Warminster Bonsai Club

At this months meeting we had a talk and demonstration by Amelia on repotting in late autumn.

Amelia has been repotting her trees at this time of year for some time and her results have proven that this works.

Contra to the books you will read which say to repot in the spring Amelia explained why she repots in late autumn.

1. Trees particularly deciduous when they have dropped their leaves are entering a state of dormancy.
2. Usually at this time of year temperatures are not as cold/wet as late winter.
3. Tree roots still grow even though the tree is dormant, and with late autumn temps encourage better recovery from pruning.
4. Roots should be in a much more advanced stage of recovery when the tree awakens in spring.
5. Word of caution trees pruned in late autumn could need some protection if the weather turns cold but this still applies to trees pruned in spring especially now we don’t seem to have any regularity in our seasons.

6 If you have a lot of trees this can help to avoid having to repot in the short span of weeks in the spring.

Excellent talk and certainly gave members something to think about or try for themselves.

We also had Rob from Oakfieldbonsai who came along with his van of well stocked goodies, and put just a small amount of stock on the table.

This is the first time we have been able to display at Lakeside and weather was kind with a steady flow of people coming throughout the day.

Difficult time for choosing trees that still look good after the stress of the heat wave we experienced this year but it created interest.

This is the display for Saturday 1st

On Sunday we had a change of display with our resident experts in attendance, many thanks to Derek, Sally, Jim and Clive H for supporting the display over the two days.

Sundays display

Saturday 1st and Sunday 2nd of October we will be putting on a display at Lakeside Garden Centre, Crockerton BA12 8AP, aim to promote our club and have a demonstration table to explain to the public what bonsai are and what is involved to produce a bonsai.

Any club member welcome to help on the stand and talk to the public even if its just for a short period, come along for a chat.

Another busy evening with catching up on the Heathrow Bonsai show many thanks to Sally, Derek and Amelia for producing a club display for Heathrow show.

The display was different from the norm as a display featuring mostly indoor bonsai mixed in with some outdoor trees, it did produce quite a bit of interest particularly as indoor bonsai are not normally displayed at bonsai shows.

As well as catching up there were quite a few trees being worked on with members trying to catch up with work on trees that had been held up by the heatwave we experienced.

Just set up the Warminster club display, looking forward to a great show today with the other bonsai clubs and traders.

Saturday 3rd saw Clive H and myself setting up our club display in the marquee at the Corsley Fayre.

We were made welcome at the fayre and given a good position in the marquee, we only took our smaller display as we did not know what room we would be allocated but we were able to have a good selection of trees.

The fayre was a much smaller version of the original Corsley Show pre covid but never the less we found it well attended and we were kept busy talking to the public through out the afternoon.

We would thank the organisers for allowing us to put on our display, and if the number of people that came through is anything to judge by it bodes well if the organisers decides the bring this back as an annual event.

Apologies for only pics of display my battery went flat in my phone ( feel like a teenager now ).

With the temperature finally cooling down it was a busy meeting with lots of trees having some catch up work carried out on them.

One tree a Larch had very flat pads with little character, the owner had previously wired it out extensively but when the very hot weather came along did not carry out any restyling as it would have stressed the tree too much.

On bringing it in it was decided to work on the lower pads splitting them up to start putting character into the tree.

The top of the tree was pruned lightly as it will be bent to the right bringing it back over the tree, the tree requires further pruning on all pads as they are too long and require being brought back into the tree for a more compact image.

This work would have been carried out early than this meeting but because it was held up by the heat and that there is now a shorter growing time left now it was decided not to carry out the drastic pruning required.

It will wait until next spring when it is growing strong and then be cut back to the buds that are in the direction it needs to grow and distance from the trunk along with reshaping the apex.

Some pics of the work carried out at the meeting.

Just a reminder to all, of our club meeting this Thursday, I have taken a pic of the club raffle tree a Ligustrum which is developing into a cracking shohin.

I have done minimal pruning just to keep it in shape as it will be left to the lucky winner to put their style on it.

I will be bringing it in on Thursday so do take a closer look at the trunk movement.

We had a couple of pots donated to the club when we did the Cacti and Succulent show at Melksham I will bring them in as well,cheap price as monies go to the club.

Sunday 31st July was the second year for the Staverton Group to organise this Bonsai boot sale and thanks to Tony suggesting that it would be a good opportunity to have a pitch to advertise our club.

We had not planned to have a pitch as individually we did not have enough trees to sale to warrant one, however when it was decided that between us it made sense and surprisingly or not we managed to have brought along a good selection of trees, wooden stands both formal and decorative sections for sale, so on Sunday we set up our emporium.

For those of you who have not attended either years do not be put off by the Boot Sale bit it is much more than this, it attracts dealer stands, potters as well as individuals selling and offers trees from starter material to high quality both styled and Yamadori.

We had quite a bit of interested on our stand from people who live local to the club many asking for advice so you never know we might attract some new members, if we dont it is always good to talk Bonsai.

Many thanks to Tony and his group for organising this event and keep your eyes out for next years date, if you have not attended I recommend it there is nothing in this area to compare to it.

Just a few pics of the day does not cover all who had pitches to give you an idea of the event.