- Fuku-Bonsai president & founder David Fukumoto with some of the Horace Clay Mid-Pacific Bonsai Foundation Bonsai Ukiyoe Woodblock Print Collection
- PKBWP-8; our first workshop package as still our most successful and best value!
- E-mail Newsletter!
- by David W. Fukumoto, president & founder, Fuku-Bonsai
ALOHA & MAHALO! Fuku-Bonsai is a certified export nursery selling primarily wholesale since 1973. We are evolving into a unique product developer of premium Hawaiian specialties and a niche marketing, fulfillment and shipping company! The Internet makes all of this possible and each year more people are learning about Fuku-Bonsai. Increasingly, even our first-time visitors know a lot about us from the website and it's wonderful that many more now have a basic understanding about bonsai and the strategies for success. Our workshop participants are increasingly more proficient and this has been very satisfying!
The World of Bonsai has dramatically changed since I began in 1962! Then in Hawaii it was a very secretive past-time of primarily older Japanese men. When I began teaching bonsai a few years later, it was difficult to find suitable material and our challenge was to learn (and teach) how to create ideal "prepared bonsai stock!" That's what our Living Lovable 4LL8 items are and they are becoming equally as popular as our Hawaiian Lava Plantings as more and more take on the challenge of training bonsai.
Hawaiian Lava Plantings are still the most successful gift bonsai for anyone who can grow houseplants. The Premium Keiki Bonsai Workshop Package (item PKBWP-8) with a #8 Conversion Kit and a Beginner Handbook continues to be the most popular, the best value, and the most successful. The stock material was created by allowing the roots of a HS8 lava planting to grow into a cut down nursery pot. These are a lot older with much more character than 4LL8 items. It will be a greater challenge to remove the circling roots and prune back the heavier branches. But, because many of the important roots are protected within the rock, there is a very high success rate and beautiful results!
The last FBnews was issued in October 2005 and there have been two major changes since: 1) Oil prices have sky-rocketed and shipping prices have been adjusted. And, 2) Fuku-Bonsai now has an eBay Store!
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- A MAJOR
- SHIPPING PRICING
- ADJUSTMENT!
- $10 each for any True Indoor Bonsai or any Micro-Lobster tank (of any size) for the first and second to a U.S. address
- (except Guam, Puerto Rico or APO addresses)
- FREE SHIPPING IF THREE OR MORE OF ANY MIX OF TRUE INDOOR BONSAI OR MICRO-LOBSTER TANKS ARE SHIPPED TO THE SAME U.S. ADDRESS
- (except Guam, Puerto Rico or APO addresses)
Basically, the minimum shipping fee went up $1. This is a reasonable increase that will primarily affect the cost of single gift items. But notice that the cost of shipping the Micro-Lobster BT-1D and BT-2 Breeder Tanks has dropped and even with retail price adjustments, it represents a cost reduction of these two items. That's because there's a lower shipping mortality rate than initially expected and we are now shipping these routinely. There are other reasons for this adjustment.
We are becoming better shippers. With shipping heat packs and new Mylar-coated insulated packing materials, our shipping success rate in the past year was our best to date! We are very comfortable shipping either bonsai or Micro-Lobsters to destinations where reported low temperatures are above freezing. Federal Express has given us outstanding service and; as one of the 500+ members of the Hawaii Shippers Association, we've qualified for incentive rates. Incoming flights are full but in past years outgoing cargo was minimal. With the incentive rates, export shipping continues to increase! To make it nicer, FedEx now guarantees 2-day delivery from Hawaii to any part of the continental United States!
For those customers purchasing items for themselves there's an incentive to increase orders to three or more units. If you purchase two items, your shipping cost is $20. Our popular HS8(M) and 4LL8 items are $24.95 and the ML-10 Micro-Utopia is $29.95. When you purchase 3, you save $30! So get together with friends and family, purchase 3 or more items to be sent to the same address, then SHIPPING IS FREE!
In 1999, we put up the Fuku-Bonsai website even though we had no experience. We're strong on content and want to help our customers become very successful with our plants and Micro-Lobsters.
- As we begin our eBay Store we again have no experience but the same desire that our eBay customers will be very successful with our plants and Micro-Lobsters. But we have reservations and concerns and these are in an article on this website titled:
- INTRODUCING THE FUKU-BONSAI EBAY STORE!
Any comment, suggestions or recommendations would be appreciated! ~~~David
Over the past few years a number of our customers have been urging us to open an eBay Store to make our unique, high-value specialty items available to a larger clientele and create an easy simple process to order and pay for a single gift item. We made it possible to make credit card payments through PayPal and many PayPal Payments come to us with complete information within the notes portion and these are great.
