demo. Her Saturday was equally busy with taking in and curating the displays and placing the display cards that she had made for each of our trees. Charlene, Lynne, and Hal—all three of them--had able assistance but they assumed incessant responsibility, above and beyond the call of duty. They are treasures.

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

 Michael Greenstein will discuss the care of Pine bonsai, including Japanese and Western White pines, Lodgepole pines, and Japanese Black pines. He will discuss the difference in care between single flush Japanese White pines and double flush Japanese Black pines, and give a useful calendar and description of current de-candling methods. One of Phil Richardsons Lodgepole pines will be raffled off at the end of the meeting. (Value $125). Members are encouraged to bring their pines for show and tell, and discussion.