Wow! What a night last night! As planned, our club meeting was all about making a "hard cut" on an Ilex. I picked out two of them (they're in 5 gallon nursery pots right now and weigh a ton!) and pretty much decided what to cut on my own, after listening to the presentation. More experienced bonsai folks wandered around offering opinions and a helping hand -- both *** Miller and Mike Cartrett came over and gave me some input. It was wonderful fun to turn these hedge-sized plants into a nub and some branches sticking out of a pot!

We also officially became members of the Bonsai Society of the Palm Beaches last night - they pro-rated our membership and took our money, so it's official!

Then came raffle time. If you recall from my notes on last month's meeting, I didn't have any cash with me then, so Bonsai Buddy bought 6 raffle tickets for $5 and shared his tickets with me. So tonight, I bought tickets and shared with him! One of my numbers was the very first one called, and I selected a beautiful Ficus (Ficus microcarpa "Kingman) with fruit on it (I think it was the prettiest tree on the table!). Shortly thereafter, Bonsai Buddy won - not just once, but TWICE!!! He chose an azalea and a ligustrum. We've been very lucky on these raffles!

So I'm now up to eight trees in my collection - although calling those Ilex nubs "trees" the way they look right now is being very generous!!!! OH! Bonsai Buddy just called and reminded me that he has a ficus at his house that's mine - a twin trunk Ficus (Ficus nitida), (currently experiencing a case of the thrips) that will eventually make a nice banyan-style tree! - so I'm excited about that too. But I'm only going to count the ones I have pictures of here on this site!