Club Meetings

It was a chilly night outside for this June meeting, but there was a good number of members attending from far and wide for the workshop and critique session. Members brought along an interesting range of tree species and styles for display, discussion and for work, and so there was plenty of interest for everyone on the night.

Several trees were presented by members for discussion and / or critique, and quite a few new thoughts on styling of some of these trees were brought forward through good review and debate.

Among the trees presented on the display table, some of which were discussed by the owners, were the following:

 

As one of our highlights for the year, this meeting featured a fascinating presentation by Roger Hnatiuk from Canberra, under the Visiting Tutor Program. With his considerable experience, and his continuing contemplation of the development of bonsai in Australia with native species, Roger’s presentation “Incorrectly styled Australian native bonsai”, or “How to be inspired by nature”, gave us all much food for thought.

The ideas presented by Roger included concepts such as the Art of bonsai, as distinct from the Craft of bonsai, and the development of a person’s bonsai toolkit which includes the horticultural components as well as your artistic concepts, knowledge and experience of nature and your own spirit, voice and personal style. Developing bonsai with Australian native species, says Roger, should include the key elements of respect for country, an understanding of the land, and respect for its story. The pot, or container, is of course also an important component of this story-telling by a bonsai.

The presentation also included a number of images of Australian trees in the landscape, with thoughts about their key features of trunks, roots, branches, foliage and overall growth habits, and the potential for reflecting these features in bonsai.

Roger also provided a very thoughtful critique session for several of the trees on display, highlighting the challenges, strengths and possibilities for each tree.

Some of the trees on display on the night included the following:

 

Our April meeting featured a review of a number of trees which have either been won by club members in raffles at our meetings, or which have been passed on to them from others, over the past three years. In many cases, these trees were taken on while they were still in very early growth stages, and the range of species reviewed was quite diverse. Of particular note, it is evident that the fast growth rate characteristic of many of these native species has enabled growers to develop bonsai with very interesting structure relatively quickly.

The range of species covered in the presentations and discussions included Callitris oblonga, Eucalyptus wimmerensis, Eucalyptus goniocalyx, Leptospermum laevigatum, Leptospermum petersonii,  Leptospermum scoparium, Banksia integrifolia, Grevillea rosmarinifolia, Brachychiton “Small Leaf Paragon”,  Leucopogon, and Allocasuarina littoralis.

 

The trees on the display table on the night included the following:

As promised, this meeting presented the first in a proposed irregular series of reviews of some of the native species suitable for Bonsai found in particular regions across Australia. This first program of the series was a presentation on a number of species found in Tasmania, both endemic to Tassie and found in other areas as well, with which VNBC members have some experience (or hope) in developing as bonsai.

 

The presentation featured pictures of the various species as found in the wild or in cultivation, and as bonsai either in early stages of development or as established bonsai specimens. A number of the tree species discussed were brought in by the various members who are working on them.

 

After a broad review of the landscape and ecosystems of Tasmania, the species presented in the discussion included a number from quite a range of landscapes.

 

From the alpine and sub-alpine areas and associated forests, we saw such species as Pencil Pine (Athrotaxis cuppressoides), Mountain Plum Pine (Podocarpus lawrencei), King Billy Pine (Athrotaxis selaginoides), Celery Top Pine (Phyllocladus asplenifolius), Huon Pine (Lagarostrobus franklinii), Strawberry Pine (Microcachrys tetragona), Varnished Gum (Eucalyptus vernicosa), Alpine Ash (Eucalyptus delegatensis), Alpine Baeckea (Baeckea gunniana), Alpine Tea Tree (Leptospermum rupestre), and Myrtle Beech (Nothofagus cunninghamii, or is it now Lophozonia cunninghamii?).

Other species discussed from across the landscapes of Tasmania included Swamp Paperbark (Melaleuca ericifolia), Green Bottlebrush (Callistemon viridiflorus, or now Melaleuca virens), Sallow Wattle (Acacia mucronata), Woolly Tea Tree (Leptospermum lanigerum), Tea Tree “Rocky Rambler” (Leptospermum scoparium var.), White Peppermint (Eucalyptus pulchella), Blackwood Wattle (Acacia melanoxylon), Midlands Wattle (Acacia axillaris), Cape Pillar Sheoak (Allocasuarina crassa), and Necklace Sheoak (Allocasuarina monilifera).

Many of these species present their own particular challenges in developing as bonsai, but there are some outstanding possibilities amongst them as well. The examples brought in by some of the presenters showed that there is quality bonsai stock amongst the species of Tasmania. And this was not an exhaustive review by any means, as we know that there is plenty of development work going on in Tasmanian bonsai circles!

However, it was a great overview, and a good introduction for many members to some of the trees which they had not met previously. It will continue to be interesting to see some of these develop further over time.

