Weekly Wire: Tasmania! Tule Fog & an Unimpressive Little Baobab 12/29/11

Holy Toledo! (as my dad used to say). Great tree and a most excellent photo. Now if everyone only paid this much attention to detail when they shoot their bonsai. It belongs to Piotr Czerniachowski (here’s a YouTube demo by Piotr) and has been accepted for the 2012 Noelanders Trophy exhibition. I found the photo on facebook.

 

Speaking of the Noelanders Trophy Exhibition, here a tree from their 2011 show. I lifted it from this YouTube video. If it looks familiar to you, it might be because we featured it in a post almost two years ago (that photo is much better than this one)

 

The Houston Bonsai Society already has a complete 2012 calendar up (I won’t say anything about Fresno or some others, except that in three days it will be 2012 already). Anyway, HBS has a great site with a current monthly newsletter (here’s December) and much more. Note: Apologies to the good folks in Fresno. For some reason I seem to be picking on them these days. Maybe it’s because I have a soft spot for the San Joaquin Valley with its searing heat and delightful country culture (see below).

 

While we’re in the San Joaquin Valley, we might as well visit the Modesto Bonsai Club (Modesto is where I experienced the joys and sorrows of childhood, which might help explain why I like to pick on Fresno). Sad to say, the Modesto club’s site appears to be about one year behind. Still, I expect the good folks of that glorious part of the country are still plugging away at their bonsai (while enjoying their famous Tule fog).

 

Tasmania! Not too far from Modesto, we’ve got Southern Tasmania (just kidding). I’ve always wanted to visit Tasmania, partly because it’s so far away (excluding Anartica, I don’t think you can get any farther away from Vermont than Southern Tasmania) and partly just because it’s Tasmania (most people couldn’t find it on a map if their life depended on it). The Southern Tasmania Bonsai Society’s site is up to date (here’s their December newsletter), always a good sign.

BTW: we received a nice note from Noel Kemp, the president of the Southern Tasmania Bonsai Society. You can read it below, at the bottom of this post.

 

Seen one, seen them all. Rhona Meislik standing in front of a young, somewhat unimpressive Baobab tree in South Africa. (Okay, I’m kidding, but it is Rhona and it is a Baobab). From Jerry and Rhona’s recent South African bonsai tour. Among other things, Jerry is the author of Ficus, the Exotic Bonsai (retail 27.95, on special at Stone Lantern for 19.95).

 

2012 Bonsai Calendars. We’ve still got a handful left. They won’t last much longer, so don’t wait if you want to enjoy world-class bonsai every time you check the date.

 

A Hawaiian bonsai story. From the Fuku Bonsai website: “In 1989 Fuku-Bonsai sprayed defective Benlate contaminated with weed killers and suffered catastrophic losses that totaled over $30 million.  With the support and assistance of many individuals and organizations throughout the Big Island of Hawaii, we survived, reinvented the company, and are now rebuilding and expanding.” It boggles the mind to think that there were thirty million dollars worth of bonsai in the entire country, let alone at one nursery.

The twist. I debated whether to show you this tree because I didn’t like the smudgy gunk on the background. But, in the end, the tree won me over and I just couldn’t resist. It, and several other notable bonsai, belong to Francois Gau.

 

Bonsai in northern Indiana. This banner is from a link on the Fort Wayne Bonsai Club website about their spring and fall bonsai shows at the Foellinger-Freimann Botanical Conservatory in downtown Fort Wayne. BTW: The FWBC calendar is up to date.

Back to Tasmania: A note from Noel Kemp, the president of the Southern Tasmania Bonsai Society.

Dear Wayne

Having just read your recent posting I shall take you up on your offer of letting you know about our Exhibition, in April, next year. Still a while away, but if people are planning a trip “Down Under”, advanced notice of events is usually a good thing.

We, the Bonsai Society of Southern Tasmania, are a small, but persistent Society, having been established in 1984.  We have waxed and waned in numbers over the years, and are currently in a strong position (as we were last year), to put on our second show.  Our inaugural Exhibtion, last (austral) Spring was a great success, which is why we have decided on a repeat performance. This one will be in the Autumn (“Fall”), next year, to show the public a different – seasonal- aspect of bonsai.

Although the notice is not yet on our site, your readers might like to look us up, in advance:

http://www.chooseit.org.au/bonsai/index.html

The Exhibition will be in Rosny (a suburb of Hobart):

14-15th April, 2012, at the Rosny Barn (an early 19th Century – old for Australia! – stone building), which has been refurbished inside and which is now a top-rate exhibition area; it is much sought after by artists for their shows.  In fact, having visited many bonsai shows on the mainland (as in, the big isle, up there, to the north of Tassy) I can honestly say that the Barn is one of the best venues for a bonsai show that I have seen.

Thanks in anticipation for passing this on to bonsai enthusiasts, and keep sending your Stone Lantern Newsletter, thanks!

With kind regards,

Noel

Noel R Kemp
President, Southern Tasmania Bonsai Society