The Club’s annual exhibition of Australian native plants as bonsai was held successfully once again at the Preston City Hall on Friday evening and Saturday, 18th and 19th March, 2022.
And what a great exhibition it was, with more than 70 of members’ trees on display, covering a wide range of species, ages and styles. We had a continuing stream of visitors over the two days, representing both regular bonsai enthusiasts and the wider public.
The level of public interest was very strong, and there was plenty of enthusiasm amongst visitors for voting in the Peoples Choice Award. As always, it was very interesting to see what the wider public really liked most amongst the trees on display, but in the end, the clear winner in first place from the voting was tree no. 36, Kunzea peduncularis, or Mountain Burgan. The others of the top six in the voting were, in second place, Acacia howittii, or Sticky Wattle “Green Wave”, third place, Melaleuca bracteata, “Golden Gem”, fourth place, Kunzea peduncularis, Mountain Burgan, fifth place, another Kunzea peduncularis, and in 6th place, Eucalyptus camaldulensis, River Red Gum.
This year, the club also partnered once again with the Eucalypt Australia organisation to participate in the promotion of eucalypts as part of National Eucalypt Day on March 23rd. The exhibition this year featured a number of eucalypts as bonsai, and a trophy was sponsored by Eucalypt Australia for the Best Eucalypt in Show. This trophy was awarded for a Eucalyptus regnans, or Mountain Ash, which was quite fitting, as a nation-wide vote conducted by EA in the month prior to National Eucalypt Day also resulted in Mountain Ash being voted as national Eucalypt of the Year for 2022. It’s a great tree, both as one of the tallest trees in the world, and, at the other end of the scale, as a very special bonsai.
Photos of all of the trees in this year’s exhibition are now available for viewing in the Photo Gallery section of this website.