This months meeting was well attended with majority of members bringing in trees to repot and their was a good buzz.
One of our members wanted to have some thread grafts put on her tree no one had a drill but Tom went home and brought said drill in and I see Malcolm demonstrating how to put a graft through the tree, what was more encouraging was to see Audrey having a go herself.
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This to me demonstrates how the club has come on and how with a bit of advice a new member can put into practice quite an advanced technique
As usual this time of year its all about repotting but as John Trott pointed out it is the time to review what and why you want to repot.
It also brings up the subject of what soil mixes we use, I am more tempted now to try mixing my own compost to tailor it for the conditions of sun etc in my garden.
With that in mind I have looked at our trees and selected the ones which we wanted either to have a fresh burst of growth or where well and truly pot bound, I also like to remind myself to go back to bonsai basics i.e. does the tree need repositioning in the pot , does it require a different pot because as we know trees develop and can mean a change from its original pot.
It is also the time to take the opportunity to look at how the nebari is developing and look for the selective pruning which brings out the best in the tree.
With all the above in mind I thought ha I am doing well but when I looked closer at the rest I could see that more would benefit from all or any of the above basics and as the weather warms up and the buds burst I am running out of time and it looks like another year of missed opportunity.
Tree of the month is looking good with I believe the new open format allowing anyone to bring in their best tree on the day is working well so please keep this up.
I was glad to hear that there were encouraging comments coming back from members on the Swindon show display and Clive H,s ideas, so do not be put off bringing in your trees when we have shows coming up.
Welcome to Tony D who joined the club this month.
Reminder we have Chris Thomas workshop on Saturday 14th April I if you are not sure I have your name down just phone or e mail me.
I have had suggested from members could there be a way if members had photo’s documenting the development of a tree of putting them on the website, so with that in mind I have added another category called Members Projects and thanks to Amelia who has supplied some words on her tree together with some pics I will start this off.
See what you think and if you can supply me with details I will happily put more on the website.