August 2023 Bonsai Newsletter

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After a long and wet spring, summer is finally here! A lot of our trees will be growing vigorously at this time of year, but we also need to be careful to protect our trees from heat stress, so keep an eye on the forecast as the weather heats up. (For more information about bonsai care this time of year, see Barrett’s Bonsai Tips, page 3 of this newsletter.)

The August 17th Conejo Valley Bonsai Society meeting will feature a demonstration and workshop led by Debra Mauz-Melitz on the creation of Kusamono in hypertufa pots. This will be a hands-on event: Debra will bring 10 pots that she made herself and plants for members to use in a class format. At press time, we had nine people signed on for the workshop, so there is still one pot left if someone decides they want to join in. Please let me know if you are interested and would like to secure your spot either in advance or at the beginning of the meeting.

Board Meeting
The CVBS board of directors met this week and we have decided to do our annual club exhibition in person at the Gardens of the World. We also discussed moving the dates to November 3rd and 4th instead of early October. We hope to have this confirmed soon. This change will avoid having our show too close to the Golden State Bonsai Federation’s Bonsai Rendez-vous 2023. And the change will push our show back slightly later into the fall so that we’ll have cooler weather.

Prepping Trees
We will have a short discussion about the annual show at our next meeting. Traditionally, we have devoted the meeting a month before the annual exhibition to peer critiques and prepping our trees. This year, that preparation workshop will happen either at our meeting in September or in October, depending on the exhibition’s final schedule. Stand by for more news.

See you at the meeting on August 17th!