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The coming VNBC club meeting, on Tuesday night, 10th June, will feature a presentation and demonstration on rock plantings with native species bonsai.
This is always an interesting topic for bonsai people, and we anticipate an interesting night of ideas, demosntrations, discussion and questioning.
As usual, the meeting commences at 7:30pm, at the Newlands Senior Citizens Centre, 49-53 Murray Rd, Coburg. Guests and visitors are always welcome.
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 2024 year is done and dusted, but the bonsai life continues, of course.
The December 10th Club meeting was our final one for this year, held as usual at the meeting rooms at the Newlands Senior Citizens Centre, Murray Road, Coburg, commencing at 7:30pm.
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.
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 2024 VNBC Exhibition – 15th March and 16th March, in the Preston Town Hall – what a great show of Australian native plant species as bonsai, and what a good crowd of visitors to enjoy the exhibition, both on the Friday night and most of Saturday.
Altogether, we had nearly 70 trees and tree groups on display, ranging in size from the very small to the very large, and with such a diversity of species in the show. The range of species included representatives of Acacias, Banksias, Eucalypts, Sheoaks, Figs, Melaleucas, Leptospermums, and many more.
As usual, we had an award for the Best Eucalypt in Show, sponsored by Eucalypt Australia as part of the lead-up to National Eucalypt Day on March 24th. The winning tree was selected by our guest judge, Prof Ros Gleadow, the Chair of EA Board, and the prize this year went to a 40-year-old Red Box, Eucalyptus polyanthemos.
We also continued the very popular Public’s Choice Award, with very strong voting over the two days by the visiting crowds. While there was quite strong numbers of votes for several of the trees, this year the winning number of votes went to a magnificent Coastal Tea Tree, Leptospermum laevigatum, the “Three Headed Monster” hanging from a cliff face.
The sales area was also well patronized over the weekend, demonstrating that there are many people who want to start and/or continue to develop their enjoyment of the art of bonsai.
Our thanks to all who participated – members, supporters, family and friends, and the cheerful crowd of visitors, who all came to enjoy seeing outstanding specimens of bonsai featuring many of our Australian native plant species. We will be back again next year, of course, to continue the story.
Membership of the Victorian Native Bonsai Club is a great avenue for anyone who wants to develop their understanding and skills in growing bonsai using Australian native plant species.
Access to support, new ideas, knowledge of others, regular Club newsletters, a database of information, and much more, all come as benefits of club membership.
The Victorian Native Bonsai Club is keen to hear from you if you are interested in membership.
Just click on the “Joining” tab in the menu list, and follow the prompts.