Lehigh resident Matha Goff's bonsai tree, Buttonwood-Conocarpus erectus, which won Best of Show at the Bonsai Societies of Florida State Convention in 2019. PHOTO PROVIDED

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The 40th annual Fort Myers Bonsai Show and Sale offers something for everyone – from beginners to those who have been perfecting their craft for years  through workshops, demonstrations, raffles, vendors, as well as a plethora of information.

The two-day event will be held from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 6, and from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 7, at Fort Myers-Lee County Garden Center, 2166 Virginia Ave., just north of the Edison-Ford Estates. Admission and parking is free.

The Saturday schedule includes a multi-club styling competition from 9 a.m. to noon; a workshop with Ed Trout for 10 people from 9:30 to noon; a raffle of plants and bonsai items at noon.; Phoenix Graft Demo by Adam Lavigne from 1 to 4 p.m.; exhibit critique by Trout from 4 to 5 p.m. and raffle of plants and bonsai items at 5 p.m.

The Sunday event will kick off with a free public workshop for 10 participants from 9:30 a.m. to noon; bonsai-related arts with a clay throwing demonstration by Joe Mayhew from 1 to 3 p.m. and an accent plants demonstration from Bonsai Master Martha Goff followed by a raffle of plants and bonsai items at 3 p.m.

Goff said they will have some great examples of techniques at the annual show. Five clubs have been invited from Tampa to Naples to participate in a competition where each club will receive a tree to style.

“Then we have a professional that has done bonsai for almost 50 years, who is going to judge them,” Goff said, adding that the winner will receive the finished tree and the rest will go to the raffle table.

The free bonsai workshop is great as individuals receive a tree that they can work on with someone who knows what they are doing, she added.

“If they want the tree, they pay the $25 for it. If they don’t want it, we put it on the raffle table. It gives them the taste,” Goff said.

Goff, a Lehigh Acres resident, joined The Bonsai Society of Southwest Florida, Inc. 25 years ago, a few years after she started on bonsai. She said she was in a nursery looking for rose bushes when she saw a group learning about bonsai.

“I immediately joined and got hooked,” Goff said.

She took classes that helped with the basics of bonsai – how to create one, keep it alive, repot and make it look like a tree.

Now she has a nursery license and has a backyard nursery. Goff teaches bonsai, as well as the related art Kusamono, little accompanying plants placed by the tree.

“The Japanese used to collect herbs, weeds growing near the tree to remind them where they got it,” she said.

Goff has a little more than a 100 trees, which she explained as training trees, due to her starting them from scratch. She said it takes a couple of years before she sells them.

“You can find little bushes in nurseries all over the place for landscaping. That is the most inexpensive way,” Goff said, adding that the other option is going to a big bonsai nursery where you will pay a premium price. “You have to find the tree in it and start creating it. It takes about two years before it is ready to turn to a tree and is sellable.”

She said residents of Southwest Florida are very lucky to live in the tropics as the growing season is almost year round.

“We can get a nice finished bonsai if you work at it for five years,” Goff said. “You study it and you try to see the tree in that bush and then you eliminate what you don’t need for that tree and start working with what you have left,” Goff said. “I have been known to walk around a tree for a month before I go ‘there you are.’ I also like to do a little sketch of my plan.”

The combination of art and horticulture has kept Goff’s interest all these years because she loves being back to nature due to the calmness, peace and quiet it provides.

“I don’t know what it is, the magic of working on that tree,” she said. “Being outside and working with the trees is a good thing. It centers you and you feel release.”

Rick Hawk, a Cape Coral resident, moved to the area four years ago from Colorado and began searching for a bonsai club.

“Someone contacted me and away we went. It was probably three years ago,” he said of finding The Bonsai Society of Southwest Florida’s website and sharing he had an interest of joining.

While living in Colorado and Pennsylvania he worked with home plants for a long while. It was not until moving to Southwest Florida did he have success with bonsai trees.

“To try bonsai where I have lived before, it was a losing proposition. They were a lot of trouble. You had to have a bright space that kept warm. I was at 8,400 feet in elevation in Colorado. When I moved here and the weather was so agreeable, I got interested in it. The society was so helpful,” Hawk said.

He garnered a new appreciation of what is involved after joined the society.

“You can touch almost any plant and turn it in to a bonsai,” Hawk said. “What I find is I am pretty good at the horticulture side. I can make the thing grow. I have a lot of learn at the artistic side of it.”

He attends classes to help with the artistic side, which have been helpful as the students work with a variety of different plants.

“Before I ever joined the club, I went to their show,” Hawk said, adding that he encourages everyone to attend. “It’s free. It’s convenient and I think people might be interested. (It may) spark their interest to begin a hobby in bonsai. I find it to be a really good and relaxing hobby. It’s worth the visit.”