MIKE KONIG
30.08.1960 – 07.01.2020

Mike was born in Germany where he met his British wife, Stella, when he was a professional caterer. He subsequently came to Leicester and became catering manager at Walker’s Stadium, then the home of Leicestershire City Football Club.

We are not sure when the bonsai bug first hit Mike, but we know it was over 30 years ago when he was a regular visitor to Greenwoods Bonsai Nursery in Nottinghamshire before embarking on his professional training there with Harry Tomlinson. Mike was soon recognised as having a natural eye for styling. He quickly was able to turn raw material into specimen trees and gained a reputation in working with junipers.

He went on to set up his own company Miko Bonsai, establishing himself in a retail unit at Houghton-on-the-Hill Garden Centre where he worked on his trees and sold everything to do with bonsai, freely giving endless advice to enquiring visitors. His knowledge, the perfection of his work, amazing tree displays, and the pristine condition of his retail unit impressed members from a local bonsai club.

It is believed he joined Wigston Bonsai Club in 1994 and became a very active member. When the garden centre closed, Mike continued trading from home and was a great asset to the club, eventually becoming chairman.

In 2013, a chance meeting with a young enthusiast through Miko Bonsai led to Mike helping Lewis Jarman set up his Premier Bonsai company in Wigston the following year, and that business is still trading. 2015 gave Mike the opportunity for change when Wigston Bonsai Club was looking for a new venue. Realising it was the only bonsai club still running in Leicestershire, he had the vision to develop a county-wide club and at the beginning of 2016, the club moved to Queniborough and was reconstituted as Leicestershire Bonsai Club.

Mike was not only the driving force behind the club but was active within the wider bonsai fraternity. He represented both clubs with FOBBS, was well known with traders, and attended shows and conventions nationally and internationally. He was on forums and networked with other clubs and professionals. Wherever he went he made friendships and was widely respected by all. Mike was generous to a fault with his time, knowledge and skills. Not only with bonsai, but with woodwork making pot stands, creating show stands and display tables. Often giving away things he made, trees he was bringing on, pots to get people started, and accent plants in little pots that had come from his collection. It gave him pleasure to “share” the passion.

When his lung cancer was announced in 2018, shock waves reverberated everywhere but Mike was not going to let that stop him in his tracks. He continued in his various roles and the enthusiasm never waned. He had so much more to give.

Unfortunately, the illness took hold and he had to withdraw from commitments during treatment and when very poorly. But he remained steadfast with the Club. Still “doing” as much as he was able, right up to the end. Mike passed away shortly after arriving home from chairing the Club’s AGM on 7 January 2020 aged 60 years. A tremendous shock to everyone. A big man with a big heart greatly missed by his close family, Leicestershire Bonsai Club, and bonsai friends in many places.

RIP Mike.

The world-wide bonsai community will mourn the loss of Solita Tafur Rosade who passed away on August 31, 2019. A much loved figure who dedicated her life to promoting the art of bonsai, Soli was born in Colombia, South America, but left at an early age and was educated in the United States, Spain and Switzerland.

Returning to Colombia, Soli married and had two children. She became interested in bonsai, her children were young and her husband a politician. In 1984 she attended her first bonsai class in Cali, Columbia. Later while in Colombia she wrote a bonsai manual in Spanish entitled "The Essentials in Bonsai," and she became President of the Asociacion Vallecaucana de Bonsai.

Following the untimely death of her husband she started traveling; her love of bonsai took her to many places in the world, both as a bonsai artist and as a bonsai diplomat. She gave demonstrations and held workshops at bonsai conventions and other bonsai events in Asia, India, South Africa, New Zealand, United States, Canada as well as Latin America. In 1991 she attended the BCI Convention held in Birmingham U.K.; here she met a demonstrator at that event, Chase Rosade who some years later became her husband.

In 1992, Solita founded the Latin American Bonsai Federation (FELAB) and served as President until 1998. From 1998 to 2002, she was the President of Bonsai Clubs International and In 2005, she became Chairman of the World Bonsai Friendship Federation (WBFF). After her term ended in 2009, she continued to serve as President of the North American Bonsai Federation. Until her death, she was a member of the Board of Directors of the National Bonsai Foundation (NBF) supporting the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum in Washington, D.C.

Earlier this year Soli and Chase Rosade celebrated 26 years of marriage. They owned and ran Rosade Bonsai Studio in New Hope, Pennsylvania. From there they invited both masters and novices alike to share in their love of bonsai, over the years giving countless classes and demonstrations to anyone willing to learn. From its inception the Rosade Bonsai Studio helped lead the way in celebrating World Bonsai Day in support of peace and friendship through bonsai.

Soli was an amazing person, she lived life to the full, she was dedicated and determined, possessing “the spirit of bonsai” and working tirelessly to spread bonsai both at home and abroad. She enjoyed life and gave fully of herself; she will be sorely missed by the many friends she made around the world.

Images and inscription here

There is a further epitaph on the WBFF website

Mike Saddler joined Ambion Bonsai Club soon after taking an interest in bonsai; he was always a very keen plants man growing many trees from cuttings and seed. Mike was a very active member of Ambion on the committee and in supporting the club to put extremely good exhibitions at many events, from the Town & Country Festival to local shows as well at the RHS BBC Gardeners World Live.

Mike put in many hours building stands, helping with design and layout and ferrying around materials. Had it not been for him I am sure Ambion would not have achieved the many awards, including an RHS Gold.

