Introduction to bonsai: creating beautiful miniaturized trees in shallow pots

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Club member Ed French has been raising bonsai trees for years in the pool cage behind the home he and Kathy have in the Naples community called Plantation. On the morning of Saturday, September 12, Ed will give us a presentation about the ancient Japanese art and science of bonsai. We'll learn some techniques for creating a miniature landscape on a tabletop by keeping trees dwarfed in tiny pots.

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Note that Ed and Kathy are hosting their first meeting for the club, so they'd like to limit attendance to just the first 15 members who sign up for this session. (We've had up to 53 people attending previous events.) To let the hosts know if you will or won't attend, scroll up to the RSVP link near the top right corner of the screen, and click either Yes or No. If your plans change, be sure to return to this page to revise your reply. And if the quota is already full, you can sign up to be put on the waiting list, in case other members cancel their reservation.

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The beauty of bonsai lies in creating the appearance of mature full-sized trees in a natural landscape, but keeping them only one or two feet tall. This can be accomplished by confining the roots in a very small container, trimming them appropriately to limit the tree's growth. The branches are also pruned, and can be bent with copper wires when young to shape them, as if the trees were ancient and just surviving on a wind-swept mountain.

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We'll learn the best species of trees to adapt for bonsai, the various planting styles, the proper mixes of soil for each species, how frequently to water and fertilize them, how to add rocks and mosses to enhance the pot's landscape, how to care for the trees in each season, how and when to re-pot them, and many more techniques. What you learn could lead you eventually to create bonsai as beautiful as the trees in these photos.

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By clicking on this green link to our web site's Photos (http://meetup.com/FloridaGardeners/photos) section, you'll see an album of pictures that Ed took of a dozen trees he's currently raising . You'll meet the trees in person at this event, when Ed will answer all your questions about creating bonsai. He and Kathy will also conduct a guided tour of their garden to show what other plants you can grow in your own.

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During the informal snack-and-chat portion of the meeting, you'll enjoy the foods and drinks that members brought to share. Many members also bring their excess plants for the free plant-exchange table, and take home other plants for their own gardens. But to learn whether there's still room for you to attend, first scroll up the screen to see if the 15-member quota has already been filled.

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