2-22-2010 : To all:

Hello all, Suthin will be here on August 11th to do a demo at our regular scheduled meeting at Selby gardens.

However we have him for a club workshop the following morning on the 12th.

So this is to find out if you would like to sign up for a workshop with Suthin. I feel that he is absolutely the best in the United States. And he spends so much time in Florida that he knows Florida trees! So let me know if you would like to take the workshop, here at my house, on the 12th of August. Mary and I are trying to secure some nice pines or junipers for this special workshop. Both will be dormant at that time because of the heat here in this area, so we can work on them without fear of damaging them. The price of the workshop will be $50 and will be a limited size. So let me know as soon as possible. Thanks and see you all this weekend at Selby! Julie Trigg

2-4-2010 : To all:

Bonsai Show and Sale at Selby Gardens - Asian Fest

The Sho Fu Bonsai Society of Sarasota will have a large bonsai exhibit and sale on February 27th and 28th in conjunction with the Asian cultural festival at the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Some of the area's best bonsai trees will be on display both days.

This show will highlight a "people's choice" award, chosen by the public on Saturday and the winning tree award will be presented Sunday morning. Some of the area's well known bonsai artists will be giving free bonsai demonstrations on both Saturday and Sunday. A critique of the bonsai exhibit, led by Alberto Cruz, will follow his free bonsai demonstration at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday. So bring your questions about bonsai for the artists to answer. Bonsai trees, supplies and tools will be available for purchase. All of these events are included in the general admission fee. Selby Gardens and Sho Fu members are admitted at no charge.

The Sho Fu Bonsai Society was founded in Sarasota in 1975 and is celebrating their 35th anniversary this year. They now have more than 60 members, including one founding member. Sho Fu means "wind in the pines" and they meet once a month at Selby Gardens. A bonsai demo is normally scheduled for each meeting and they offer free workshops for beginners. Marie Selby Botanical Gardens is a respected center for research and education as well as a famous orchid showplace. The Gardens is located at 900 South Palm Avenue in Sarasota. It is open to the public daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. with the exception of Christmas day. Sho Fu

1-05-2010 : To all:

Hello all,

Mary and I hope we have an exciting and informational year planned for 2010. Our first meeting next week will feature Charlie Swedberg teaching us his method of preparing bonsai soil. I don't think we have ever offered a soil making demonstration at the club before and I am really looking forward to this one. Plus, it comes at a perfect time because january is the time to start getting ready for repotting all those conifers and basically anything but your tropicals. Charlie has done a lot of research on this and says he makes one soil mix for everything (pines, junipers, maples, gingko, magnolia, crape myrtle, american beauty-berry, hawthorne, cypress, citrus, quince, wisteria, zelcova and oaks), and he grows all of them in this one mix. He will do a "how-to" and bring along some already mixed bags as well.

Also want to remind everyone that Kawa Bonsai will be be having their 8th "Joy of Bonsai" on the 15-17th of January. Suthin Sukosolvisit will be doing a demo on a dwarf crape myrtle Friday night at 6:p.m. and will demo a black pine Saturday afternoon at 12:30. Mike Cartrett will demo a tropical on Saturday morning and again on Sunday morning. Saturday afternoon at 2:30, Mike Rogers will demo a Trident maple root over rock, using Lizard rock. Sunday morning Suthin will demo another black pine, Mike Cartrett will demo a tropical and Sunday afternoon, Mike Rogers will be doing a juniper demo. For those that haven't been there, this will take place in the Flagler Extension Office on Sawgrass Road in Bunnell, Florida just north of Tampa.

If you want more info on the Joy of Bonsai, send me an email. Stay warm and hope to see ALL of you on the 13th.

Julie

10-28-09 : To all:

There will be a multi-club auction at Clif Pottberg's on Saturday, November 21. 9 central Florida clubs have been invited. 80% goes to the seller and a portion of the remaining 20% to the seller's club. Each seller will be limited to 5 items to be auctioned. Everyone is welcome, whether you are a buyer, seller, or spectator. Clif's property is an interesting place to visit. It you want to sell anything in the auction, please contact me asap so I can get the necessary paperwork to you. I would also like to know if you are planning to attend as there will be refreshments and we need an estimate of how many to prepare for. This is a "bring your own chair" event.