- But, apparently, a number of our customers love the ease of eBay shopping! So we did, it's up and we invite you to visit by clicking on to our new FUKU-BONSAI EBAY STORE URL:
- We're excited about the store and the initial reaction. Orders began flowing in as soon as we set up our first "Fixed Price Listings." We've been urged to assist eBay members in understanding the basics of our bonsai and Micro-Lobster specialties and I've written four eBay guides:
- DESKTOP PETS! The Amazing Hawaiian Micro-Lobsters(tm)! And,
I'm told that it is important that eBay Stores be properly introduced and I request that customers who are eBay members do the honors by logging in feedback about your experience in dealing with Fuku-Bonsai over the years. Please also visit the above reviews and indicate if they would be helpful to other eBay members.
- MID-PACIFIC BONSAI FOUNDATION
- 2005 ANNUAL REPORT
- The Foundation is a sister non-profit organization that co-hosts the Hawaii State Bonsai Repository at the Fuku-Bonsai Cultural Center, sponsor of the Bonsai Days on the second Saturday of each month, and is supportive of all educational and preservation activities. The report includes:
- JAN & CHARLIE BILTOFT
- A tribute to the spirits behind Kona and Big Island bonsai!
ADDITIONS TO THE TRUE INDOOR BONSAI WEBSITE:
- INDOOR BONSAI . . . for a life-long hobby or for gifts!
- This is an introductory monograph that covers the entire subject.
- BIG ISLAND BONSAI ASSOCIATION'S 25TH ANNIVERSARY ALL-BIG ISLAND BONSAI SHOW!
- The Big Island's bonsai community has come a long way! This year Fuku-Bonsai and the Mid-Pacific Bonsai Foundation presented an exhibit and program honoring the late Hong Kong penjing master Yee-sun Wu.
- MICHAEL'S CHALLENGE - PART IV
- Michael Imaino joined Fuku-Bonsai in 1983, the same year this tree began. Since then he's become a Fuku-Bonsai director, senior plant manager, curator of collections, and the president of Mid-Pacific Bonsai Foundation. Both the tree and Michael have developed well! This is the story of one of the most challenging trees in training here!
- REPORT ON ALASKA BONSAI 2005-2006 ACTIVITIES!
- Fuku-Bonsai's True Indoor Bonsai are especially appreciated in our sister state Alaska. Maybe it's because our two states became states near the same time and that Alaskans love to come to Hawaii! So we've created a Fuku-Bonsai Hawaii-Alaska Bonsai Club and named John and Beth as our Alaska representatives. Here's what they've done to build a foundation for the future!
- APRIL 2006 WORKSHOP AT FUKU-BONSAI
- It's amazing the amount that John and Beth have learned since their last visit and it's true that you learn most by teaching! So it was necessary to set major new challenges and they learned a bunch of new stuff to serve as the basis for the next round of Alaska True Indoor Bonsai Workshops!
- CREATING AERIAL ROOTS!
- Bill Synder of Indiana visited, took a workshop, went home and applied what he learned. He figured our a nice new way to create aerial roots and is happy to share it with everyone! Thanks, Bill!
ADDITIONS TO THE MICRO-LOBSTER WEBSITE:
- RESEARCH & CONSERVATION REPORT & EDITORIAL
- The long awaited Santos DNA Report has just been published and released and it provides the basis for developing a long-term Opae'ula Preservation and Conservation Plan! Recommendations are made and written input is invited by all who are concerned about assuring that opae'ula will be available for future generations!
- ANOTHER CREATURE OF THE ANCHIALINE POND!
- Anchialine ponds develop in young lava and most of this type are on the Big Island of Hawaii. Opae'ula have the largest populations but there are over a dozen different shrimp that have been identified with some very rare. Micro-crustacean include "amphipods," tiny shrimp-like creatures only about 1/8" long!
- PIPIPI & ALGAE CONTROL UPDATE
- In the last FBnews, we introduced Pipipi, the Hawaiian marine snail that was recommended as our "algae clean-up crew." There has been mixed results and your feedback is requested. Some customers are extremely impressed that a single snail can create such a crystal clear tank. But others report that the snail died and are forced to use the cleaner stick again. Here's an update.
- SETTING UP A SHOWSTOPPER!
- Dale has enjoyed our BT-2 so much that he felt it was time to move up. We shipped the unit with Brackish Water Concentrate that he mixed with distilled water and we avoided having to pay for another 16 pounds of shipping! He's also testing a Hawaiian Anchialine Pond Grass (Ruppia maritima).
- A part of our photo gallery of the story behind the capturing of the creatures in pictures!