SAD - Seasonal Affective Disorder. SAD is a seasonally recurring depression usually appearing in November and lasting until April. It is caused by a lack of sunlight. Symptoms include feelings of sadness, anxiety, lethargy, difficulties awakening in the morning, drowsiness during the day, social withdrawal and weight gain (sounds like many people that I know, none in our bonsai society, of course). The cure is to have the patient sit facing banks of artificially bright lights for several hour each day. I prescribe alternative treatments, such as:

Grow bonsai indoors under artificial lightsif you are already growing trees under artificial lights, place you head under the lights for a few minutes each day. Enjoy the light while you take time to communicate with your trees.

Be sure to WATER you bonsai if they are wintered in your garage. If your trees are stored elsewhere be sure that they are moist when placed in storage.

Read books on bonsai.

Clean and sharpen all you bonsai tools. I promise (for the third year in a row) to not only sharpen my tools but will also remove the carefully acquired patina (called rust by those who don’t know any better).

Set up a filing system for all your trees.

Wire your pines during the winter.

Make sure you have all the supplies you will need for spring repotting and wiring.

Study your trees and think about how to style them in the spring.

So you see there is no reason to be SAD.