June saw our annual workshop weekend. This year saw the return of the very popular Clinton Nesci. Over the two days Clinton managed to work on and give guidance on a large number of trees in various stages of development. Some of the trees were those he saw 3 years ago during his last visit. [...]
The May meeting was a workshop for the redwood trees collected from Rotorua last August. It was very interesting to see and hear about the progress on the trees and some of the problems that had been encountered in trying to get new branches to shoot.
April saw a very successful trip to Auckland to visit a number of collections and the show at Eden Gardens which included a stand by the Auckland club. The main item at the April meeting was an illustrated presentation by Peter on the use of photography within bonsai. The talk included samples of recording progess, [...]
The main focus of the March meeting was the talks given by various members on species suitable for growing as bonsai in the Waikato area. The talks on the seven species discussed styles, pests, propogation, frost hardiness, soil mixes, watering and pruning techniques.
As well as catching up with everyone's activities over the summer break, the February meeting saw Melody give a fascinating and humerous talk on how to ensure your trees survive the drought we are currently experiencing. Her talk not only covered prevention but also some very valuable tips for resurecting seemingly dead trees, and what [...]
The first weekend of December saw a fantastic workshop with Nobu Kajiwara. As well as working on the trees, Nobu gave a very informative and thought provoking talk on the horticultural reasons behind his pruning techniques. This went down so well that many of the attendees from Saturday returned on Sunday for more. [...]
Following on from the AGM we had reports on the recent NZBA committee meetings where it was confirmed that Hamilton will be hosting the National Convention in 2010 and the Timaru Conference where Les won the Photo competition and Peter won Dianne's Vision to Reality award. After tea Peter gave an illustrated talk on feeds [...]
October was a very busy month with our Annual Show at Hamilton Gardens and the Timaru Convention. Attendance at our show was down this year due to other vents happening in and around Hamilton. Nevertheless the display was outstanding with 130 trees on display despite the non-attendance of a couple of the stalwarts due to [...]
Ann and Peter provided the fun for this meeting. This time the "Camels" were to be created from Junipers. Three of the four groups set to straight away on their tree whilst the fourth spent some time discussing the options for their tree - almost too long as they had only made one cut [...]
Les and Melody did a double act for the meeting. Les gave an interesting talk on pruning techniques explaining when, why and how we should prune. This was followed by a challenge from Melody. She gave a brief talk on flowering bonsai and then set a quiz. On the table were 28 different flowering [...]
