Welcome
The Blue Ridge Bonsai Society supports and promotes the art of bonsai in the region around Asheville, NC. We meet together monthly, providing companionship, education, and workshops from beginner to advanced level and we exhibit in various shows during the year.
Goal for 2020-2021: To help each member gain in knowledge of how to develop a show-quality bonsai.
- Members will be encouraged to create a written plan describing the future development of each tree. (This is useful for tracking what works and what does not.)
- Meeting activities in February, April, July, and August contribute to these goals.
2021 Meetings and Events
Meeting and event locations vary because of the COVID-19 requirements.
Jan. 11 - No meeting
Feb. 21 - Felix Laughlin will lead a group discussion of wintering conditions for different kinds of bonsai. This will be a ZOOM Meeting. Your invitation will be on an email.
Notice: This meeting was moved from
Feb. 14th to avoid Valentine's Day.
MAR. 14 - Being arranged by the Program Committee. This will probably be a Zoom meeting.
April 11 - Being arranged by the Program Committee. This will probably be a Zoom meeting.
May 9 - Being arranged by the Program Committee.
June 27, 2021. Young Choe's kusamono workshop will be held at the Etowah Valley Golf Club Pavillion. This is a firm date.
The Carolina Bonsai Expo at the NC Arboretum has definitely been cancelled for 2021 because of COVID-19.
More Suggested Activities:
New!! as of February 25, 2021
Arthur Joura, Bonsai Curator at the NC Arboretum will be giving a series of online talks once a month on Thursdays for six months, starting January 28th at 4:00 pm. The series is described in the document below.
If you missed the first talk, but were registered for it, you can watch the recording for free for the next 30 days. The second talk is on Thursday, February 25 at 4:00 and includes Arthur and John Geanangel from the Black Creek Study group.
The following link will take you to registration for the other sessions:
Register for the next More Than Meets the Eye. .
New: International BONSAI Online
In 1979, William Valavanis and Yuji Yoshimura launched International BONSAI magazine type-set with state-of-the-art four-color film photographs.
42 years and 164 issues later, Bill Valavanis has decided to retire this beautiful printed version and replace it with a free digital bimonthly magazine; International BONSAI OnLine:
Here is the link to sign up:
https://internationalbonsaionline.com
New: Bonsai Podcast
Jonas Dupuich, the author of the wonderful website and illustrated blog "Bonsai Tonight", and Michael Hagadorn, author of the new book Bonsai Heresy, and some of their friends are now recording podcasts of conversations with bonsai experts.
Both the blog and the podcasts are available from:
BRBS Dues for 2021
Our normal annual club dues are $30 for an individual membership or $35 for a family membership. Because of the COVID-19 disruptions of our activities in 2020 and uncertainty about 2021, dues for 2021 will be prorated at 50%: $15 or $17.50.
(Of course, if you can afford to pay full dues as a donation, it would help to pay for bonsai professionals either for Zoom meetings or live in 2021.)
Click here to read President Peggy Snow's email about dues for 2021:
General Information
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Our meeting place, the visitors' center at the Asheville Botanical Gardens, has been closed Since April, 2020. As of January, 2021, there is still no news on when it may reopen and be available for our meetings.
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All trails and gardens at the the NC Arboretum are now open. The bonsai garden is open from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm daily.
More Suggested Activities:
The Washington Post has a really beautiful article on Young Choe. Click here to read it:
Take care of your trees and write their histories!
Some of our most experienced members got together and designed a document to help you do this. Download a copy here. You an use the Word version of the document if you want to add pictures of your trees.
Learn more! (Have you looked at all the best known references?) Go to the Library page of this website to download our new one-page bonsai reference list. One-page map to wisdom!
See Special Notices page for
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Our election results
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A special award
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An interview with Felix
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A link to more on Yuji Yoshimura by William Valavanis of International Bonsai.
See the Tips, Advice, and More page for
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New advanced online courses from Bjorn, and a link to a review of these courses by Jonas Dupuich of Bonsai Tonight
See the Photo Gallery page for pictures of three bonsai exhibits taken by our roving photographer, Stuart Rogers:
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The 2019 Winter Silhouette Show in Kannapolis in December
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The National Bonsai and Penjing Museum in Washington, DC
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Knoxville Bonsai Society's Winter Show in February, 2020
