New spring buds showing on the Danish Cherry, and both flower buds and leafs develop fast these days as temperatures rices. Two new pots have arrived earlier, and both events proves spring is here. This also means it is time to prepare for the national exhibition in late may (a bit too late I think, because it is nearly summer by then, and it is difficult to make a pleasing display that late normally).

Preparations have been going on for a while now, and the selected trees are carefully handled to be ready at time. It is difficult though to know how the weather will influence on flowering and fruit bearing, but only time will show.

From Marco Invernizzi who made a Facebook group to support a victim of the Japanese catastrophy.

http://www.facebook.com/n/?home.php&sk=group_161322040589059&mid=3e87820G3fb7592aG25a835dG7a&bcode=kJ6bWSNQ&n_m=robertbonsai%40hotmail.com

“Isao Omachi is the rising star of Bonsai in Japan. He used to live and work in Yamada-cho in the Iwate prefecture with his wife, 2 daughters and his parents. The recent tsunami didn’t take their lives but EVERYTHING ELSE they own. They lost EVERYTHING including one of the most amazing bonsai collections in Japan. They need our help. They need it now. Gambatte in japanese means: ” good luck!” or ” do your best!” The best we can all do is to donate money. 3 bank accounts will be soon open and ready to receive your donations: 1 in Europe, 1 in USA, 1 in Japan and a PAYPAL account. I’m sure that the Omachi family will share whatever we will be able to collect with relatives and friends in need. Help us to help them. Dont’ wait, please don’t wait! Thank you You can find Omachi on FACEBOOK, if you speak any other languages than English please translate this message and share it with everyone!”

Just got a reply from Tomohiro Masumi in Kyoto, and there are no influence from the giant earthquake at this part of Japan. We hope other parts of Japan will recover and best wishes to all affected by this catastrophe.