Blog

Where did the summer go??  All of a sudden it is Labor Day with the nights getting cooler and people discussing bringing in their tropicals for the winter!

We have three more General Membership meetings before our Christmas Party in December.  Let’s have fun while we get ready for a well-earned rest.

August Shows:

As predicted, August was a great month for bonsai. 

PSBS presented its bonsai show at the Destination Asia Festival at the Morton Arboretum.  Thank you to the many members who showed trees, or worked at the show, or did both.  This is by far the biggest annual project produced by PSBS and I received a great number of very complimentary comments from our visitors.  Unfortunately, the Sunday portion of the show was cancelled due to the threat of rain and thunderstorms (which proved not to be as bad as feared).  On Sunday, we were the entire Destination Asia Festival because all of the outdoor events were cancelled.  We had a good number of visitors that day.  During the three days, we collected 1401 ballots from our visitors choosing their favorite tree in the show.  Congratulations and thanks to Nick DiBattista, our Special Events Director, for running a great show after two years of cancellations.  Also, our sincere thanks to Chris Baker, curator of the bonsai collection at Chicago Botanic Garden, who judged the show and provided an informative and positive critique of the trees in the show.  More about that in coming months. 

Our friends and colleagues in bonsai from the Midwest Bonsai Society also presented a great show at CBG two weeks after ours.  That event was definitely enhanced for several PSBS members who took advantage of an offer extended by Chris Baker for a behind-the-scenes tour of the greenhouses used to house the bonsai collection year-round.  As is usual, I spent more money than expected with the many vendors at the show.  But it was for things I really needed, as I explained to my wife later.

General Membership Meetings:

These will be fun, beginning with September.  Remember that the September meeting has been pushed back a week to September 14^th due to the Labor Day holiday!  In September, we will present Iron Bonsai, with three members (Jim Beck, Phil Malhiot, and Victor Zurzcak) competing for bragging rights by styling the best tree from three junipers in our former Grow Plot.  Each will be assisted by another less-experienced member, and the members will be able to float from one presenter to the next to watch the process and ask questions.  At the end of the evening, each member will vote for their favorite tree and be able to drop tickets into a container for a raffle to own each tree.  It should be fun!

In October, our own Jennifer Price will be preparing a Penjing planting on a marble tray from BC Bonsai with nine elm trees.  Jennifer has developed an international reputation as a bonsai artist and teacher, and the evening should produce something special. 

Prairie Roots: See our “Prairie Roots” here. (link to PSBS newspaper articles from the past)

During the Destination Asia Festival, a visitor approached me in the Sycamore Room and introduced himself.  His name is Michael Lynch and he was co-President of PSBS in 1999 and 2000.  He offered some notebooks he had kept all these years with records of the society from his time in the club.  I picked those up a couple weeks ago and have started to review the material.  You will see some of the history of the society presented as an item in our newsletter, Bonsai Hai, and elsewhere on the website.  In the Destination Asia Festival results on the website and in this month’s newsletter there are links to newspaper articles from 2001 about our own Dan Kosta and two former members, Dick Anderson and Lisa Kolick (who was the other co-President in 1999 and 2000).  The society’s history dates back to 1987 as the Morton Arboretum Bonsai Society, changing to its current name in 1994.  If you enjoy understanding the history of the society and how it developed into what it is today, join me in reading this material.

Have a safe Labor Day holiday and we will see you on September 14^th!

Craig