The Bonsai Conversations package that I put together with Michael Miller is finally complete! We spent a lot of time putting this together, and even though he still can't pronounce bonsai correctly, it's an absolutely invaluable product!

We decided to call it Dallas Bonsai Garden - Bonsai: Beginner to Advanced - Conversations with a Master. While I'm much to humble to want to be called a master, Michael convinced me that it was a good title, heck as I told him in the audio, I'd be pretty stupid if I hadn't learned anything in over 40 years in this hobby.

When you purchase our Bonsai Conversations, you will receive:

• 8 hours of interviewed conversations with me, Fred Meyer, where Michael asks me 372 questions which cover almost everything there is to know about bonsai. From beginner to advanced, nothing is left out. To be honest, there is some expert and master level topics about jinning and intricacies of specific varieties that we left out, but the odds you will ever need them are so rare, there was just no reason to bore you with it.
  
  
• Transcripts of the entire interview. These transcripts are 137 pages of valuable bonsai information you can use to follow along with the interviews, or use to quickly review some specific detail.
  
  
• 67 page bonsai conversations guidebook that covers the highlights of the information I speak of in the interview. This guidebook is a wonderful how-to guide itself worth $19.99 at least!

Well, I guess you can tell I'm very excited about this. We are making a special offer to Dallas Bonsai Newsletter Subscribers (you) this week. This week only, you will be able to purchase it for $39.95. The price will go up Midnight, Friday October 16, 2009 to $49.95 and we will open the doors on this to the whole world.

If you are even remotely interested in learning how to grow bonsai, you owe it to yourself to get it now!

Sincerely,

Fred Meyer

P.S. If you are not absolutely satisfied with it, I will give you a full refund. Guaranteed!

Because we finally finished the Bonsai Conversations audio, guidebook, and transcripts package today that I put together with Michael Miller, I decided to use a portion of the information on Winterizing here to give you an idea of what you'll receive when you purchase it. We worked tirelessly to put the transcripts together, and as transcripts go, they are quite good. You will see that even though you completely understand someone when they are speaking, when written word for word it looks different when reading. But that doesn't really matter, because we have provided all of the information in audio format. So all you have to do is listen and learn. Also, there is much more on Winterizing in the Bonsai Conversations. Please enjoy this selection.

Michael: Okay. Let me ask you about winterizing. Bonsai are indoor and outdoor but the ones that are outdoors need to be winterized somehow. Now you told me that you can either stick them in the ground or you can bring them into your garage. For me, if I bring them into the garage, they’re basically in the dark for a couple months, so can you elaborate a little more on how you would winterize.

Fred: Yes, so much of this depends on what part of the United States you live in, you live in about zone 8 and we’re in about zone 8A here in Dallas. We used to go to the Minnesota and Wisconsin state fairs and I’ll give you some experiences of the people up there. Because this is one of the questions I constantly asked them so that I would be able to impart that same knowledge to our people that come up and ask us, well how do you take care of these in the winter time -- the tropical foliage is not a problem.

We’ve already talked about them, they’re indoors.

Alright, the outdoor plants, there are 2, 3, 4 ways to do it. The most successful for people in Minnesota and in Wisconsin, this was Milwaukee, Wisconsin and St. Paul, Minnesota and it got awfully cold in winter. One of their rooms would normally be an unheated room in the house,and there would normally be a window in that room, that’s where they would put their bonsai, so that it was cold and 40 - 50° or whatever, but they would have some light, some of the people did use plant lights, but most of them would be like a porch and it was enclosed with windows and so forth so it stayed above freezing but it had a good light.

