It’s always fun to attend the Canberra Bonsai Society’s annual show. As usual, there was a good mix of native and exotic trees in various stages of development representing the range of its members which were well displayed, interesting demonstrations each day and a terrific market place. The club asks members for a description of […]
This is a great time to bring tropical species such as figs and bougainvillea to work on. Root pruning and styling are both possible, so make sure you bring everything you’ll need if you want to spend your evening developing these species. Pruning the foliage and styling of your deciduous trees and conifers is also
Michael has been practising bonsai since 1995 after working a few days at a bonsai nursery. He was then lucky enough to study with Lee Wilson for several years. For the past fifteen, he has been working alongside his brother Sean, in congenial sibling rivalry, developing outstanding trees. Yamadori is a particular interest. Michael believes
This spring, so far, has been a crazy mix of hot days and ‘return to winter’ colder ones, but nonetheless, all your trees should be in active growth. As spring growth continues, one must be mindful of keeping vigorous trees trimmed to encourage short internodes and an improved design. Fast growing trees can be trimmed
Last month participants mainly worked on deciduous species, including maples and wisteria. This month it isn’t too late to repot deciduous trees, so long as they aren’t yet in leaf. You might also want to start working on conifers, as they can be repotted in August and September in Sydney. Azaleas can also be repotted
Last month’s deciduous workshop was successful with many members bringing trees of varying styles and sizes to work on, either styling or repotting as necessary. Maples seemed the dominant species with some terrific, big maple forests. Everybody seemed to enjoy the time to work on their trees and get input from other members.
I always love this time of year, because a lot of my trees have been repotted and/or restyled. I feel great satisfaction visualising the next step in development for each tree as I work on it. Some have been transferred from a training pot to a bonsai pot and some have been reshaped by wire
Bought at the Illawarra show last May, the basic plan for this old trident maple (1991) was to deal with the congestion at the apex, remove the highest root on the right-hand side and change the angle when repotting. The original sandy soil mix, which was drying out too quickly, was to be replaced, so
Remove any weeds, moss, fallen leaves and debris from the soil surface. Study the structure of the branches and then cut out any crossing branches and shorten the long branches to instigate more branching (ramification) in spring. Remove the tree from the pot and survey the root system. Using a small bonsai rake, scrape from
As always, Sean gave a terrific demonstration full of interesting and useful information on pines. He brought several examples, both field-grown and developed from young stock, and discussed the merits of both for the bonsai grower suggesting that growing a pine from a seeding might actually give a quicker result than correcting the often straight