In more recent years Mike also became a member of the Midlands Bonsai Society and supported events such as the “Best of British Bonsai”. Mike was always on hand with a bottle of beer hidden in a bag at every event he attended. In his own words ‘Beer & Bonsai Barmy’. With a sister living in South Africa Mike spent time there where he enjoyed walking in the countryside, seeing the plants and meeting and talking to anyone. He enjoyed travel even though he would rather have fish and chips than exotic food. He experienced life in Japan and spent many hours in Omiya Bonsai Village, the Kokufu-ten and the gardens of Kyoto.

He was a regular helper with the group maintaining The National Bonsai Collection and was last seen enjoying the celebratory Christmas Dinner at The Botanical Gardens this last December.

It is with great sadness that the members of the Middlesex Bonsai Society wish to inform all those who knew him, of the passing of Roger Gibbs on Sunday, 6 May 2018.

Roger was well loved as he gave so much of himself to the craft of Bonsai over many years and in particular to the development of our Club, being its Chairman from 2002 - 2018 and also its Treasurer from 2006 - 2018. He shared his knowledge of Bonsai techniques with us at Club evenings, instigated weekend workshops with experts in the field and arranged licensed digs.

In the latter years, Roger through his attendance and support of Bonsai Shows throughout the South and West of England was able to entice a wider circle of Speakers to our Club Nights in addition to our regulars. Roger was one of the leading lights in the organisation of the Club’s Annual Show, exhibiting many of his excellent trees.

High on Roger’s other interests were Scouting and being a Governor of a local School.

He will be sorely missed by all who enjoyed the pleasure of his company, especially during this the 40th year of the Club’s existence.

It is with much regret and sadness that I have to inform you that Bill Brown, a very early member of Bonsai Kai and FoBBS, sadly passed away on 29 January 2018. He was over 90 and had suffered for a period from Parkinson’s disease; he died peacefully.

He was an antique dealer by trade and we have a number of items that will always remind us of him and his great enthusiasm for bonsai. He travelled on many of the tours we organised on behalf of FoBBS to bonsai nurseries and Conventions in Europe, America and Japan. In 1991 he worked with us to organise the FoBBS exhibit at the B.C.I. Convention held at the International Convention Centre, Birmingham.

Peter Moth It is with very much regret and sadness that I have to inform you that Peter Moth (69) Chairman National Bonsai Society sadly passed away from a heart attack (Sat 24th Jan). Not only has the National Bonsai Society lost their Chairman but we have lost our close friend and fellow bonsai enthusiast.

Peter always had a keen interest in bonsai since childhood and was a member of the National Bonsai Society and Fylde Bonsai Association for many years. He became Chairman in 2003 and continued to put a lot of time and effort into both Societies; his enthusiasm for bonsai overall was an example to us all.

He enjoyed all aspects of bonsai including making his own pots, selling at the clubs and bonsai fairs and organizing and attending workshops. In 2004 he organized the first Bonsai Convention at Lowther Gardens and he has over the years amassed awards from various clubs and competitions including Southport Flower Show.

In 2005 he went to Japan, his first time on a plane, a trip he loved so much. He will be sadly missed.

It is with considerable sadness and regret that we learn of the sudden and unexpected death of one of Britain’s greatest bonsai talents,  Peter Adams, who died peacefully on Sunday, 24th November 2014.

As many are aware, Peter had been quite poorly for some weeks in hospital, but it was only recently that his wife Kate commented that he had made a good recovery and that they would have been returning home to the United States on Monday, 2nd December.

For those of us who come into bonsai during the 1970’s onwards, Peter was seen as an exceptional talent, and many have developed their knowledge and skills in bonsai due very much to his teaching. An author of many books on the subject, more recently, he had been a regular contributor to ‘Bonsai Focus’, where he drew on both his expertise in bonsai and his artistic talent in analysing raw material and sketching out possible style options.

A man with a unique talent and a sad loss to the world of bonsai.

It is with a tremendous sense of loss that we have to announce the death of Paul Goff, on Monday, 10 November following a severe stroke last week.. He will be very greatly missed by all in the bonsai world in the UK. 

Known most especially for his skill with photography and his ability to teach us all how to display our trees in the best possible way.  He was a scroll painter, photographer, rock musician and bonsai artist.  And at 62 was still a man young in heart ready to enjoy life to the full.  His spirit of enjoyment and extensive knowledge will be missed by all who knew him.

Our thoughts and wishes go out to his partner Vivienne as well as to his family and friends at this very sad time.

Paul's funeral was on 20 November at Milton Malfor Crematorium, Northampton

It is with great sadness that we must announce that Harry Tomlinson died on early Sunday morning the 2 March 2014

As many of you may know Harry had been suffering from alzheimer’s for a number of years. Unfortunately his condition had deteriorated rapidly during the last week.

We hope that many enthusiasts throughout the International Bonsai community will have been inspired by Harry's bonsai teachings, artistry, books and good sense of humour.

Ray Ward, from Broadfield, died suddenly at home on 15 October, aged 71.

He leaves his wife Peta and was the father of Nick and Lisa, father-in-law of Kelly and Dave, and grandad of Robin and Aya.

Ray was retired, but still worked as an aviation trainer. He was vice chairman of the Friends of British Bonsai Societies (FoBBS), chairman of The Friends of Broadfield Park, a governor at Seymour Primary, played for Grattons and Crawley Town bowls clubs and was a past captain of Cottesmore Golf Club (1998). The funeral service was held on Thursday, 30 October at the Surrey and Sussex Crematorium.