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2013 MAHALO
YEAR-END SALE!
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ISSUE #12. DECEMBER 2013
ALOHA! To celebrate the first year of the
Journal of Tropical & True Indoor Bonsai, our sale is
now in progress:
Please send an email
to
sales@fukubonsai.com or
david.f@fukubonsai.com
with your name, address, phone number, order items, shipping
instructions if gift order, total the order (including
shipping charges) AND SUBTRACT 10% OF THE ENTIRE ORDER! Upon
checking your order, a return
email will allow phoning in your credit card authorization, we'll send a PayPal Invoice, or you can send a PayPal
Payment. The sale starts now and ends December 31, 2013!
For your Christmas gift-giving, please consider our Hawaiian
Lava Plantings which are the most successful gift bonsai for
anyone, anywhere who can grow houseplants. The quality is
better than ever and there has not been a price adjustment
for many years. We will confirm but schedule Christmas gift
orders beginning 1-2 weeks before Christmas or deliver as
specified. An adjustment will become effective January 1,
2014. So now's the time as prices will never be lower!
Mahalo!
CELEBRATING ONE YEAR OF THE JOURNAL
OF TROPICAL & TRUE INDOOR BONSAI!
It's been a hectic and satisfying year and I thank
everyone for their great support and participation.
I
got hooked into bonsai in the mid-1960’s while still very
much a beginner after filling in as a substitute teacher in
an evening adult education bonsai course. I shared what I
knew with a wonderful group that visited my home after the
course and formed the Aloha Bonsai Club. This was
followed by co-founding the non-profit 501(3)(c) Hawaii Bonsai
Association that played a major national role as the lead
sponsor of the landmark Hawaii 1980 International Bonsai
Congress whose theme was: “Bonsai; Bridge to International
Friendship!” Heavier commitments grew to having a role in
the formation of the World Bonsai Friendship Federation in
Omiya, Japan in 1989!
Bonsai is a wonderful hobby and a 50+ year bonsai lifestyle! It was unfortunate that Fuku-Bonsai was forced into a 25-year long battle for survival between 1989 and 2014 due to spraying defective Benlate contaminated with weedkillers that killed or stunted our then 16-year old plant bank, caused the lost of the 17-acre Kona Fuku-Bonsai Center, but required growing all new crops with losses totally well over $30 million! The net total of the 1994 product liability and 2007 DuPont fraud settlements was less than 10% of our losses after taxes and legal fees. But with the support of everyone, we survived, are rebuilding, and setting the course for the next generation. First we learned to grow superior Dwarf Schefflera Hawaiian Lava Plantings which are exceptional gift items for anyone, anywhere who can grow houseplants. In 1999 we went online with www.fukubonsai.com As customers expressed interest in learning to grow bonsai we expanded our line of Premium Potted Bonsai. 2007 was a milestone year with the INTRODUCTORY WORKSHOP PACKAGE (IWP) and handbooks. For us this was the end of long quest for the "Educational Bonsai Holy Grail!" The key was the prepared bonsai stock with lower trunk character, multiple trunks, and low branches within 1" of the soil level and a shallow compact root system within 1/2" of that soil level. We increased the partnership between Fuku-Bonsai, a for-profit corporation, and the 501(3)(c) Mid-Pacific Bonsai Foundation to co-sponsor the Fuku-Bonsai Cultural Center and Hawaii State Bonsai Repository and also the monthly email Journal of Tropical and True Indoor Bonsai. I asked friend Jerry Meislik to help as contributing editor and he agreed. So we began. A RECORD OF 2013 ACHIEVEMENTS & ACCOMPLISHMENTS I began with the idea of writing one or two articles and Jerry would contribute another. The monthly schedule would be daunting for just the two of us. But in that first issue Ryan Chang contributed his first Sumo IWP report, obtained more plants, and along with Jerry and I has contributed an article in every issue. In this issue, he and I recap the remarkable progress that he made! Granted that Ryan is a unique individual, it proves we can supply high-success workshop packages and can teach by Internet and email! Ryan became our second Journal contributing editor and as we increase production and expand marketing, I am pleased and proud that Ryan will be Fuku-Bonsai's Oahu representative. John "Jay" Boryczko was especially consistent and with so much writing and photographing talent, was requested and has accepted becoming the fourth major member of the Journal editorial team. Others made reports and became contributing writers. Amongst the study groups will come more contributing editors and writers. As each assumes a comfortable amount of additional responsibility, the Journal will grow to serve future generations long after I am gone. I request your support by becoming or renewing your membership in the Mid-Pacific Bonsai Foundation! We are moving to become a national scale vertically integrated source of True Indoor Bonsai information (through the website, Journal and other media) and the highest quality source for the specific plants and specialty supplies. Our truly unique contribution