June 2023 meeting

Busy meeting as usual we held the selection of member’s trees for the Blackmore Vale Bonsai Group show which is on the 25th of this month at the New Remembrance Hall, Charlton SP7 0PL 11.00-15.00.

Will post pics of our display and the show after the show date.

Tree of the Month

1st Clive H Satsuki Azalea, 2nd Geoff H2 Pine, 3rd Geoff H1 Stewartia, Sally Musk Maple ( unusual maple touch the leaves or bark has a musty smell ), Derek Potentilla.

Blackmore Value Show Preparation

We like to design our displays at a club night before we go to shows. This shows a bit of our process.

Workshop with Chris Thomas 1st April

Saturday 1st April was the first of two workshops booked with Chris Thomas who has become a regular with our club.

The format is quite simple members bring in trees and each one is placed on the centre table, Chris will discuss the tree with the owner adding his views, members can add their own comments.

Using the expertise of Chris to restyle and/or improve their trees members carry out working on their trees with breaks for Chris to reassess progress.

I have said it many times with these workshops you can gain so much more knowledge with so many different species and styles presented and listening to the critiques of each tree, also when a tree is placed in the middle of the room you often see what is needed to correct or improve a tree that you have had for many years.

For example from picture six of a twin trunked Larch where the right hand trunk is straight and featureless from the lower right hand branch to the next rear facing branch, it also lacks taper.

Decision was made to remove the trunk just above the right hand branch re wire the whole tree, this allowed the right hand branch to be moved and create it as the new trunk line adding movement and taper.

The rest of the tree was shaped to create a more cohesive design.

As you can see there was a good mix of species and styles worked on this day.

March meeting

A busy evening repotting as expected this time of year, conversations around who had trees already in bud and what varieties where they.

Not many weeks left now for repotting so I guess we will all be repotting as many as possible to not be caught out.

Many of us after Amelia’s talk last year on repotting in the autumn have been doing this and it has certainly eased the pressure and we will be doing more this autumn.

Continue reading “March meeting”

Lodders Open Weekend 2023

Lodder Bonsai bv, Harmelem in the Netherlands is a major importer of bonsai and has been an annual visit by several members for many years only interrupted by Covid.

Now restrictions are no longer in place this would be the first time we have been over for two years and all of us look foreword to the trip not only to see the trees but meet the friends we have made there.

The trip coincides with their open week end, this year it was held on 11th & 12th March and it is where Gerrit invites many exhibitors associated with bonsai or Japanese culture i.e potters, scroll painters/sellers, carving tool suppliers, sushi food stand, and other bonsai sellers and guest speakers to name just a few of the stands.

There was also a display from a local club with excellent quality bonsai.

The pictures here can only cover part of what Lodders have and it is mind blowing when you first walk in to see the shear number and varieties for sale and they cover all price ranges as you might be able to see on the tags, it also gives anyone a chance to see the higher priced trees and the difference in design and quality ( we can only dream of being able to own any of these ).

Hopefully we can keep this up as our annual trip, and many thanks to Amelia for the pictures and to Ross for placing them in a format for posting.

Continue reading “Lodders Open Weekend 2023”