March Meeting 2015 - Bonsai

Tony McKenzie, our speaker for March

Our March meeting came as a bit of surprise for most, as many of the members thought of Bonsai as an old, calm gentleman in a kimono, sitting and considering his tree for hours before leaning over and cutting off a single leaf with a pair of tiny scissors.  Instead Tony McKenzie showed us how to renovate an overgrown bonsai Acer, with  a demonstration involving quite a brutal prune followed by root pruning that had many members feeling somewhat faint!

Renovation of the acer

Mr McKenzie also brought along a number of bonsai with him, of various ages, to illustrate the different types of bonsai that are available; many had been grown by him over the years, and he was keen to encourage us all to "have a go".   Apparently, many bonsai failures are caused by purchasing trees from garden centers that are really supposed to be grown outdoors, which then die when exposed to the heat and dryness of a centrally heated home.  We also learned that, although bonsai have leaves that are small and in proportion to the rest of the plant, should they flower and fruit, these will be of "normal" size - this was a real eye-opener to most of us!

In fact, the demonstration had a number of practical applications over and above the topic of bonsai.  It is applicable to a number of shrubs grown in containers, such as the standard acer that I have which has a rather overgrown head - the pruning and the root training that we saw are the exact techniques that I shall have to apply to the containerised tree - assuming that I can be brave enough!

A sample of the bonsai on display, including the small hosta in
the pot to the left

Members thoroughly enjoyed the demonstration, and many thanks to Tony for answering varied questions from many of us in the tea break - I also learned how to renovate the neglected Scots Pine bonsai that I rescued last year after the owner moved away; as it is an evergreen, pruning has to be performed so that some of each leaf cluster is still left on the tree.