Cindy Petterson

10-10-09 : To all:

The Sho Fu auction is next week and we need some volunteers for the following jobs:
1. Check to make sure everything has a 3-part tag and that the master list is turned in.
2. Register bid paddles, which is making a list of who has paddle #1, #2, etc. (names on a sheet beside a number, but it's important)
3. Runner up - needs to bring the things to the auctioneer and also hand the middle tag to the winning bidder
4. Runner down - takes the sold items to holding. Needs to group sold items by winning bidder # to make check out easier. Not as difficult as it sounds, a few people usually buy several things.
5. Cashier, register winning bid paddle and amount on master list. Collect.
6. Check out of trees, etc. from holding area.
Cindy Petterson

9-23-09 : To all:

Annual Sho Fu auction will be on Wednesday, October 14th. 7PM to 9PM. It is open to the public.

9-2-09 : To all:

This is a reminder of the upcoming September meeting on the normal date, Sept. 9 at 7 PM at Selby. Our ever giving John Petterson will be doing a demo on a Juniper and talking about "poor man's bonsai tools".

This promises to be both informative and fun. Once again, I will be bringing some bonsai and bonsai related items for a silent auction at the meeting. This is a great way to pick up some items of interest and, with the impact of the Misantone matching donation, make a substantial contribution to the fund raising effort for the final phase of work on the permanent bonsai exhibit at Selby.

A $50 bid results in a $100 contribution! Where else can you beat that?

If other club members have items of value that you would like included in the September silent auction, please email me or call me prior to the meeting and let me know some details of your items. I will put together an information sheet for the silent auction.

Planning ahead, it is not too soon to start thinking about the annual auction at the October meeting (October 14) - getting your trees, pots and bonsai related items in sale condition.

I hope to see you at the September meeting. Mike

8-17-09 : To all:

Mike Knowlton made a power point presentation on behalf of Sho Fu 
Bonsai Society to approximately 45 Lakewood Ranch Rotarians at their 
August 13, meeting.  Lunetta worked with Mike to set up a display of 
Bonsai from their collection to complement his presentation as well.  
Following the presentation there were a number of questions from 
interested members.  Hopefully, this will generate some interest on 
the part of some new members.

7-16-09 : To all:

Thanks to Barbra and Francis Misantone for their generous contributions to Sho Fu!

Thanks to Kay Karioth again for all the photos for the gallery.

6-3-09 : To all:

WORD DOCUMENT DOWNLOAD HERE ABOUT LANCE LANEY

If you have signed up for this Saturday's workshop with visiting master Lance Laney, please be at Selby before 1:00 to set up.
If you did not sign up but would like to take the workshop, it's not too late but please let me know asap. The cost is $35.00; it will be limited to ten people.
The location is under the oak tree behind the Mansion - enter through the iron gate. To all members: there will be a demo (Australian Pine) at 3:00 after the workshop.
Raffle tickets for the demo-ed tree will be sold Saturday and at our June 10 meeting. The drawing will be on June 10; you do not have to be present to win.

Bio on Lance below.
Lance Laney Contact Information Hawaii, USA Biography Lance Laney was born in Los Angeles and moved to Hawaii in mid-1960 as a young surfer. He moved to the island of Kauai soon after. His interest in bonsai began as a young adult when he approached an elder Japanese gentleman who was working on a tree in his yard to ask him some questions. Shocked by Lance's interest, the man spoke with him and invited him to his backyard to look at his bonsai. That encounter sparked his interest and he dabbled in bonsai, experimenting on his own without any formal training for many years. Years later, Lance joined Kauai Bonsai Club, a local club that included both young and old bonsai enthusiasts. As a member he learned as much as possible from other members and collected many trees from the wild. Eager to learn more, he began to attend out-of-state conventions which has led to Lance conducting workshops for Golden State Bonsai Federation as well as demonstration and workshops for the California Shohin Society. In 2007 Lance studied with Nobuichi Urushibata at Taisho-en in Shizuoka, Japan. At Taisho-en, he was fortunate to also work alongside Mario Komsta, a five-year apprentice of sensei Urushibata-san, from Poland and to observe the work of Tiger Urushibata, sensei's son, who apprenticed under Masahiko Kimura.

Hanalei Valley, Kauai has been the Laney home for over thirty years where he has a large collection of various types of trees including olives and ironwood collected from the Kauai uplands and coastal areas. Lance is a drywall and plaster contractor and is a member of Kauai Bonyu Kai.

