Greater New Orleans Bonsai Society packs April with grafting and workshop events

The Greater New Orleans Bonsai Society spent April on the kind of hands-on programming that solves real seasonal problems: how to graft cleanly, how to choose better material, and how to turn young stock into something with trunk presence before spring growth gets away from you. A trident maple grafting demonstration by Sylvia Smith on April 10 set the tone, then a Fortunella kindsaii kumquat workshop on April 11 pushed members straight into the workbench.

Smith was not booked as a casual guest. GNOBS described her and her husband, Howard Smith, as award-winning bonsai artists and graduates of Boon Manakitivipart’s intensive bonsai program. The couple also curate the trees for The Bonsai Collection, a permanent public bonsai tree exhibit in Fort Worth that is in the latter planning stages at the Fort Worth Botanic Garden. The collection has already signed an agreement to go in the west half of the Japanese Garden Courtyard, just behind the entrance tower, which gives the April programs a rare kind of weight: the same people teaching in New Orleans are helping shape a major public bonsai display in Texas.

The kumquat workshop made the club’s practical focus even clearer. Each participant received two Fortunella kindsaii trees, and Smith instructed growers to graft the trunks together to create a thicker, more interesting base before styling the plant. Attendees were asked to bring a bonsai pot and soil, which meant this was not a sit-back-and-watch evening. It was a build-the-tree session, with the club explicitly treating the species as the most highly desired material available for bonsai among the offered stock.

That matters in a month like April, when growers are deciding what will carry a tree forward for years, not just what looks decent for the season. GNOBS has been built for that kind of work since Vaughn Banting founded the society in 1972, and the club says its members have had trees displayed in the National Arboretum and the Weyerhaeuser Pacific Rim Bonsai collection. With more than 30 years in bonsai, Sylvia Smith fit the role of teacher, demonstrator, and designer all at once.

The back-to-back events showed why the Greater New Orleans club remains one of the most active in the United States: it pairs technique with material selection and sends members home with decisions that will shape their trees long after April ends.