A young man named Hideo Leroy Fujii learns landscaping and formal bonsai training from Paul.  Leroy then sets up his own landscaping business with Paul's blessings.

        A small group of students meet informally at Toyo Nursery to study the art of bonsai.  Relatively few people in the country have heard of this gardening art.

1958 -- Leroy Fujii attends the California Bonsai Society's Spring show for the first time.  This is the second show the eight-year-old club has presented.  Leroy would attend most during the next forty years.

1960 -- By this time some of Paul's students are holding occasional bonsai displays at the Heard Museum north of downtown Phoenix.  Paul learns about and contacts rising California Bonsai Society teacher and youngest founding member John Naka.  John comes over to present a demonstration.

        The first club show of trees is held at Town & Country Shopping Center, 20th St. & E. Camelback Rd.  Over the next three decades the club would exhibit at several other area malls and get many local mentions in print and on TV.

        John Naka comes over annually for digs, workshops, and shows (through 1978 when his now international lecture and demonstration schedule has fewer openings).  He demonstrates tree design for the Phoenix club at the opening of the Scottsdale Civic Center, and at the Desert Botanic Garden and Valley Garden Center.

1967 -- The American Bonsai Society is founded.  Among its ninety-nine charter members is Phoenix member Roseanne Elwinger.  Paul teaches an evening course in bonsai for Phoenix College.   A mimeographed semi-annual Schedule of Events is edited by co-founding member Joan McCarter.

        The club meets at the Desert Botanic Garden in east Phoenix, having put on annual shows there for a few years.  This has been due to the help of co-founding bonsai club member Alice Feffer, who has also been displaying award-winning entries in the separate DBG Annual Shows.

1971 -- A Memorial garden is dedicated to Paul at the Desert Botanic Garden.  Per pp. 11 and 16 of the May issue of Bonsai Clubs International Bonsai Magazine, the club's logo is thus:

1972 -- David and Judy Meyer establish the Tucson Bonsai Society after a favorable response to an early June show the Phoenix club assisted with at El Con Mall.  (David first became involved with the art after seeing the 1967 show Phoenix put on at Town & Country Shopping Center.)  John Naka begins giving annual workshops also in Tucson, as does Leroy.

1973 -- Phoenix club meetings are held at the Valley Garden Center near downtown beginning in the Fall (and running to the present day).  Also this year, John Naka's Bonsai Techniques is published in California, based on his beginner's class mimeograph.  The book would become one of the most valuable guides in the field.

        The basic coarse soil mix formula in use today is developed.

1974 -- A "Japanese festival of the Living Arts" is held at the Valley Garden Center in April.  Developed around the club's Spring show and sale, it is held annually for five years.

1979 -- The Memorial garden for Paul is moved to the Valley Garden Center.

1981 -- The club is a co-sponsor of the reborn Japanese Festival of the Living Arts, now held at the downtown Civic Plaza.

1982 -- John Naka's Bonsai Techniques II is published, further extending the art's possibilities in this country.  (Both of his books go on to be translated into four languages by decade's end.)

1984 - John's masterpiece eleven tree juniper forest, Goshin, becomes the first resident of the new American Bonsai Pavilion at the National Bonsai Collection in Washington, D.C.

1985 -- The Japanese Festival here is now called by its name Matsuri.  John Naka is honored in Tokyo by the Japanese Emperor for his international promotion of the art of bonsai.

1986 -- Matsuri is held for the first time at Heritage Square, 6th and Monroe Streets.  Held there every year except one since then, this is the site of the club's largest annual show.

1990 -- The club's Plant Hardiness Survey is first conducted.

1992 -- The Payson Bonsai Club is founded by one of our members, Larry Mueller.

1993 -- John Naka sketches a new club logo for us using one of Leroy Fujii's trees.  The first of a continuing series of August workshops featuring a California teacher is held with Mel Ikeda.  Subsequent years would see Jim Barrett, Ernie Kuo, Roy Nagatoshi, and Ben Oki.  All of these have been students of John Naka and others.

1995 -- The club begins fully-sponsoring shows in the Coliseum at the Arizona State Fair. Fujii Notes, the club's quarterly newsletter, is first published.

1996 -- A suiseki, a naturally-shaped viewing stone, collected by long-time member Elsie Andrade, is nominated for and accepted by the National Bonsai Collection at the National Arboretum in Washington, D.C.

1997 -- Elsie Andrade is elected to a two-year term as president of the American Bonsai Society.  She has also held that position twice for the Valley Garden Center and once for the Phoenix Bonsai Society, among many other offices.  The new season yearbook cover is orange.  Designing Dwarfs in the Desert, the club's commemorative history, is published in late November.  An estimated 500 persons have been members by this time.

