Warminster Bonsai Club

We have had several Saturday workshops with Dan and Carly Butler which have proved to be popular and entertaining with the members, so the committee thought it would be a good idea for members to bring their pots planted or not into our May meeting.

Thanks to Derek for photography the pots and here are our efforts may be one day seen at the Tate gallery.

This is our club display at the annual show held by the Wiltshire branch of the British Cactus and Succulent Society a show I highly recommend to visit if you like your plants for the shear variety of Cacti and Succulents displayed.

As we did not have a chance to hold our usual dummy run we just brought in a selection of trees and accent plants and Clive H selected them on the run.

Busy time now trees filling out with the flush of spring growth now fully developing this is when we see how our trees we repotted late autumn early winter came through the winter.

The committee thought it would be a good idea for members to bring in the pots they made on the Dan Butler pottery workshop wether planted or not.

I took a couple of photos of the pots grouped on a table I will include a more detailed photos on a separate posting thanks to Derek after the weekend.

We will be at the Cactus & Succulent Show this Saturday 6th in the Assembly Hall, Melksham with our club display please come along for a chat.

TOTM

This is our annual Saturday workshop we have with Chris Thomas, his workshop covers all levels of skill from beginners to those with more experience.

You will see from the accompanying photos you bring your tree up for discussion on what you want to do with it, Chris may offer alternatives something we have found so useful especially when you have had a tree that was styled some years years ago.

You realise trees are never set and for as long as they live they will change as they mature and what you styled them as a young tree now needs to be changed as trunks swell and mature and branches develop more ramifications.

We have found these workshops so worthwhile you go away having gained more knowledge and your trees either styled to set them on their way or restyled to improve them to a higher level of refinement.

Here are photos ( apologies if some look double but there were two of us trying to cover what was going on during the day ) of some of the trees worked on it was a very busy and enjoyable day.

In these photos there are three trees that were styled some years ago and show how they needed restyling and/or refinement, the first is a Larch where the top has thickened and had lost taper.

A branch was rewired and raised to become a new apex which redefines the taper and lose the thick top branches, the old top was used to run a tourniquet to the new raised top and will be removed when the top sets in its position.

The Juniper was originally an informal up right but the owner decided lay the trunk down in the pot so the trunk now requires some substantial bending to bring the top back over to the left.

This was done with the use of rebar for an anchor point, wrapping the trunk in tape to protect it and copper wire tourniquet to bring it over and with some joint bending and yes you could hear cracks it has been brought back to the left.

Further gradual bending over the following weeks bit by bit it is hoped to bring it to the required point.

Finally a Mugo pine bought from a garden centre originally styled to have a long branch growing to the left but Chris suggested now using this as a second trunk raised up to form a twin apex again using rebar as an anchor point.

At last our trees are coming out of winter and pushing out leaves, always a tentative time to see if there are any casualties from the winter.

TOTM

Colin Richardson, one of our members, passed away on Sunday 19th April 2026, from a stroke
Our thoughts are with Gary and his wife.
Colin was a true gentleman and had only just started his journey in Bonsai.
He will be greatly missed by all of us.

More repotting trying to beat trees budding out in our topsy turvy seasons now.

TOTM

This is our annual trip to Lodder Bonsai in the Netherlands we plan this trip to coincide with his new shipments of bonsai and his open weekend.

He invites various traders associated with bonsai such as potters, scroll makers, bronze figurines to go with your trees, carving tool attachment, wooden stands for Shohin as well as for displaying trees at shows, to name just a few all set up in his loading bay.

He also has a demonstrator different one each year working over the two days .

All his trees are under cover so regardless of the weather you can browse in the dry.

We always look foreword to this trip as there are so many trees and variety’s under one roof, the prices are for all tastes we like looking at the pricier trees ( I took some photos with their prices on ) just to see what material is coming out from Japan, we have far more modest budgets but when you look at tables they are stock full with the modest budget ones and they do put more trees out overnight to fill the spaces.

I didn’t take as many photos this year but should we go next year will try to take more especially the loading bay and his indoor trees.

Here are the photos you are spoilt for choice this is just one of his greenhouses.

Busy meeting with repotting and wiring but the main interest was members could collect their pots made from the Dan Butler pottery workshop we had last year.

We normally collect our fired pots at the Swindon Winter Image show but due to a delay on the installation of Dans new kiln about only half of the pots had been fired.

Dan was sure he could fire the remaining pots and bring them to this Thursdays meeting and true to his word Dan and Carly brought the remainder to our meeting.

Members could the see their results ( must thank Dan for detail finishing on our pots) all were pleased with how they turned out, some photos of just a few of the pots on the night.

As well as this we also brought in our club project trees, these are little Cottoneasters members pay nominal sum trees are given a raffle ticket number you pick out a ticket and thats your tree.

It is down to the member what they do with these grow on, repott, style etc they have to bring them in each year to see what each member has done, as they are small and very forgiving they are for all abilities and are meant to be fun we will see.

TOTM