The Bonsai Society of Greater Saint Louis, along with all of our exhibitors and vendors, invite you and your family to come and experience Bonsai Central at the Gateway Convention Center in Collinsville, Illinois.
Beg. Topic: Intro to Pomegranates
Inter. Topic: Trunks – Chops, healing, styles
Beg. Topic: Creating a bonsai display – basic principles
Inter/Adv Topic: Appreciating and understanding design of a bonsai exhibition (precursor to Bonsai Central)
Repotting (club to provide soil for 1 medium, 2 small trees)
Beg. Topic: Crash course on Repotting
Int. Topic: Choosing soils and pots while repotting
Adv. Topic: Ebihara and Top-down repotting techniques
3rd Annual ya-Mark-dori collecting trip
Exact date, time, and meeting place will be announced
Beg. Topic: Native species suitable for bonsai
Inter. Topic: Collecting local Yamadori
Overwintering discussion and help session.
We’re starting the auction at 6:30 this year.
CANCELLED First Steps - Hands On
Beginner Meeting: First Steps to Bonsai
Getting a Tree Ready for a Show
Composing a Display
Summer Work and Tropicals
Project Show and Tell Group Discussion
We regret to inform you that we must cancel the workshop this Saturday on large bends and chops. The board met last night and determined that we do not have enough instructors available to run the workshop this weekend. We regret the inconvenience for any that have planned to attend.
Bending Large Branches with Tyler Sherrod
DAY 2 of 2
Paid workshops
DAY 1 of 2
Starting at 9 am with demos
Stages of Development
Creating Forests from Seedlings
Building a Forest from Young Stock
Repotting
Repotting
On the weekend of Feb. 25/26 the club will once again lead any interested members (or friends of members) into the woods of Mark Twain National Forest in search of stunted, bent, and intriguing trunks on our clubs 2nd Annual "YaMarkdori" Collecting trip. Last year we had 20+ smiling faces make the approximately 1hr 30 min drive to Potosi MO despite snowy conditions and chilly weather. So long as the weather doesn't put us in mortal danger that weekend, we will revisit the gently undulating winter-barren hills of the always beautiful Mark Twain Forest. The plan is to choose the best time and date a week in advance of the event based on the predicted weather for that weekend. We will communicate times, locations, and dates over email and on our slack group for all of those interested.
Our first meeting will be on February the 7th this year. Sean will lead off our programming for the year with a discussion regarding the building of a bonsai collection. Along with being an avid collector of Japanese maples and other species traditionally used for bonsai, over the last 5+ years Sean has led a convoy of enthusiasts through the deep-woods of the Missouri-Ozarks in search of local Yamadori - or in other words, 'wild-caught bonsai'. His cultivation of a well-balanced blend of species both known and experimental makes him an astute reference as we learn to 'Build a Bonsai Collection'.
For those intrigued by Sean's endeavors to collect and train native-bonsai, our short program for the evening will be a quick demonstration of how to handle roots post-collection from Missouri Soils. The short program will take place after Sean's presentation, after we all have had our appetites to get out into the woods and scout trees whet by Sean's diverse collection.
In October we hold our annual auction that often is one of the most popular events of the year. Please bring any items you would like to donate to the auction for the benefit of the club. Much of our yearly monetary support come from this event. There are always great deals to be had at this event so do not miss the fun. and come join us as we bid on the items for sale.
This event is only successful due to the generous support of our members and local businesses. Thank you for all that have supported the club in the past, present, and future.
Following our October meeting come work on any pines in your collection to get them ready for winter. We will do shoot selection, needle pulling, branch pruning and etc. Generally speaking, this is a wonderful time to work on pines.
Workshop held at Timberwinds Nursery
We hold our annual show in conjunction with MOBOT during the Japanese Festival. Prepare a tree in advance and bring it to the garden for thousands of people to view over Labor Day Weekend. We also run a sales booth during the event, where members are able to offload some of the items they no longer desire in their collections.
This event is a mainstay on our calendar and provides an incredible amount of exposure and monetary support to the club. We can not hold the event without the gracious support of our members, volunteering their time over the holiday weekend. Please do your best to schedule a few hours of your time to help out the club during this weekend.
More details will be announced at club events leading up to the Japanese Festival.
Bring the tree you plan to show at the Japanese Festival the following weekend to work on putting the finishing touches on the tree. We can help with detail wiring, mossing, finish pruning, pot cleaning, and any other tasks required to get the tree in tip-top shape.
Showing trees is a very important task and skill set to learn in bonsai and we encourage people of all skill levels to submit a tree into the show.
Workshop at Timberwinds Nursery
Section 1: We will purchase a large Japanese Maple from Timberwinds and take turns preparing layers on the branches of the tree. Over the course of the summer we will monitor the layers for the appearance of roots and harvest them when appropriate.
Section 2: Ruth and Rosemary will lead a workshop on the creation of Kusamono. Many plants will be provided for members to use but please bring any extras you may have at home as well. Each member should bring their own containers.
Tyler Sherrod, of Dogwood Studios will be leading a club workshop centered around styling Itoigawa Juniper Pre-Bonsai. These trees are true Itoigawa cultivars, having been imported in pre-pandemic times from their namesake region in Japan. During this workshop Tyler will work with ~8-10 people designing and styling this fantastic pre-bonsai material. In five years, many of these should be finished trees, ready for exhibition.
The club has already obtained the material for this workshop and will provide them to club members at cost. Supplies are limited and this workshop is being offered on a first come first serve basis. The tree are ~$200 each.