will be personalized assistance to those who become members of the Mid-Pacific Bonsai Foundation and the study groups. NOWHERE ELSE IN THE ENTIRE BONSAI WORLD IS THIS COMBINATION OF INFORMATIONAL RESOURCES, PRODUCTS, AND ASSISTANCE AVAILABLE! GOALS AND STANDARDS FOR 2014 • The Journal will become a more effective vehicle to help our customers and their gift recipients. It will reflect that Fuku-Bonsai's True Indoor Bonsai commitment to be the most successful gift bonsai for anyone, anywhere who can grow houseplants! • Mid-Pacific Bonsai Foundation will continue to grow and take on more authority and responsibility as a major part of the post-Fukumoto succession plan. While the Journal of Tropical & True Indoor Bonsai will be available to Fuku-Bonsai customers, it is also a benefit of Foundation membership. I have been urged on a fairness basis to create a distinction between members and non-members and have wrestled with this dilemma. Our Fuku-Bonsai customers are not expected to have to become Foundation members as their purchases of our products made possible Fuku-Bonsai. • There will be a restricted introduction of PREMIUM INTERMEDIATE WORKSHOP PLANTS (PIWP)! Just as the IWP plants were the key to learning (or teaching) high-success True Indoor Bonsai and creating high potential small bonsai, the new PIWP make possible more complex bonsai results and high potential medium bonsai. Membership in the study groups and purchase of PIWP items will be restricted to Mid-Pacific Bonsai Foundation members. • The Journal will increasingly speak out against bonsai fraud and misrepresentation. The misuse of the term "INDOOR BONSAI" for plants that clearly are not houseplants is the primary cause of the overwhelming bonsai failures and to differentiate, we trademarked "TRUE INDOOR BONSAI™.". • Tropical and True Indoor Bonsai will be presented as a popular form of American Bonsai. We will continue to move away from the restrictive attitudes, values, and practices associated with "traditional temperate climate Japanese outdoor bonsai." We will build an inclusive community with civility and mutual respect. We will encourage innovations and creation of a non-competitive hobby! CONCLUSION. 2013 was great year and I am excited about the activities individuals are planning for next year. Each member of our team is moving into their areas of interest. Each month the burden of leadership become lighter and I see my role evolving into being the ringmaster of a community with more active participants! I hope all readers have enjoyed the Journal. On behalf of the editorial team and everyone associated with Fuku-Bonsai and the Mid-Pacific Bonsai Foundation, I send warmest season's greetings with hopes for a happy, healthy, and satisfying New Year!
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UPDATING THE 8-MONTH REPORT - ONE MONTH LATER. By David Fukumoto (Journal editor) Kurtistown, Hawaii. This series began in February 2013 when Ryan Chang first visited Fuku-Bonsai. We worked on three "1:10 Project" trees that were shallow potted into 9" diameter x 1" deep saucers in Sumo, Roots, and Root-Over-Rock stylings. This second update just one month later shows strong vigorous regrowth with trees at optimum growth. |
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BAHRAIN REPORT By Burton Flake and Jessica Curtis (both on deployment in Bahrain) Here's a fellow who believes everything is possible and he has the energy and desire to become a bonsai evangelist! For us it was quite a challenge but a form of support for our soldiers protecting our way of life and who serve our country. Congratulations to Burton for achieving his goal and to Jessica and the others who helped and supported Burton. MAHALO! |
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TROPICAL INDOOR BONSAI CLASS
By Gary Judd & Lucy Sakaishi Judd of Sacramento,
California. In 22 years of bonsai, we learned people
prefer having them in their homes or offices. Fuku-Bonsai
schefflera trees have been ideal for workshops. Each kit of
individually packed soils, pot, wire, etc. include instructions.
The class ranged from 8 years through adult, some siblings,
parent-child, and couples. Contact Judd Bonsai of
California at
juddbonsai@att.net
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REDO OF A FLAWED ROOTS INTO A SUMO By Carol Tingley (Apex, North Carolina) I can see by reading reports from other study group members that I’m not the only beginner long on enthusiasm but short on knowledge. I made some rookie mistakes, but that’s how you learn. |
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FIRST TRIAL OF PREMIUM INTERMEDIATE WORKSHOP PLANT AS 1:10 PROJECT ROCK PLANTINGS! Robert and Sheryl Silverio of Panama City, Florida were recent Fuku-Bonsai visitors while I was working on plans to introduce the PIWP next year. They liked the ideas and concepts and did the first field testing of a new rock planting workshop to be offered next year. |
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MAILBAG - DECEMBER 2013 At Fuku-Bonsai we really want our customers to be successful and invite them to email if they have problems, concern, or if they need assistance. Here are three recent requests. |
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