Out first meeting of the year will be next Sunday, 9 February, starting at 2:00 PM. Held at the St. Francis Church Hall, 92 Mansell Ave., Hillcrest. If for any reason the upper carpark is full, don’t forget there is another carpark in front of the Church, just off the Morrinsville road near the traffic circle. And I also suggest you make a habit of bringing your own mug for coffee or tea, which will taste better than in the styrofoam cups and create less trash! A reminder that the cups and mugs, etc. that are in the kitchen belong to the Church and are off limits to us!
This meeting is on the subject of PRUNING TO IMPROVE YOUR BONSAI. First of all Aaron will talk about pines and review the seedling pines from 2018. So if anyone is growing seedling pines please bring them to the meeting.
Les and Sandra will talk about Pruning. Sandra will talk about HEAVY pruning, LIGHT pruning, and LEAF pruning for deciduous and leafy trees of different species. Les will talk about Conifers and Evergreens including pines’ and junipers’ needle pruning.
After the talks there will be a workshop on Pruning.

So, bring along any trees you want to prune or to get advice on about pruning. At the meeting we can decide whether it is the correct time of the year to prune the tree(s) you want to prune. If it is, you can proceed with its pruning. If not then advice will be given on when to do it and how to do it. Everyone please bring tools for pruning, turntables pruning paste if you have them, notebook & pen,and camera or smart phone with a camera, (for before and after pruning records). There will be a lot of information for a variety of trees that is pertinent to the Waikato. I will bring a few spare turntables for those who don’t have one.

Show and Tell. Any trees appropriate to the Meeting subject. We became a bit lax on the information you should be able to give about your trees last year- write down the following where known: What species and variety, what style it is or you plan for it, where and when you acquired it (how long you have owned it), if in training, did you start the process and when, or if previous owner started it in training and when.

I will be bringing the Library, and if I have room I will bring the entire library. You may want to arrive a bit early and/or stay a little later if you want to have a thorough look through all the books and magazines. There will be some more new books hopefully arriving later this month. BE SURE AND BRING BACK ANY OUTSTANDING BOOKS OR MAGAZINES YOU HAVE AT HOME!!!!