Happy New Year!! I hope this finds you in good spirits and your trees safely tucked away where they are protected from the worst of the cold. Ideal temperatures for winter dormancy is 30 to 40. Of course there are exceptions. I have my ponderosa pines outside on the ground beside my fence covered with snow behind a wind fence. Their native habitat was in a place where the temps routinely were -30 so I think I'm good with them. Our holiday meeting was a big sucess. We had almost 30 in attendance with many raffle items, a nice door prize and a couple of silent auctions that were well received. 13 people either joined the club for the first time or renewed their membership. With plenty of food to share and lots food to donate to the food pantry the night was a great success. The folks at East Church Food Pantry thank us for the generousity and assure the canned goods will help needy families with their basic food needs. Thanks to you all. We will not be meeting in January or February but our next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday March 20 at our new meeting place Kent Career Technical Center at 1655 East Beltline NE This is just about a mile from our previous home at Meijer Gardens. Just to summarize, because of construction at Meijer Gardens, we will meet for several months at KCTC. I will publish detailed instructions about how to find our meeting room and which parking lot and which door to use in early March. This is a great place adjacent to their greenhouse with adequate workspace and a pleasant atmosphere. We are fortunate to have such a place to meet. That meeting will have two presentations. Tim Priest will speak about bonsai tools, their use and maintainence. Also Anita Buckowing will talk a bit about pots, pot styles and how to match a pot to a tree. This will be good information leading up to our April meeting which will be a potting/repotting workshop. Of course you can bring a tree with questions for the group. I am itching to get to my trees to do some work but THAT'S A BIG NO NO. With the exception of tropicals or sub tropicals grown indoors under lights, do not get impatient (like me) and try to work on your trees while they are dormant. Here's to a short winter and a brief time till we can get back to working with our beautiful trees!
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