Now when we go to Japan, as an example, in January or so we’ll go there and will see all of these conifers just sitting there in rooms that are no brighter than most office complexes and that’s not enough light for a plant to grow, okay how do they do it, well the plants dormant, they do keep them extremely clean you won’t see one dead leaf on the ground, or on the plant or on the soil, it’s just as clean as can be. So in other words, no bugs, nothing there that would harm the plant in its sleep right then. What they were like was like a storage room, like you would go to with the overhead garage door, and what they do is they open this up, during the day, if it’s a nice sunny day to get the air in and then at night time they close it. It doesn’t get that cold in Japan, normally just right at freezing or so, the humidity is quite high. It’s a real comfortable cold.

With Minnesota, some of the people would bury their plants, but they had a poor success in that the pots would crack and break in the ground because it was 40° below zero. They would cover the plants with snow and then the varmints; they got all kinds of little varmints, raccoons etc. would come in and chew the plants up, so this wasn’t a good. We had one, a doctor that was in Wisconsin, and he kept his in the garage, his garage was graveled, it was concrete where he drove his car in but the sides were graveled and that’s where he kept his plants, in other words, they were dormant and they were able to withstand that poor light condition, and he would water them once every week to two weeks whenever he thought they needed it.

Now, he would lose some of the more tender plants, pomegranate and pyracantha, he would lose those because it just got too cold, but that’s how he grew them. People that had the most success however were the ones that kept them in a very cold room in their house, so it was just barely above freezing and with adequate light, not bright light, because you’re not trying to keep the plant in growth, you’re just trying to get it to survive at that state, some people use these cold frames, most people, don’t seem to have much success with them, but I guess it's as good as you can get for some people. Here in Texas and in zone eight where you live, normally we only have one or two days where it stays below freezing all day, we have four or five days when it may get down to 10 and then pop back up to 30, those days we have to protect everything of course, and then in between, we may be hauling stuff in like the moving van people, in and out, in and out, in and out, if you can put them into a little greenhouse if you’re so lucky to have one, then you don’t have to worry about that, you do have to worry about excess moisture and fungus with the greenhouse’s, because they do hold a lot of moisture, but the plants survive fairly well, in this climate in the wintertime. The spring and fall are perfect for the plants but the summer is the hardest part for our plants here in Texas.

Overwintering, is just one small problem you may have in the northern climates, most people like in New York and so forth, most of the plants they have, unless they have a greenhouse they’re going to be the indoor type bonsai.

Our new monthly Bonsai tips are brought to you, by special arrangement, courtesy of the John Yoshio Naka Family. You can find the full year’s guide and a whole lot more in the book Bonsai Techniques I by John Naka. We have both of Mr. Naka’s books, Bonsai Techniques I and Bonsai Techniques II, available for immediate purchase.

Autumn is like the spring in terms of temperature and length of night and day. General rules for the care of bonsai are much the same for both seasons. The bonsai is as colorful as in the spring, except the leaves take the place of flowers.

Prepare for the coming winter.

Location: A sudden turn of warm weather may cause re-sprouting on deciduous trees that have already begun to lose their leaves. Guard against this by putting the deciduous bonsai in a cool shady place. Unseasonably hot or cold days should be taken care of accordingly. The possibility of an early frost is just as likely, and semi-tropical bonsai should be protected or under cover at night.

Watering: Much the same as September, keep in mind the fact that as the growth cycle slows and stops, the quantity of water needed is correspondingly lessened.

Trimming and Pruning: The strong growth on upper portions of conifers should be trimmed. Pines should be trimmed. Clean off the dead needles and conifers. After the leaves have fallen from deciduous bonsai, it is safe to shorten the year's growth and trim to shape. Small branches can be wired this month, but remember that the branches are less flexible. End of this month, remove all fruit and any seed pods. The berries may be saved until spring if the tree is healthy.

Unwiring:Wires on deciduous trees should be removed if they are cutting in. If they are not removed, they will cause the branch to die during the winter.

Fertilizing: Fertilize as usual for strength in dormancy. The idea this month is to obtain dormancy, not to stimulate growth.

Transplanting: The same rules as previously outlined for September. This is the last month that bonsai can be safely transplanted.

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