Lee V Workshop

Another excellent and well attended workshop was held on the 22nd May.

Lee Verhorevoort again gave us an excellent workshop and we benefitted from his vast experience in the bonsai field.

Many trees were worked on and are much improved for their experience.

Another workshop will be held on the 9th of October. Places are limited and demand will be high so make sure you get in early.

May Meeting

During the May meeting the annual Nick Jacob's trophy competition was held. The trophy is awarded for the best member's tree as voted for by member's of the club present at the meeting. Tree's have to have been styled by members from seed, nursery stock or collected material, professionally styled material is not allowed to be entered.

The trophy is awarded in memory of Nick Jacob's former chairman of the Society.

The competition was strong this year, and the winning tree was a Blaaw's juniper owned by Mark Kerry. Congratulations!

As well as the trophy competition, members were also given the chance to photograph their trees using the kindly donated cameras, tripods, tables and lighting brought by Derek, Dave and Mark.

Alongside all of this a regular workshop was also held where members worked on their own trees and sought advice from some of the more experienced members of the club.

March Meeting - John Trott

John Trott once again gave an excellent talk for the club. The topic was working with field grown trees and John demonstrated repotting as well as his thoughts on styling a mature hornbeam and a nice yew.

John has been growing trees in the ground himself for over 20 years and was able to give a good idea of the benefits and drawbacks of this technique of bonsai creation.

The talk was well received by all.

November Meeting

Most of the November meeting was taken up with an informative presentation on 'The rules of bonsai' given by Mark Kerry. The talk covered topics such as pot choice, avoiding common faults and different tree styles within bonsai.

Feedback from the audience was positive and Mark is open to suggestions for presentation topics in 2010.

Lee Verhorevoort workshop in October

Several of the club members attended a workshop run by Lee Verhorevoort on the 11th of October. Everyone got a lot out of the day and several of the trees ended up with a major overhaul, including Malcolm's Japanese white pine.

We enjoyed it so much that we have booked Lee for another two workshops in 2010. Book early to avoid disappointment.

Berkshire Show 2009

Once again the society set up a display stand at the Berkshire Show over the weekend of the 19th and 20th of September. This year we were awarded a Large Silver for the display. There were lots of very complimentary comments about the display and the bonsai trees. We also ran demonstations throughout the weekend and gave advice to people regarding their bonsai. As usual, the main misconception that people have is that bonsai need to be indoor trees.

There was also a number of people who displayed interest in coming to the club and seeing what we do.

We look forward to the 2010 show and hopefully getting a Gold award.

Royal Berks Show

Newbury and District Bonsai Society will be displaying at the Royal Berkshire Show on the 19th and 20th of September .

In the past the society's display has been awarded a Gold medal. Here you can see a picture of last years display stand.

If you are at the show why not visit our stand in the horticultural tent and see what we are all about.