Club Meetings

The November Club meeting was a most fascinating night of Eucalypts.

The presenter on the night, Dr Dean Nicolle, took us on a photographic journey around much of Australia, looking at some of the diverse and fascinating range of eucalypts to be found across the country. From some of the Corymbia species in the north, through to Snow Gums of the south, there was just so much to explore of the occurrence of various species throughout Australia, and their characteristics and growth habits.

Dean is recognized as one of the most knowledgeable and expert people on Eucalypts in Australia, and is the recipient of a number of major awards and honors for his services to conservation of Australian Eucalypts, including an OAM in 2018. As a researcher, a publisher of some of the most definitive books on Eucalypt identification, and managing the Currency Creek Arboretum in South Australia, where he has planted more than 800 species of eucalypts, Dean has travelled throughout Australia identifying and collecting eucalypts for his books and for the arboretum. 

Dean gave the club members plenty to think about in relation to various species we might consider for growing as bonsai, and provided plenty of background information on growth habits. The evening certainly reinforced the understanding that, with all the diversity across the eucalypts, we can never treat them all as being just the same in their needs and responses to growing as bonsai.

The October club meeting started with the Annual General Meeting, held to report on the year past, to elect the club committee for 2023/24, and to look ahead to the coming year’s activities, with plenty of active discussion and suggestions for the committee and club to consider in preparing the year’s program. With a good number of members present on the night, including several of our regional and interstate members on Zoom, the AGM was well attended, with a good range of valuable comments and ideas presented for consideration.

The AGM was followed by a presentation and discussion session on various propagation techniques, including repotting of two Leptospermums by Marcela, alongside a demonstration by Quentin of air layering the lower trunk of quite a large Ficus, and the use of thread grafting and approach grafting of branches for developing improved plants as bonsai. All of these demonstrations generated a lively amount of interest, questions and discussion amongst the members.

Over the next couple of months, the club committee will be working on the program for the coming year, as well as preparation for the Club’s 2024 Exhibition on 15/16 March.

Photos of some of the demonstration action on the night…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

What can’t we use as containers for bonsai? Bonsai = Tree in a Pot, but our definition of a “pot” can be quite varied, if the examples from our September Club meeting were anything to go by!

The topic for the night was advertised as alternative containers for growing bonsai, and there were quite a number of interesting alternatives brought along for discussion and demonstration on the night. There were hollow logs, bark pieces, hand-crafted trays, mallee roots with excavated holes, any number of interesting rocks with planting hollows, as well as artificial rocks and mountains crafted out of various materials.

Thanks to all who brought tree settings and materials for discussion on the night, and who helped celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the Victorian Native Bonsai Club.

Some of the examples on the night ……..

 

 

 

 

At the club’s August meeting, on the evening of Tuesday 8th August, we are most delighted to have Jarryd Bailey as our special presenter for the night, after he has conducted a couple of workshops for members earlier in the day.

Jarryd comes to us from his more usual haunts in Tasmania, where he operates his bonsai business, Montane Bonsai Garden, on the slopes of Mt Wellington. Jarryd has an extensive background and great experience in growing bonsai, and especially in the ethical collecting and growing of native species from his home State. Jarryd has a special interest in the naturalist approach, observing the plants in the wild, and using the unique ecosystems of Tasmania as a guide in his approach to creating bonsai with Tasmanian native species.

This is expected to be a stimulating night, held at the club’s usual meeting rooms at the Coburg Lake Reserve, Coburg, commencing at 7:30 pm, and available simultaneously to our more distant members by Zoom through the link provided. 

Our Tuesday night club meeting for July was quite a fascinating session, including a range of topics and activities. These consisted of workshops for members with their own trees, along with reviews of several of the trees brought in for display, discussions on taking inspiration from nature in the way we think about styling our trees (great topic initiated by Rod), and a demonstration by Quentin of redesign and potting up of a unusual species, with various common names of Wallaby Apple, Orange Thorn, and others similar (Pittosporum spinescens syn Citriobatus spinescens).

 

 

 

The June meeting of VNBC was held on Tuesday 13th June, with a special presentation by Dr Greg Moore, who has previously been a key member of the University of Melbourne’s Burnley College, and is very well known for his wide-ranging expertise and knowledge in plant science and arboriculture.

