Club History

The club was founded in 1993. Originally there was a single monthly meeting (in Sutton-in-Ashfield), this was soon increased at the request of the members to two meetings a month.

Many more formal clubs depend on demonstrations, talks and slideshows with occasional workshops. At Ashfield the emphasis is very much towards the informal and "hands on". Members regularly bring their own own material to meetings. The club caters for a wide range of experience in bonsai and welcomes new members. Advice is available from the more seasoned and creative members and we try to foster a relaxed, "family feel" with everyone having a say in the clubs affairs. Each year we invite one or two speakers of international fame to present to us, and we occasionally organise weekend workshops with well known bonsai personalties. Presently our meetings are held in the comfortable and spacious church hall at South Normanton and new members are always welcome.

In 2019 the club members will continue to exhibit at major exhibitions both at home and abroad, with trees enterred for the Swindon Winter Image show in February (where the club has also been invited to present a display stand), and at the Bonsai Expo in April.

Members will also be attending the Trophy Exhibition in Belgium in February, the Doncaster show in March and other shows throughout the year

Saturday 17 March 2012

Peter Warren critiques, ( the polite term), members trees

Thursday 15th March 2012

As Mr Warren was in the area we jumped at the chance to have him come along to our meeting for one of his world famous critique sessions.
Shown below are pictures of the trees bought along by our members for advice / ridicule

Literati Spruce in the making.....Derek our awesome treasurer kindly donated some wire for this tree......he is recovering in Kings Mill Hospital and should be home by Friday.
 Deshojo Maple, soon to become half a Deshojo Maple
 White Pine, heading in the right direction
 Sweet little Plum......geddit ?
Chinese Elm planting purchased from our winter auction, recently re-potted and re-arranged by Tony.
Peter has advised to remove the rear right tree (and pot up as a shohin) and develop the other 2 trees as a twin tree planting.
Small Deshojo, Mr Warren controversially shows a finger !
He does enjoy his work......
 Geoff's Escallonia
 Geoff's 1/2 an Escallonia, it's no good trying to hide Mr Warren we can see you.
 An oldish plum in bloom.....aah the sweet fragrance
Peter suggests a change of potting angle, removed a couple of offending branches, creation of some more deadwood and take plenty of cuttings for grafting branches at a later date..........we can still see you.....he's crap at hide & seek
 Nice little collected Beech, not sure about the pot though !!
 Mr Warren practices his limbo technique for the upcoming Olympics
 Grahams needle juniper in need of a trim and some wiring to create layers
 Privet
 Field Maple on rock
 Shohin size Honeysuckle
A confused Hawthorn, which doesn't know if it's coming or going.....we've now decided it's going.....to the right that is











We highly recommend Peter Warren to any clubs out there for workshops or critique nights similar to ours. Lots of valuable information is passed on and a good laugh is had by all.....oh and he's cheap !! just kidding.

Monday 12 March 2012

Ashfield display wins award at the British Shohin Association show.

Ashfield Bonsai Club put on a display at the British Shohin Association show this weekend at Willowbog nursery.
We were very pleased to be awarded Best Collaborative Composition for the display shown below.

Ashfields award winning display:
Itoigawa Juniper, Cho jubai (quince), Zelkova & White Pine
Ashfield member John Pitt also won an award for his chuhin 3 point display.
John award winning display (Best display of non imported trees)
English Yew & English Elm
 I love this display, Mike Rose's Black Pine & Zelkova
John Brocklehurst's chuhin Hinoki & Potentilla
Peter Tombs stunning Itoigawa Juniper












Congratulations to the BSA for staging this great event which goes from strength to strength each year.
Many thanks to Peter & Jean Snart for allowing the event to be staged and for their hospitality.
Many thanks also to our friends Peter Warren and John Armitage who worked their nads off to ensure the event was a success.

Saturday 3 March 2012

Swindon Winter Image Show 2012

4 brave souls from the Ashfield massive made the journey to Swindon for the awesome Swindon Winter Image show 2012.

Unfortunately due to technical reasons (we were all hanging from a Saturday night on Jagermeister, Sambuca & Slippery Nipples...oo-er), there weren't many pictures taken.
Also the lighting at the venue isn't conducive to good photography at all.

 Peter Tomb's Kashima, part of the Ashfield Bonsai Club display
 Mike Rose's Scots Pine, part of the Ashfield Bonsai Club display
 Chris Dodd's Cedar, part of the Ashfield Bonsai Club display
 John Brocklehurst's Maple, part of the Ashfield Bonsai Clubs display
 White Pine part of the Ashfield shohin display
 Juniper, Quince & Zelkova in the Ashfield shohin display
 Peter Tombs Itoigawa Juniper
 Potentilla
 Zelkova
 White Pine
 Chinese Elm
 White Pine
 Trident Maple on rock
 Accent planting












The only decent pictures I could take were mainly of shohin trees, so apologies for fans of the larger stuff, but as mentioned previously the lighting just doesn't suit my point & shoot digital.
Hope you enjoy the pictures.

Ashfield Winter Image Competition February 2012

The Ashfield massive recently held our annual winter image competition.
Here are pictures from the evening.


 Pete's Kashima, the winning tree
 Mike's Zelkova shohin
 Chris's Cedar
 John's Blackthorn
 Derek's Hornbeam
 John's Maple
Chris Dodds (right) presents Peter Tombs with the winners trophy for his fantastic Kashima.
We had offered to put on a shohin display at the Swindon Winter Image show, so we took the opportunity to try a few lay outs for the display.
We eventually settled on this one.
Tony re-potted his elm group