On Saturday 15th and Sunday 16th April we had a club display at Lakeside Garden Centre, Crockerton to promote the hobby and advertise that there is a local club.
We had quite a lot of interest on Saturday which was a somewhat cold day not conducive to staying outdoors.
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.
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.
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”We had been pleased to accept an invitation to put on a club display for the Winter Show the first one since lockdown.
This has always been a popular show with many people heading straight to the dealers to restock on pots and buy new material.
This year was no different and by the end of the day there were many empty spaces on their tables.
There were many high quality trees on display which demonstrates the high regard this show is held in by the Bonsai community.
As we set up we found out from the Swindon chair Paul that there was a problem with the lighting and that they had only found this out when they set up the stands on Saturday, this left no option but to go ahead with the show.
we spoke to any people who came by our stand and took the opportunity to explain the lack of lighting as it was not Swindon clubs fault and we were pleased to see how people accepted it.
Some pics of our club display
Few pics of the trees in the show.
Results of TOTM
Weather permitting this is one of the main months to start repotting trees before they start pushing although talking to members some trees have already produced buds.
No doubt climate change with no real defined end and start of seasons is having an affect on nature.
There was some serious repotting being done on many developed trees, repotting isn’t always carried out when a tree becomes pot bound, I have repotted trees that as they developed needed a change of position in the pot also I have used annual root pruning/repotting to develop trees it is one of the crucial bit of work that produces a good bonsai.
Here are some of the pics taken on the evening.
This was the first meeting of our new year it was a workshop but also the selection from trees brought in by members for the upcoming Swindon Bonsai Winter image show being held on Sunday 19th February at the Grange Leisure Centre SN3 4JY.
The selection which is never easy is over seen by our show manager Clive H, it involves what trees work together this involves shuffling them up and down the tables many many times, the spacing between each, and avoiding them running in a straight line along the tables and which stand suits the tree just to mention some of the points that have to be considered.
We learn something every time and members are encouraged to make their comments, it is then down to Clive H to make the final decision.
Here is the display chosen for Swindon, praise also has to go to Clive H who has made all the display tables.
We have also brought back the Tree Of The Month competition which is every month members can select what they consider is looking it’s best and bring it in.
Members then vote on what they consider is 1st, 2nd and 3rd choice and then count from this gives the overall placing.
Decembers meeting is the clubs AGM and end of year get together with the decorated tree competition.
The AGM is usually a short affair as we have open discussions on club matters through out the year and this one was no different.
I would just like to thank all the club members who returned to the club when COVID restrictions ended and we have even been able to increase membership numbers.
Considering the sub zero temperature and the frozen snowy conditions we did have a fair number of people come to the meeting on the night and even entered into the decorated tree competition.
After all the votes were counted Sally was declared the winner with her Grinch themed decorated tree it certainly made me smile.
