11 months since our last face-to-face club meeting! It was with relief, and some caution, that the club held its first evening meeting for 2021, after the COVID-related difficulties of 2020. Limits on numbers present in the hall, mask-wearing indoors for everyone, social distancing, no supper refreshments, and all the other COVID-safe requirements were in place for those attending this meeting, but we also had the added feature, at this meeting, of linking in some of our more distant members from Bendigo, Canberra, Sydney, Tasmania and South Australia via a Zoom link as well. It was great to be able to include some of our wider membership at the meeting, and using this feature is a direct result of some of the things we learned during the COVID restrictions of 2020.
The focus for this meeting was a workshop and tree critique night, for preparation of members’ trees for the club’s exhibition coming up in late March.
Quite a few trees were worked on by members on the night, and we had plenty of them brought forward for review, discussion and advice by the group.
Some of the key points made to consider in setting up trees for display included good management of any wiring on the trees; ensuring that the trees can be raised up for display at a height that allows people to view them properly; ensuring that the soil surface is free from weeds and unnecessary plant debris; and use of consistent stone types if rocks are part of the display.
