Page 56 - BSAM 2017 Q3

Left column: Brian Donnelly; Volunteer, Manon Hébert; Patrick Blandeau, Pres. Société de Bonsai et Penjing du Québec; Volunteer, Caroline Vachon
Middle column: Joan Greenway, BCI; Leon Leblanc, Vianney Leduc, Brian Donnelly.
Right column: Visitors, André Bertrand and Chloe Lavoie-Roberge; Penjing Demonstration, Daniel LaFortune
Expo-Bonsai could not have succeeded without the many society members volunteering their time to ensure an exhibition of international quality. From the photographs you can see they succeeded very well. Working together for the rst time, member-volun- teers not only set up and monitored the displays, they helped visitors with guided tours, made personalized bonsai from larch saplings and gave golf cart rides to and from the parking lots.
Our continued awareness of environmental protection was evident in discussions about the ethics of Yamadori. e twenty gi Larch saplings, never destined to be bonsai but rather to replace trees taken
from nature, were held back at the last minute when it was realized there may be unintended consequences. Vianney, president of the Ottawa explained “ We had a long discussion with Robert (owner of Bonsai Gros-Bec ) and Matthiew (curator at the Montreal Botanical Garden) about this idea of replacing a collected tree with a sapling. ere could be potential pitfalls. A larch sapling’s soil could contain bacteria
54 | BCI | July/August/September 2017