BGLM Newsletter – 1
By Gene Heller
August 5, 2024
The best way to keep up to date on what’s going on in the garden is to subscribe to this newsletter. Here you’ll find the answers to all your most urgent questions: What’s going on with volunteers? What’s going on with the trees? What’s going on with infrastructure? What’s going on with snacks?
Subscribe here https://bonsailakemerritt.com/blogs/ and you can relax!
CURRENT PROJECTS
Over the summer we’ve been engaged in a major effort to improve the security system. Assistant Director Suzanne Muller reports that we are about halfway to completing this upgrade – new cameras and motion detectors are in place, along with other measures that are too secret to describe in detail! Suzanne is in talks with a potential contractor to reinforce the fence. This part of the project will be scheduled so as not to interfere with scheduled garden events such as the Autumn Lights Festival (see “Upcoming Events”) and the 25th Anniversary celebration.
The new roof on the front gate was completed in June, and the excellent materials and workmanship ensure that the roof will still be beautiful when the rest of us have lost some of our youthful good looks!
The new BGLM website is up and running. Because you’re reading this newsletter on the website, you already know that it’s easy to navigate and graphically very strong, with links to other useful sites, photos and videos of the garden, an online donation function, and it’s easy to SUBSCRIBE TO THIS NEWSLETTER.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Volunteer Appreciation Day at the Garden will take place on September 2 (Labor Day) from 11:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. All volunteers are welcome! Come to Meet & Greet, enjoy a delicious catered lunch (meat or vegetarian – make your meal request when you RSVP), and you won’t want to miss the Special Program! Be sure to RSVP by contacting Suzanne Muller (925) 787-1349 or queueinteriors@comcast.net today!
Pacific Bonsai Expo 2024, https://pacificbonsaiexpo.org/, takes place on October 26th and 27th at the Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center. A shuttle bus, sponsored and paid in part by BGLM, will run between the garden and the Center.
25th ANNIVERSARY! The garden opened on November 6th, 1999.This coming November 9th we will celebrate our first 25 years – our growth from seedling to young, robust home of some of the finest bonsai in the country. The festivities will take place at the garden – details to be announced soon and sent out to everyone who SUBSCRIBES TO THIS NEWSLETTER.
Autumn Lights Festival https://bonsailakemerritt.com/event/autumn-lights-festival/ takes place October 17th-19th. In past years close to three thousand people visited the garden during the festival. Getting the garden in shape for the festival calls for a ton of preparation, so please consider volunteering to take part. Contact Randi Keppeler at calshohin@yahoo.com.
TREES TO KNOW ABOUT
We’ve acquired a number of trees donated by the Lilienthal family, including a very handsome Hinoki cypress. Curator Gary Tom (who has been volunteering at the garden for 24 years and has been Curator for close to two years) reports that the Hinoki cypress, which has unusually small fans of foliage, will require repotting, and will be restyled by Peter Tea.
One of our trees, photo below, has been accepted to the upcoming Pacific Bonsai Expo 2024, (https://pacificbonsaiexpo.org/) which is an important juried show and competition. Rick Trumm has been styling this Sierra juniper, #466. Estimated age: over 900 years! Check it out before it leaves for the PBE – you’ll see a small rock on the surface, but what you won’t see is below the surface, where the roots wind around the unseen part of the rock.
More about curating the trees: In addition to guiding the overall aesthetic and botanical aspects of the garden, Gary manages a team of about eight volunteers. All of them had extensive experience with bonsai prior to joining Gary’s team.
Gary Tom and his assistant Lucky Fung making a tree healthy and beautiful
Gary Tom and his helper Emma Interi making a tree healthy and beautiful (2017)
NEWS FOR DOCENTS
Three new docents have recently joined the team. Nicole Yabut, Mats Hagstrom, and Steffany Dignum completed the minimum requirements to achieve ‘docenthood’, including one or more orientation sessions and attendance at our monthly Introduction to Bonsai class. https://bonsailakemerritt.com/introduction-to-bonsai-by-ebbs/.
John Mekisich (mitygto@aol.com) handles docent scheduling and maintains our Docent Schedule Calendar https://bonsailakemerritt.com/docent-calendar/. John is the guy who periodically sends out those notices that warn us about uncovered docent shifts (the shift is uncovered, not the docent). Help keep John sane by checking the calendar and volunteering to cover an open shift!
TOURS
Two groups from the Center for Elders’ Independence toured the garden recently. In June the group comprised Mandarin speakers, and in July, Korean speakers. Both groups included a translator. The tours lasted about an hour, and the participants were enthusiastic and interested, to judge by the number of questions and comments. CEI plans to schedule a third tour, this time for Cantonese speakers, in the near future. A video of the June tour is here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zj9QY0FNVDM.
END NOTES
A major source of the funding that keeps the Garden going comes from donations. You can donate to the Garden here: https://bonsailakemerritt.com/how-to-donate/.
To the many volunteers who do everything from sweeping paths to styling trees, but who aren’t identified by name in the newsletter: Your time will come! I’m lookin’ at you, Randi Keppeler, Rick Medress, John Mekisich, Janet Nelson, Janet Roth, Jan Smith, that shy person who doesn’t want their name mentioned.
And to YOU, because you’re still reading: Thank you for checking out this first issue of the newsletter! Now you have two things to do:
- Think about contributing your thoughts to the next issue.
- SUBSCRIBE Now.
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