1999 -- A memorial calendar is published in January containing pictures of Leroy's trees.  The club has February displays for both Chinese Week (Chinese Cultural Center, 44th Street, just south of the 202 Freeway) and Matsuri.  At the end of April/early May, the Tucson Bonsai Society hosts the American Bonsai Society's Symposium "Diversity in the Desert," with assistance from Phoenix.  Six of Leroy's best trees are among those exhibited.  The Phoenix club gets an Internet World Wide Web site as the latest forum by which it can meet its objectives.  Several of the pictures from the memorial calendar are republished on the web site as "Leroy's Trees, Parts I and II."  Ernest Hasan, in the club since 1993, is elected president.  The California South Collection at the Huntington Gardens in Pasadena accepts the donation of Leroy's large (four-man) olive, which had also stood at the entrance to the ABS Symposium.  The Collection's curator, and club friend, Ben Oki conducts the workshops in Phoenix, now held in late October instead of August.  The new season yearbook cover is green.  A photo of Max Miller's superb creosote bonsai finally makes it to the cover of the American Bonsai Society's Journal (Fall 1999).  The tree was selected by Chase Rosade at the Symposium in Tucson to receive the Rosade Bonsai Studio's Design Award.  Also to be seen in that issue is the BCI President's Award-winning elephant's food bonsai of Doug and Gail Acker (pg. 115).  The club has a display at the Horticultural Exhibition Building of the Arizona State Fair, concluding with a demonstration by Max Miller and Bill Mooney.  A trip to the Laughlin area is held to gather permit California junipers and other stock.  John Naka creates Goshin II at the Golden State Bonsai Federation's convention in Anaheim in November.  Several Phoenix and Tucson members are in attendance and are participants in the many workshops led by Naka-san's key student-masters.  Members leaving us this year include Gail Acker (March) and John Kinoshita (September).
 

2000 -- In January, Cindy Read from California presents a lecture/demo on making saikei.  The display at Matsuri takes place in February.  That month a second club is formed in the Valley, Bonsai of Scottsdale.  Phoenix member Fairlee Winfield is the founder and becomes the club's first president.  Meetings are the first and third Saturday of the month at the Scottsdale Senior Center, and that club's first show is held in early April.  Mike Hagadorn from Crataegus Containers in Oracle, AZ presents an excellent lecture on the start to finish of pots.  Jim Claycomb and Bill Mooney conduct a short seminar as part of the VGC Spring Festival, "The Art and Philosophy of Bonsai."  The Phoenix club gets its own domain name for the Internet: www.phoenixbonsai.com.  Rosarian Ken Jones gives a lecture on local fertilizing requirements.  The club participates in the Berridge Nursery "Art in the Garden" in late April.  Max Miller is elected Valley Garden Center President and Bill Mooney becomes its Treasurer.  For the first time in memory, no summer get-togethers are held after the End of Year Party.  In late June the club picks up a donation of 101 trees from the Mesquite Valley Growers nursery in Tucson, mostly junipers.  The new season yearbook cover is bright yellow.  Ben Oki conducts the early October workshops in Scottdale as a joint offering of the Phoenix and Scottsdale clubs.  The club has a display at the Arizona State Fair, concluding with a demonstration by president Ernest Hasan and Robert Baran.  In early December, another Laughlin area dig is held and members in Phoenix have a small show of trees as part of a local Neighborhood Open House south of the Garden Center.

2001 -- Mary and Peter Bloomer of Flagstaff give an excellent slide presentation on suiseki in January.  The following month, the club displays 45 trees, one suiseki, and one Chinese Scholar Stone during the weekend of the Chinese Week festival at the Chinese Cultural Center.  Fred Carpenter gives a brief interview to one of the local TV stations regarding our hobby.  Near month end our Matsuri display is presented.  In early April, long-time Tucson Bonsai Society member Areta Johnson passes away.  An article featuring interviews with George Cole and Robert Gustafson is published in the May 2 issue of the West Valley News ("bonsai, satisfaction is bigger than the trees" by Beth Kristin Ott, pg. A3).  It includes two b&w photos, one of Robert trimming a tree.  Jim Claycomb is elected club president.  Enthusiasts from Scottsdale, Phoenix, Tucson, Mesa, and Flagstaff meet in late July to discuss the possible formation of an Arizona Bonsai Federation.  The new season yearbook cover is light blue.  The club participates in the Berridge Nurseries Fall Show & Demo in September.  Ben Oki conducts joint workshops for Scottsdale and Phoenix the following month.  The Arizona State Fair again sees a Phoenix Bonsai Society display.