For the club’s September meeting, we were delighted to be able to host a visit by Steve Cullum for his presentation on styling and shaping bonsai, keeping in mind the origins and heritage of bonsai, as well as the natural forms and growth habits of the species we use.
Steve’s discussion certainly gave everyone plenty of challenges and ideas for us as bonsai growers to bear in mind as we develop our trees, with an underlying thinking as to whether we want our trees to look like bonsai, or whether we want our bonsai to look like trees.
This concept has always been an area of consideration for growers of Australian native trees as bonsai, given the origins of the art in northern hemisphere conifers and deciduous species. Our Australian species often have growth characteristics which are different from these traditional species, and Steve’s challenges are very appropriate when we start to choose the shape of our trees.
