Club Meetings

This month has shown all the weather elements of mid-winter in Victoria, but it has been a good month for bonsai with a visit to Victoria by Hugh Grant from his home base in the Blue Mountains in NSW.

Hugh has been a long time member and friend of VNBC, and we have always welcomed any opportunity to tap into his knowledge, expertise and experience for the benefit of our members. This month we have been especially pleased to have Hugh conduct a day of workshops for members, and then a fascinating demonstration at the Tuesday evening club meeting on 8th July.

The workshops were attended by a number of club members with a variety of trees for review, discussion and suggestions for further development, and there was quite an amount of work carried out on the trees under the guidance of Hugh.

At the evening club meeting, Hugh used the opportunity to work on a Kunzea leptospermoides, or Yarra Burgan, to talk through his process of analysis of the tree, and to develop ideas and directions for turning the raw material into the makings of a good future bonsai. This tree had previously collected by a club member during one of our earlier digging events, and had no work carried out since its initial collection.

 

 

A fascinating night at the club meeting with Hugh as demonstrator, leaving us with plenty of ideas to think about as we look at our trees once again.

The VNBC club meeting on Tuesday night, 10th June, featured a presentation and demonstration on rock plantings with native species bonsai.

Always an interesting topic for bonsai people, this was a most interesting night of ideas, demonstrations and discussion, with a key feature being a demo by Quentin using a Banksia tree and a large piece of pumice rock.

Quentin’s work was supplemented by Ian discussing a couple of other examples, and looking at a large quartz rock on which he had done some work, and was seeking discussion on his options for planting a bonsai eucalyptus in a cavity he had created on the side of the rock.

A couple of other bonsai planted on or with rock pieces from the display table were also presented at the meeting for discussion.

 

.

This monthly meeting saw the commencement of a club project to follow the progress of development of four native plants on their journeys towards becoming established bonsai. The four plants, purchased from Kuranga Nursery at Mt Evelyn, consisted of two Melaleuca halmaturorum, or Swamp paperbark, Kangaroo Honey-myrtle, and two Gaudium brevipes, syn Leptospermum brevipes, or Slender Tea tree.

Four of our members committed to taking on one of these plants each, and developing them over time to see what could be achieved, with regular reporting on progress back to the club.

Each of the four brave members saw their plants for the first time on the night, and each gave their first impressions and  ideas for future development (with some commentary and input from other members), with some initial pruning and wiring started on the night.

We will look forward to the regular reports on development, as the trees continue their progress towards becoming future bonsai.

 

The meeting night also featured good discussions on a number of members trees from the display table, including the following (amongst others).

 

 

 

 

The 2025 Exhibition of the Victorian Native Bonsai Club was held at Preston City Hall on Friday 21st and Saturday 22nd of March.

We had a fascinating range of 63 bonsai Australian native plants on display, as well as having a wide range of bonsai and native plants suitable for bonsai for sale, along with plenty of pots and tools suitable for bonsai.

There was a good crowd of attendees on both the Friday night and Saturday, with plenty of new faces as well as many of our bonsai friends. 

The prize for the Best Eucalypt in Show was judged by Professor David Cantrill, Executive Director Science at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne, and incoming Chair of the Dahl Trust, which operates as Eucalypt Australia.

This year, the award went to a tree by Marcela Ferriera, VNBC Secretary and highly regarded bonsai grower. The tree is an Angophora costata, Sydney Red Gum, with beautiful form and a great crown, along with the outstanding bark which can be characteristic of this species.

 

The Public’s Choice Award was won by a Coastal tea tree, Gaudium laevigatum, grown by Quentin Valentine.

More photos to come soon, and will be available in our photo gallery.

 

Both of the club’s Tuesday night meetings for February and March have been workshop nights, for club members to work on their trees, with assistance if required, and to review and prepare trees for the club’s annual Exhibition.

Some demonstration work at the February meeting looked at continuing the restyling and development of the club’s Sheoak tree, as well as looking at progress on several other native bonsai trees which have been previously discussed at earlier meetings.

As always at these workshop nights, there was plenty of activity and progress on members’ trees.

The November club meeting, on Tuesday 12th November, was primarily a workshop night for members to work on their trees with advice or assistance from others as needed. The evening’s program included a review of several trees from the display table, as well as a critique session for a group review of a few trees put forward by members for analysis.

The trees reviewed were a varied lot, from some young trees which were just beginning their bonsai journey, through to a more substantial “garden rescue” tree. As usual, there is always plenty for everyone to learn through these critique sessions, and, of course, for many of the trees there is often no single answer as to what the tree could become in later life.

A well- attended meeting on the night, with several new members welcomed into the club.

 

Read more

The end of one year and the start of another for the VNBC – this October meeting on Tuesday 8th October is the club’s Annual General Meeting and election of office bearers, followed by a parallel triple demonstration by Craig, Quentin and Marcela.

The usual club meeting place at the Newlands Senior Citizens Centre, Murray Rd, Coburg, commencing at 7:30pm.

At the club workshop night at our July meeting, we had quite a selection of trees to discuss, review and make suggestions for further development, as well as plenty of work being done by members on their own trees.

And at the club meeting on 13th August, Allan Harding, one of our Sydney-based club members, and the key person for the Penjing Australia Facebook pages, presented to us. Alan demonstrated and explained his Penjing approach using a Kunzea provided by the club, discussing the relationship between Penjing and Australian native species.

 

The 10th Symposium on Australian Natives as Bonsai – “Sharing Our Learnings” was held on 31st August and 1st September, hosted by the Victorian Native Bonsai Club, at the Treacy Centre, Parkville, Melbourne.

This Symposium once again was intended to bring together much of the knowledge which continues to expand amongst bonsai growers in utilising Australian native plant species as bonsai, with demonstrations, discussions, exhibitions, critiques and workshops,  a concurrent Exhibition of Australian Native Species as Bonsai. An excellent set of presenters covered a range of topics during the symposium, with plenty of different species of trees to think about, and demonstrations of development of bonsai from collected plants, as well as group plantings.

 

 

This was certainly an event which was inspiring and encouraging for the participating bonsai enthusiasts to continue to work with Australian native species as Bonsai.

Photo gallery of exhibition trees to be added shortly.