Calgary Bonsai Society

Hey Folks, Feel free to post here if you have any suggestions or thoughts how to better the forum better.

it owuld be nice if more people actually posted here...
i want to buy an olive bonsai or grow one from seed any idea?

I have two european olives one is a cutting the other is a seedling.
I can make a cutting from the larger one if you would like.
I also have a couple of black olives

Well I think it would be good to talk about what we grow and how we grow it. What we have had success with and have not. It would be nice to have section where people could post pictures of their trees and discuss how to progress with them, critique, make them better etc. Perhaps a chat, organized at a certain frequency to discuss what we're growing, trying out etc.. If someone here has a lot of experience with a certain type of tree, or style perhaps we could have a virtual workshop?

Like Jare said, the biggest problem with this site right now is the lack of response. To be honest I have been too busy lately with work to give my trees anything more than the most basic care and I had no idea until today that this place existed (I've basically been in work-mode since August 30th and haven't come up for air).

I think the best way to promote a new CBS is to embrace all comers (not just old hands and not just newbies). There has to be a place for the newbies to learn from the experts and for the experts to learn from masters (Mike Stefancik from Lethbridge is the only guy I know that fits this bill -- perhaps there are others). The fact that Garden Retreat, Golden Acres, Green Gate and others (Blue Rose Flowers, despite their shoddy treatment of their trees and customers and their exorbitant prices, they do occasionally gets some decent material) are stepping up their support of bonsai will be a huge boon for the site. I think the best thing we can do is try to put ourselves out there as a place where people can come to ask questions about bonsai in Calgary -- to this end we should contact local retailers and let them know about the site. We should also try to have a few articles published on the board in case people start to take us up on the offer.

I would feel supremely unqualified writing something given what a total amature I am, but if no one else will, I can recompile what I've read from a book as well as the next guy (and give my two cents from practical experience). If I put something together, I would want it reviewed by our more experienced members to see if they thought it was worthwhile. If they liked it then we could publish it here.

Guides are helpful, but nothing beats having someone there to provide 1-on-1 assistance. If we generate enough interest we will eventually get enough people participating to field the questions on a daily basis. In the mean time we should just try to put our names out in the community. Perhaps we should bring Mike Stefancik again (he's pretty old from what I hear). Or, perhaps we should organize a collection trip and put up signs at SAIT, UofC, Mount Royal, the Calgary Hort Society and local Garden Centres.

I think there is a lot we can do, it's just a matter of deciding who wants to do it and when it makes sense in terms of interested parties to actually proceed.

- Jeremy

A simple suggestion that may help get some debate flowing would be to add a series of threads on good books, species that have been successful in Calgary (both inside and out), helpful websites and other similar ideas. Gives people a chance to pass along their experiences, beginner or advanced, and will help make this site a bit more information-heavy, which will further help traffic.