Club Meetings

Keeping our native species bonsai happy, healthy and growing can be a challenge at times, when the natural world contains a wide range of pests and diseases looking for any opportunity to find new habitat.

The Club’s June meeting on the night of Tuesday 11th June will provide a focus on the various pest and disease problems which we may encounter in growing Australian plants as bonsai. We will take a look at identifying problems, recognising the damage that they may cause in our trees, and finding the best solutions to managing the various pests and diseases.

This will be an opportunity to bring along pictures and samples (with some care, of course, to avoid any disease problems which may spread to other plants) for discussion and resolution.

We will also talk about the best management methods to avoid or minimise infestations in our trees and the damage that they may cause.

The club’s monthly meeting on 14th May 2024 featured a presentation by Damian Bateson on bonsai potting mix composition, and the importance of microbial activity in soils. This is an element which is often neglected in our thinking about potting mixes, and so it is certain that we will be challenged in what we do with our bonsai mixes.

Damian has a strong background in landscape garden design and construction, with a wide-ranging experience and interests in different garden and landscape styles as well as bonsai. 

Damian discussed a range of considerations for bonsai mixes, including different components, particle sizes, aeration needs and nutrients.

 

The April club meeting was a very interesting night, with quite a few members bringing along examples of group plantings with a range of different native species for display, including Eucalypts, Leptospermums, and Melaleucas.

The main part of the meeting included a demonstration of a group planting of Melaleucas by Quentin, while several members also brought in groups to establish or to gather advice on.

The group plantings being developed by members at the meeting included quite a range of possibilities, and we are looking forward to some interesting bonsai in future exhibitions.

 

At our meeting on 12th March, we had a good members’ workshop night, along with a demonstration by Quentin of separation of an air-layered ficus, which he set up at a club meeting late last year.

 

 

 

As of January 2024, we have a new venue for all club meetings and Saturday Workshops this year. The venue is now the Newlands Senior Citizens Centre, located at 49-53 Murray Road, Coburg, approx 1km to the east of our previous meeting rooms.

The Club’s final meeting for 2023, to wrap up the year and to prepare us for 2024.

What is it that helps show a tree at its best in an exhibition? We will have plenty of discussion, demonstration and advice in relation to works being carried out on trees in preparation for the Club’s exhibition to be held in March, to assist members who have bonsai that they may wish to put on display. Members are encouraged to bring one or two trees that they may be considering for display at the exhibition, to see what may be needed to be done over the next couple of months to exhibit them at their best.

And of course, there will be plenty of time on the night to socialize, celebrate, talk about bonsai, and to review what we have all done over the year.

Where? – Harry Atkinson Centre, Coburg Lake Reserve, Park St, Coburg, commencing at 7:30pm.

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.