5-6-09 : To all:

Don't miss the May 13 monthly meeting at Selby in the Activity Center at 7 PM.

We are fortunate to have Hector Ruiz, a skilled bonsai artist from Puerto Rico.

He has collected and styled a large number of impressive Caribbean trees, many of which have been sent to the US mainland to be sold at bonsai nurseries and used as workshop materials at major bonsai conventions.

He will show a video detailing the actual collecting of Escambron. Then he will style one of his trees for the raffle at the end of the meeting. Feel free to come early and enjoy the permanent exhibit or get some helpful info from some of our veteran members.

May 13 will be the last meeting before the June 6 workshop that will feature Lance Laney, a visiting BSF artist from Hawaii. The workshop will take place from 1 to 4 at Selby under the Oak Tree in back of the mansion. Be sure to sign up for the workshop at the May 13 meeting or, if you cannot attend the meeting, email Cindy Petterson to register for the workshop.

The cost and other details for the bring your tree workshop will be communicated at the meeting.

Check out the BSF website (bonsai-bsf.com) to get more information about Lance. Once on the home page, click on resources. Then click on bonsai artists and go down under US artists to find his bio. Mike

4-7-09 : To all:

BONSAI SOCIETY OF SOUTHWEST FLORIDA.
ALL ARE INVITED!
The more the merrier. We would love for everyone to attend! We have also invited the Sarasota and Punta Gorda Clubs.

What: Our annual picnic and auction. Food and all manner of bonsai items for sale or auction.
Where: Wigert's Bonsai Nursery
When: April 18th, 10 AM 'til ?

RSVP: By April 16th to Cel Luke: 239-472-9281 or email jelcel661@aol.com
This is an all-day event with plenty of fun for all. In the morning, Erik Wigert will be styling a special tree. This is the club's raffle tree for the year. Erik will keep the tree all year. He will train it for us! Every month, we will sell raffle tickets to club members.

THEN, at the December Holiday Party, we will draw the winning ticket! What a great Christmas present! After the demo, we will break for lunch. The club is preparing the main course and club members are bringing the sides. We do need an RSVP for those attending lunch so we can prepare enough food, no charge!
After lunch, we will have our auction, sales, raffles, whatever. Members can contribute an item to the auction or bring a plant to sell and contribute 20% to the club. Come participate and take home some treasures!

3-6-09 : To all:

March is one of our busiest bonsai months.  Just as we are catching 
our breath from last weekend's Asian Festival, we will be having our 
monthly meeting at Selby, followed by the BSF convention in Orlando 
from March 20 through March 22.

Our March 11 meeting promises to be an exciting and highly informative 
one.  Cliff Pottberg, proprietor of Pasiminon Bonsai and long time 
bonsai artist, will be doing a detailed demonstration on a large 
cascade juniper that will be donated to become part of the inventory 
for the permanent exhibit at Selby.  He will be bringing two 
assistants to help him during the demo.  Also, he is donating a 
separate tree for our raffle that night.  We appreciate his time, 
expertise and generosity.

Come early to the meeting and work with one of our experienced 
members, or come early and visit our beautiful new permanent exhibit 
next to the orchid greenhouse.  The wooden gate next to the activity 
center will be open at 6PM.

It is not too late to register for the Bonsai Societies of Florida 
Convention.  You do not need to register for all three days.  Orlando 
is an easy one day trip over and back.  Suthin and Boon are world 
class bonsai masters who will be doing demo's and workshops as well as 
our own Florida artists.  You can get detailed information and 
registration forms at the BSF web site, bonsai-bsf.com.


Mike

3-2-09 : To all:

Another Asian Festival and another big success thanks to the hard work of so many Sho Fu members!!! The continuing spirit of cooperation and support of the membership is what makes Sho Fu Bonsai Society so special. While so many of you gave your time and energy during the weekend, special thanks goes to Timmie and Miriam who coordinated the selection of the trees and the set up at the exhibit behind the mansion and the education table. We were fortunate in picking up several new members. Look forward to the next issue of the newsletter which will highlight the weekend and include neat pictures. A number of people mentioned during the weekend how impressive the permanent exhibit is. If you have not had a chance to see it in person, check out the website shofubonsai.org.

Mike

2-17-09 : To all:

Three cool slide shows from Kay Karioth.
Click here to see photos of the Selby workshop.

Click here to see photos of the February Meeting.

Click here to see photos of the Guy Guidry workshop.