Dr Greg Moore has a very active research and education profile, and is widely recognised as a significant figure in contributing to our understanding of the world of plants and their role in our lives.

The presentation by Greg for our meeting was entitled “Big trees, little trees, it’s all about the roots“.

What a fascinating range of trees and styles once again on show at the club’s 2023 Exhibition of Australian native species as Bonsai. 

This year, club members presented 61 trees on display, providing the steady stream of visitors with quite a diversity of species, styles and ages to contemplate and admire. A number of comments from first-time visitors were along the lines of “Wow, I never could have imagined Australian native trees and shrubs looking as beautiful as these as bonsai”.

Voting was held over the two days for visitors to nominate their favourite tree for the Public’s Choice Award, and this year, the winning tree for this prize was a magnificent Coastal Tea Tree, Leptospermum laevigatum, with a Mountain Burgan, Kunzea peduncularis, in second place.

This year again, we had representatives of Eucalypt Australia judging for the Best Eucalypt in Show as part of our celebration of National Eucalypt Day on 23rd March. From their very detailed inspections of the range of Eucalypts presented in the exhibition, the trophy was awarded for a Smithton Peppermint, Eucalyptus nitida, just edging out a River Red Gum, Eucalyptus camaldulensis, into second place.

 

As always, the sales area was very popular amongst visitors, with quite a few people taking away plants and pots (with plenty of advice) to establish their first bonsai tree.

Congratulations and thanks are due to all members who participated through putting bonsai on display, setting up and dismantling the exhibition, and actively working in the running of the two days, in helping make this show a success.

A full set of images of all of the bonsai on display at the exhibition has been added to our photo gallery.

Our first evening club meeting for 2023 was a workshop night, with a focus on members preparing trees for the coming Club Exhibition on 24th and 25th of March. We had no Zoom component for our more distant members for this meeting, due to a few technical and organizational challenges, but we expect to be back in Zoom action once again at future meetings. The March Club meeting, Tuesday 14th, will also be a workshop / critique session.

We had an interesting selection of trees on the display table, which were brought up for discussion and review, with plenty of questions and comment for each. Some of the trees on display are shown below.

The final club meeting for 2022 was held on Tuesday 13th December, with a very good attendance by members, including several of our interstate and country Victoria members on Zoom.

With quite a festive feel in the air at the meeting, the evening included plenty of chat over food and drink, a display of some of our members’ native species bonsai decorated as Christmas trees, and a lively discussion on the use of accent plants and companion plants with our trees, both in home display and in exhibitions.

The decorated tree species on display included Eucalypts, Melaleuca, Ficus, Callitris and Leptospermum.

The discussion on the use of accent and companion plants brought out some interesting thoughts in relation to displaying individual trees and in exhibition settings. The range of Australian native species  available for use in this context is very diverse, including ferns, grasses, small orchids, and many small flowering species.

 

 

 

 

So, the 2022 year is nearly complete, with all of the challenges and achievements we have experienced. Our thoughts are with those of our members and other bonsai friends across the country who have been affected by floods especially. And now we are looking forward to the 2023 bonsai year, including, of course, the club’s annual exhibition on 24/25 March.

To all of our members, and to the wider world of bonsai growers, we wish everyone a great Christmas and New Year, and we hope that the coming year will be a good bonsai year for all.

For the club’s September meeting, we were delighted to be able to host a visit by Steve Cullum for his presentation on styling and shaping bonsai, keeping in mind the origins and heritage of bonsai, as well as the natural forms and growth habits of the species we use.

Steve’s discussion certainly gave everyone plenty of challenges and ideas for us as bonsai growers to bear in mind as we develop our trees, with an underlying thinking as to whether we want our trees to look like bonsai, or whether we want our bonsai to look like trees.

This concept has always been an area of consideration for growers of Australian native trees as bonsai, given the origins of the art in northern hemisphere conifers and deciduous species. Our Australian species often have growth characteristics which are different from these traditional species, and Steve’s challenges are very appropriate when we start to choose the shape of our trees.