Hi All,
it was a quieter meeting this month with 8 members attending, we had apologies from Roy , Mick and Jean and also Terry and Linda.
A warm welcome is extended to our new joiners Matt Lewis who has moved to us from Crawley in Sussex and Ella both are relatively new to Bonsai so please help them out where you can.
Please remember we have our Autumn workshop on Saturday 17 Oct 10am – 4pm there is no particular theme but a good opportunity to grip one of the more experienced growers for information and help and also a good time for profile trimming and late season wiring. the proposed cost is £8 but may be subsidised by the society funds.
please bring coverings to keep the table tops clean and a bag to take your clippings home. If you are coming for the day don’t forget food although I’m sure tea and coffee will be available. Alan also suggested if you have any bonsai related things for sale bring them along to offer.
Alan Craddock set the evening off with a resume from his visit to Heathrow exhibition and also brought along two fine porcelain pots that he wished to repot a small hawthorn and a maple into. There was some comments and discussion about the bright colours of the pots and it was remarked upon that it seems to be the trend to pot well developed Shohin size trees in very fine and well made pots to enhance their beauty and emphasise their quality giving visual impact to the tree. It’s probably a “Marmite” thing but I have seen this at a few shows now on good Shohin and Mame displays.
I brought along two small Chinese elms ( ulmus pavifolia) and a Japanese grey bark elm (Zelkova serrata) to show the difference in leaf size and colour, and tried to explain why the Chinese elms sold in garden centres were incorrectly labelled as Zelkova, it is a way to over come import restrictions of Ulmus speceis around Dutch elm disease etc. so as they are similar or so they think in appearance they are labelled as Zelkova to get them in. But don’t get caught out, Zelkova are a different species harder to find and are fully deciduous and must be kept outside where as Ulmus parvifolia can tolerate and may adapt to indoors, are semi evergreen but do prefer and perform better if kept outside all year.
Matt lewis (new joiner) came along with a small white pine in a nice brown Yixing pot (quality pots made and imported from Kilns in southern Jiangsu province, East China) he spent some time cleaning the old yellow needles off and also selecting some over growth for removal. he did a good job and the tree looked much tidier for it.
Dave brought a small Japanese Azalea which he wanted advice on styling it, he and I studied it for a while and came to the idea of a cascade form. It is a summer flowering form so now the flowers have dropped it can be gently trimmed and repotted at the workshop Saturday.
Berice came back with an old cork bark elm with had suffered some damage to its leader and apex. I attempted to bend and reestablish the leader by bending a less required but old side branch into position. It did suffer a snapped tip and a crack but hopefully it will heel. If not I offered Berice an alternative style to use. Either way the side branch had no real promise where it was so no great loss if it doesn’t survive. sometimes we have to risk these things to improve our trees. Berice also had a nice acer maple which needed a profile trim so I showed her where and how to trim that. She agreed although quite bit had been removed the trees outline was much better for it and ramification will be better next year.
Richard had a very mature gnarly old Field Maple about 40 years old I think he said. the leaf size was in perfect proportion right now and he also was busy trimming excess extensions off and pondering where the final front position might be when he next repots it. He also came with that late season flowering azalea I mentioned last time but it was in full bloom now and what a cracking flower it had with a pink and white blotch to them.
Ella (new joiner) had a spruce adapted from an old Xmas tree. She carried out some trimming and I managed to have a short time discussing repotting and soil types with her, I hope it was helpful.
Matt Buller had a spiky Juniper that needed some work to define the branch pads and compact its foliage growth and by the end of the evening he had done a very good job.
Oh yes a heads up if you are needing soil mixes, “Wattston Bonsai” in Lancashire are having a sale Two bags of any soil ( akadama, Kiru, pumice etc) post free for £45 that’s one of the cheapest I know. get it while you can for next springs repot.
well that’s it from me
see you Saturday
Kev