Category: Meetings

Greetings Everyone!

It’s been a rough winter and it’s only just beginning! I hope you and your trees have been staying safe and warm.

Before the repotting and bonsai seasons begin, this is a great time to evaluate and maintain your tools. At our meeting this month, Dale Harder will give us some lessons on tool sharpening and maintenance. If you’d like to bring your tools to work on, Dale recommends a small, fine grit sharpening stone. If you search for “pocket sharpening stone” on Amazon you’ll find plenty of options under $10. 

It’s also time to pay membership dues for 2026. Still just $25. You can bring your dues to the meeting(cash/check) or pay them online through our website.

We’ll be meeting this coming Saturday January 24th at 9:30am in the classroom at Rockefeller Park Greenhouse. 750 E. 88th St. in Cleveland.

See you there and stay warm!

-Adam Shank

Our final meeting of the year is this Saturday! 

As we typically do, we will have discussion about winter care and protection for our trees. So if you’re new to bonsai this year and have questions about how to keep your trees alive through the winter, be sure to join us!

I would also like to have a discussion about “What I Learned This Year”. Come and share a new technique or lesson(good or bad!) that you learned this year so we can all benefit from it and grow in our bonsai practice. 

See you there!

Rockefeller Park Greenhouse Saturday 11/22/25 @ 9:30am in the classroom.

-Adam Shank

Also, at the last meeting Dan White shared that he is offering a winter tree boarding service in his temperature controlled greenhouse. If anyone is interested you can sign up on his website and bring your trees to the meeting to be transported for free.

We have a meeting scheduled this Saturday 10/25 at 9:30am. We’ll be holding a swap meet event so bring along any bonsai related items that need a new home! As usual, we’ll be meeting in the classroom at Rockefeller Park Greenhouse.

Our final meeting this year will be November 22nd where we’ll have a year end recap and discussion on winter bonsai storage.

If you didn’t make it to the National Exhibition in September, here’s a good video tour of the show: National Bonsai 2025

Plus we’re already lining up topics and events for next year!

We have a meeting coming up this Saturday the 27th at 9:30am. Steve Ziebarth will be sharing insights into the design and development of show quality junipers. There will be videos, photos of progressions, live examples and possibly dragons. You won’t want to miss this one! 

And remember that our October meeting(10/25) will be a swap meet style event.

I would also like to congratulate all of the members that represented the Cleveland Bonsai Club at the 9th U.S. National Bonsai Exhibition recently. We’re all very lucky to have so many talented artists among our ranks to inspire and share their knowledge with us. I’ve attached photos of their displays to this email. Descriptions below:

1. Cork Bark Pine by Bill Cain

2. Dave Bennett with his Winterhazel

3. Kelley Adkins’ Elm

4. Mel Goldstein’s Frog Stone

5. Harry Clark’s Mountain Stone

6. Les Allen’s Arch Stone

7. Dave Bennett’s Figure Stone

8. Les Allen’s Figure Stone

9. Harry Clark’s Twisted Pomegranate

10. Azalea formerly owned by Mel Goldstein

11. Mel Goldstein and his Shohin Composition

12. Japanese Black Pine formerly owned by Mel Goldstein

We’ve got a meeting coming up this Saturday 8/23 at 9:30am. 

Bring a tree to work on and, as always, your questions to discuss.

We have a meeting scheduled for this coming Saturday, July 26th. No specific agenda or workshops this month. Bring your questions, a tree or your experiences with bonsai to share with the group.

Our meeting this month will focus on Junipers, a ubiquitous and quintessential bonsai subject. Unfortunately, Steve Z will not be able to lead the lesson due to a family emergency. Fortunately, Kelley Adkins was gracious enough to agree to fill in and lead a class session and workshop on the stages of building Juniper bonsai from young material to show worthy bonsai. He will be bringing examples of juniper training at various stages to demonstrate the techniques and their effect. We’ll take some time to discuss the basics of juniper growth and care then have the opportunity to ask some questions. After that we’ll have a group workshop session. If you have a juniper you’d like to make some progress on, you are encouraged to bring it. There should also be some juniper plants available to purchase from some of our members. Be sure to bring your tools and wire. Hopefully the weather is clear and we can expand out onto the patio. 

Looking forward to seeing you there,

-Adam Shank

We have a meeting coming up this Saturday. We will be focused on prep and planning for our annual show which will be the following weekend. If you are volunteering during the show please attend this Saturday so we can go over all the details and hit the ground running on show setup.

At our June 28th Meeting, Steve Ziebarth will be teaching a class on Juniper Bonsai Creation. Examples will be show the steps and progress of taking cuttings or nursery stock and turning them in to exhibition worthy bonsai. The plan is to start with a class that is accessible to beginners and follow up with more advanced techniques at a later date. While there is no formal workshop, you are welcome to bring a juniper you already have to work on and there will be some raw juniper material of various size/ages available for purchase.

That’s it for now but we’ve got more in the works! It’s gonna be a great year of bonsai!

I hope you’ll join us,

-Adam Shank

Club V.P.

Lots of action these last few weeks! The trees have returned to their benches for a fresh growing season and I officially closed out my repotting season tonight with an Engelmann Spruce. I hope you all had a productive and successful repotting season as well!

We have a meeting coming up this Saturday. As a theme for this month’s meeting, I was thinking “Progress”. If you have a project you’ve been working on, bring it in along with some photos of how it started and share your progress. 

Additionally, we’ll have an exciting exhibition opportunity to tell you about and start planning for. Plus, we have our Annual Bonsai Show coming up on May 31st-June 1st.

Lots to talk about so come join us as we kick off a big year for Cleveland Bonsai!

We’re knocking on spring’s doorstep now and the 2025 bonsai season is kicking into gear. 

We put together a really nice silhouette show earlier this month, much thanks to those that came and helped out! 

The topic for our meeting this month will be repotting. I’ll be working on a short presentation and then I would like the meeting to become a community repotting session. If you’re new and have never repotted a bonsai tree, or maybe you just need an extra set of hands, bring in your tree and supplies and get assistance from some of our experienced members! Repotting a tree is always an adventure and we can all benefit by seeing and experiencing more. Keep in mind that any tree you repot will need to be protected from cold weather for the remainder of winter/spring.

Saturday March 22nd, 9:30am at the Rockefeller Park Greenhouse.