A regular update on the life and times of John Hanby’s Newstead Bonsai Centre……..
Topical Times – Beginners Two Class 30th March 2014
Last week we held part two of our latest Beginners Course with six students in attendance. Having witnessed a styling demonstration in the previous session it was now their turn to have a go at creating a bonsai out of suitable raw material.
Each student selected a piece of material from our stock and removed soil to expose the base of the trunk. Possible styling options were discussed with John, branches were removed….!!! and then all the remaining branches were wired.
For most of them this was their first attempt at wiring and they did an excellent job, but they did have some extremely good help from my team….Len, Derek and Ian!
In the afternoon the wired trees were styled by John and whilst there was no obligation to purchase every student decided to take their newly created bonsai home.
The practicalities of watering,feeding, pests/diseases, and position were also discussed.
I hope you can fully appreciate their efforts from the pictures below.
The Juniper pictured below was treated differently to the ones above.
The student wanted to work with this tree and it has excellent potential to make a small powerful bonsai with it’s good movement and unusual low branch. However this is better treated as a longer term project to make the best use of the material. The student was shown how to make the foliage more compact by shortening the branches during the coming growing seasons. A detailed styling and wiring can be carried out when sufficient foliage has developed in the ares required.
Our next Beginners Course is scheduled for June so please contact the nursery if you are interested or require more information.