 

Some of the trees on the display table at the meeting included the following.

The first meeting for 2017 was held as a workshop night, giving the many members attending an opportunity to bring along trees for pruning, styling or repotting, and for review, critique, advice and a great general discussion about what we were working on. A number of trees were brought up for discussion and some styling work with input from the wider group, with some serious pruning for some trees to give them a good framework for further development.

There was quite a diversity of species being worked on by members, again demonstrating the breadth of possibilities for Australian native species as bonsai. While some of the work on trees on the night was in the early stages of development, there were also some with significant refinement carried out to bring out some real character and style in those trees.

Trees on the display table included the following:

This meeting included the Annual General Meeting of the club, followed by a general meeting with a review of some of the display trees, and a demonstration by Quentin on redesign and replanting of a Coastal Tea Tree setting.

The AGM reports outlined some of the key activities of the club in the preceding year, and especially noted the Club’s exhibition of native trees as bonsai at Domain House in April, and also the introduction of the club database of native bonsai, now available to members for reference.

The committee for 2016-17 elected at the AGM consists of President – Quentin Valentine, Vice President – Kevin Ritchie, Secretary – Marcela Ferreira, Treasurer – Tracy Walsh, and Committee Members – Matt Robinson, Barry Woods and Bill Kernaghan.

Quentin’s demonstration started with the surviving single Coastal Tea Tree originally planted with two others as a root-over-rock group planting, and remodeled this into a quite different group, with the (significantly changed) larger tree now accompanied by two new smaller trees in a different layout.

Other trees on display on the night included:

 

This was a fascinating presentation by Myles Higgins on some of his experience with several species of Brachychiton. Myles’ keen interest was stimulated some years ago when he spotted Queensland Bottle Trees in the wild on one of his cycling trips around the country, and he has fed that interest since then with collection and experimentation with a number of different species.

The presentation on the night covered, in particular, experience with the Queensland Bottle Tree (Brachychiton rupestris), the Illawarra Flame Tree (B. acerifolius), and some of the Kurrajongs (a name which is attached to several different species), including the Dwarf Kurrajong (B. bidwillii).

Myles described his searches for plants of various species, and discussed root pruning / root management challenges, finding the best places for pruning and especially shortening of straight trunks to encourage better branching, defoliation for some species, and the best sealers for the major cuts required on roots, trunks and branches of trees which have a substantial water component within the fibres.

Some pictures of the specimens discussed by Myles:

Some of the other native bonsai on display on the night included:

 

The August meeting was primarily focused upon the initial styling of Kunzea ericoides collected on the most recent dig day (30th July) The trees collected on that day have been in pots for merely a matter of days and attention was given to ensuring the trees survival as much as it was to develop its style.   Other members worked on trees that were collected 12 months ago at a previous dig.

Jasmine’s Kunzea collected on the 30th July .. Lots of good growth and options available for development, quickly styled to develop the natural movement in the trunk and branches.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Two examples of small collected trees that were almost instant bonsai.   In the first pic, the rock was also collected on the dig day and a bowl was ground into the granite slab, drainage holes bored through the rock, a little trimming and grinding back, to produce an almost complete display, ten days from collection.

A steady stream of collected trees were reviewed, assessed and initial styling was begun on the night.   It was apparent from the different methods and  treatment selected that the Kunzea ericoidies, as bonsai material, does have considerable scope for a variety of styles.

From the display table..

Acacia baileyana

Leptospermum Mesmereyes

Leptospermum Repestre

Leptospermum Petersonii

 

 

 

The Club’s July meeting was a workshop night, with a styling review and tree critique for some of the trees both on display on the night, and for others being worked on by members. In particular, several of the trees being worked on were Kunzea ericoides which had been dug from the wild in the previous year, so it was a good opportunity to discuss tree growth, development, and future styling possibilities.

Some of the trees on display on the night included:

For this June meeting, the focus for presentations and discussions was on the selection and use of pots (or other containers) for Australian native plants as bonsai.

Commencing with a review of the Japanese principles and guidelines on the appropriate selection of pots for display of trees of different species and styles, the discussions quickly developed into a review of a number of the trees on display at the meeting. Considerable debate and challenge about the pots either in use for some trees, or being considered as possibilities for others, followed. Quite a range of views were expressed as to the overall impressions being developed for bonsai trees from a range of Australian species, including several Melaleucas, Leptospermums, Banksias and others.

With the help of a paper provided by Roger Hnatiuk of Canberra for members to consider as well, and input from a number of pot-makers present at the meeting, the possibilities presented by the use of the earth tones of Australian landscapes and rocks were seen to provide some great options for the future for containers for Australian species as bonsai.

Amongst the many trees on display and discussed on the night, the following is a selection of some of the trees and containers covered in the lively discussions: