Ashfield Bonsai Club

The seedier side of bonsai !

2012-01-28T03:21:00.000-08:00

Whilst we all enjoyed our trip to the Noelanders Trophy, some members enjoyed themselves to excess..
I thought we ought to show the seedier side of bonsai trips

A couple of pictures...no names though

Ok, I'll name & shame

Mark, thoroughly enjoying the chocolate sauce off his Belgian Waffle

Corin and Lee are ashamed to watch.....

Mike contemplates the complexities of life and how to get his little finger out of his nose !

More trees from Noelanders 13

2012-01-24T14:07:00.000-08:00

Here are some more pictures from the Noelanders 13 Trophy

Chinese Elm

Chinese Juniper

Japanese Quince

Zelkova

White Pine

John Armitages awesome shohin display

Pine

Korean Hornbeam

Red Pine & Oriental Bittersweet

Chinese Juniper, Noelanders 13 overall winner.
This tree was styled by Masahiko Kimura

Spruce

English Yew

Beech

Japanese Quince

Itoigawa Juniper

Hemlock

Ezo Spruce

Deshojo Maple

Scots Pine & Zelkova

Ashfield Bonsai Club members trees at the 13th Noelanders Trophy

2012-01-23T14:08:00.000-08:00

Here are the pictures we promised you of our members trees as displayed at Noelanders 13 this weekend.

Our tree were transported to the show, displays set up and returned to the UK by Peter Warren, Peter Snart & John Armitage.
As you can see the guys did a fantastic job of setting up our diplays and we extend our thanks to them for their hard work.

Mike Rose's Scots Pine

John Pitts Larch

John Pitts Blackthorn (Prunus Spinosa)

John Pitts accent for his Larch

Mike Rose's Trident Maple

John Brocklehurst's Kishu Juniper

Ilex Serrata accent tree to Juniper Kishu

John Brocklehurst's Japanese Maple

We hope you enjoy our displays.

More pictures of the other trees displayed to follow in the next few days.

Table show trees from Thursday 5th January meeting

2012-01-06T13:46:00.000-08:00

Just a couple of quick snaps from our meeting last night.

Potentilla, you've seen this one before, it's had it's winter haircut recently.

Winter flowering Jasmine.....flowering in winter !

Jasmine on root stand (ne taku)

Nice to see some colour during the otherwise dull winter months.

Happy New Year and some Bonsai porn !

2012-01-04T11:34:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year to all our readers.

The Noelanders Trophy 2012 is nearly upon us, so we'll be adding plenty of pictures when we get home.

Just to whet your appetites for some awesome Bonsai porn, I thought I'd add some pictures from our trip to Japan in 2010....did I mention we'd been to Japan ?

Here we go, pictures from Shunka en, the nursery where Peter Warren served his apprenticeship.

Mike Rose, Peter Warren & Mr Pitt at the entrance to Shunka en

Juniper

Mr Pitt getting exited over antique ceramics

Pine

Apricot

Crab Apple

Pine

Satsuki Azalea

Quince on rock

Trident Maple on rock

Apricot

Garden picture

Mr Koybayashi's award winning black pine called the Blue Dragon

Camellia

Our happy band with Peter and Mr Koybayashi

Merry Christmas & welcome to our new follower.

2011-12-23T02:30:00.000-08:00

Ashfield Bonsai Club members would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy & prosperous New Year.

Thanks for joining us Simon, we hope you enjoy reading the blog.

Quite a few of us are going to the Noelanders trophy towards the end of January so keep watching this space for pictures of the event and of members trees on show at the trophy.

Happy holidays

Welcome to our new member.

2011-12-17T05:40:00.000-08:00

A warm welcome to our new follower Kristian.

Hi Kristian, nice to see you here, we hope you enjoy the blog.

Noelanders 2012 Show

2011-12-17T05:38:00.000-08:00

Great news for the club.

3 members of Ashfield Bonsai Club have had confirmation that trees have been accepted for the Noelanders 2012 Show.

John Pitt, Mike Rose and myself will all be showing trees at the show.

Watch this space for photographs a plenty.

ABC auction & competition for trees purchased from previous auctions

2011-11-19T05:22:00.000-08:00

It was auction night, the most eagerly awaited night of the year.
Also this year we decided to hold a competition for trees purchased at previous auctions.

Here are a few pictures from the evening;

Philip Anthony awards the cup (sponsored by Philip) to Pete for his winning tree a Juniper Procumbens (shown below)

Pete's winning Juniper Procumbens

John's 2nd placed Juniper Procumbens

Mike's 3rd place Trident forest planting

Chris's Larch

Chris's root over rock field maple

Tony's hawthorn

Derek's escallonia

PICTURES OF THE AUCTION TABLE

Mr Pitt braved the crowds this year and stepped in as auctioneer for the first half of the evening as I'd been to the dentist and was having trouble keeping my chin dry...

A lovely planting of 3 chinese elms

Cotoneasters, hawthorn and english yew

Tony scans the sales table....you'll notice that his wife had tied his arms behind his back so that he couldn't make any bids....

Large white pine, 3 pines in a plastic tub, small acer and an escallonia

Crab apple with lovely coloured fruits

Welcome to our latest 3 followers.

2011-11-12T00:31:00.000-08:00

A warm welcome to Will, Sandor & Pedro.
Thanks for joining us guys, we hope you enjoy the blog.

It's been a long time

2011-11-07T11:56:00.000-08:00

Sorry it's been so long since our last post.
Here are a few pictures taken at our last club night.

Crazy Chris Dodds takes out his rage on an unsuspecting rock planting of larch on tufa

Mr Pitt and Mr Hill discuss the complexities of the world economic crisis and Derek's juniper

Peter Tombs lovely juniper, recently worked on with Pete Warren

Mike Rose works on his pine group, Dave Shore snorts recreational drugs from Mikes shirt

Paul Warder's english oak...what a crap tree....mine died over the winter....I'm not bitter

John's juniper rigida

Deadwood detail to the rear of the rigida

John's hinoki, recently purchased from crazy Cris Dodds

Paul Warder's lovely mulberry

Vere works on his english elm, field grown from a cutting for 10 years, lovely bark texture.

In an effort to assist with getting the UK economy back on track, ABC are having their yearly auction on Thursday 17th November.
There will also be a competion for trees purchased at previous auctions, which will be voted on by club members.
New members or visitors are welcome to attend the auction, however we will not let you buy the good stuff....what good stuff I hear all the members shout !!
It's a great night not to be missed.......bring your wads of cash.

I forgot Tonys white pine !!

2011-09-17T00:03:00.000-07:00

Tony's white pine

The 3 category winners.

Welcome to our new follower

2011-09-16T23:57:00.001-07:00

Hi Rodrigo, thanks for joining us, hope you enjoy the blog

John

2011 annual club show

2011-09-16T13:10:00.000-07:00

Another great turn out for this years show, the voting in the 3 size catagories was very close, a testament to the improving quality of members trees.

Here are pics of all the trees displayed.

Chris's trident maple

Mikes rigida juniper

Petes juniper

Johns potentilla

Johns juniper kishu

Mikes box

Philips ficus

Teds juniper, winner of the shohin category

Tonys hornbeam

Johns larch, winner of the chuhin category

Dereks chinese elm

Petes larch group

Mikes box

Mikes amur maple

Petes raft azalea

Chris's cedar

Petes common juniper

Johns maple clump

Teds rigida juniper

Mikes scots pine, winner of the large category and BEST IN SHOW

Petes maple

Mikes hemlock

Mike Rose accepting the shield for best in show from Derek Hill

Mikes fantastic scots pine with the Best in Show shield

Table Display Thursday 4th August

2011-08-09T12:43:00.000-07:00

Apologies for the lack of trees showing this week.

Chris's Cedar, this tree is really starting to age nicely. The foliage pads need to develop more but the tree has a lovely feel to it.

Sneaky Chris has added a couple of Rosemary branch jins for effect...they look great.
The shot below shows Chris wiring the tree at an earlier club night...minus the jins.

I'm not sure if that's cat sick on the moss.....or could it be akadama ?

John's Cork bark Chinese Elm. The smaller "rafted" trunk developing on the left is actually a cutting from the main tree that was introduced into the trees rootball around 4 years ago, it's thickening up quite nicely but the branch development has a way to go yet.
The pot looks very bright and needs some patina to develop. I always felt the pot was too small but looking at the photograph now I'm not sure....any suggestions from our followers ?

Mr Kimura's nursery

2011-07-25T12:21:00.000-07:00

After lunch at a fantastic restaurant we made our way to Mr Kimura's garden / nursery

Fish & Chips Japanese style

Beautiful Ikebana display (yes I do have a cultured side)

Mr Kimura surrounded by the motley crew, if you look closely you can see John Pitt picking Mr Kimura's pocket...at least that's what I thought he was doing !

White Pine planted on rock

Juniper

Juniper planted on rock

Black Pine

Juniper

Quince

Crytomeria group planting on rock

Juniper

If you want to see more pictures from our trip to Japan, follow the link from this site to John Pitts website. From there you can link to his album of photographs.

Pete Warren tree critique 21st July 2011

2011-07-23T02:08:00.000-07:00

The great thing about these critique nights, (apart from getting the chance to take the pi**), is that Pete takes you through design elements, horticultural requirements, planning for the next 12 months etc etc for all the different species we take along.

Chris's maple

Geoffs air layered chinese elm

John's pine

Johns hawthorne

John yew

Marks root on rock azalea

Mikes field maple

Pauls privet

Petes azalea

Philips white pine

Tonys pine

We find these nights invaluble for future development and styling of our bonsai.
A critique night for your club with Pete Warren is highly recommended.

TOJU-EN NURSERY, JAPAN 2010

2011-07-17T00:44:00.000-07:00

Toju-en was the second nursery we visited during our trip. This is the nursery where Mr Kimura spent his apprenticeship with Mr Hamano.

The entrance to the nursery

Japanese Quince

Prunus

White Pine

Maple ??

White Pine

Our tour guide Yoshi (centre), this guy is really helpful, and organised a fantastic day for us.
The little shack (above Yoshi's head) was where Mr Kimura lived during his time on the nursery.

Zelkova

White Beech

Selection of Shohin & accent plantings

Club table display Thursday 7th July

2011-07-10T11:49:00.000-07:00

Here are a selection of members trees from our recent club night.

John's European Larch in early stages of training (in an early Pitt pot ;-) )

Chris's Satsuki

Mikes Mugo pine group planting

John's Itoigawa juniper

Julie's Chinese elm

Mansai-en, The Kato family nursery

2011-06-27T05:41:00.000-07:00

This was the first nursery we visited on the first full day of our trip to Japan last year.
So these were the first trees we saw.....mindblowing

Cryptomeria, group planting on slab

John & Mike stand aghast....notice Johnny boys shoplifting coat !!

Unknown variety

Apricot

Japanese White Pine

Juniper twisted live vein & shari

Mr Pitt partaking refreshments....the shoplifting coat came in handy ;-)

Group & Rock plantings

So many beautiful trees !!

Awesome Maple

Where do you look next, which way do you turn ?

Welcome 2 new followers.

2011-06-17T04:17:00.000-07:00

Welcome Jani and Saru,
Thanks for joining us and for your support.
Saru does this mean I have to stop posting uncompromising shots of you now or is freedom of the press still allowed ?

Have we mentioned before that some of us went to Japan.....over a year ago !

2011-06-07T12:02:00.000-07:00

Sad git that I am, every now and then I find myself straying to my bonsai porn stash....my pictures of our trip to Japan in Feb 2010.
Here are a few pictures from the Green Club sales area which is a short bus ride, or a fairly long walk (we just couldn't wait for the bus) from where the Kokofu Show is held.

Pete Warren showing us his Steptoe impersonation

One of the sellers, I think this geezer thought I was trying to pull him!

Fabulous bonsai everywhere the eye can see

These were some of the trees that Pete Warren and his Senpai Akiyama Minoru had for sale on their stands

Beautiful pine

Acer palmatum

Juniper

Yours truly teasing Pete (Sherlock) Warren whilst Akiyama Minoru trys not to belly laugh at the hilarity of it all.
Seriously our trip wouldn't have been what is was without Pete's help, he opened many doors for us and took time out of his busy schedule to show us around and help us.
As an aside, without him being around we may have died from starvation because we couldn't read a bloody menu !

A trip to Japan is a must for Bonsai lovers, if you go I recommend an organised trip around some of the Bonsai Nurserys as well as taking in one of the numerous exhibitions.....and you must visit the Green Club.....take a plentiful supply of tissues !
What you will quickly realise is that:

a) The Japanese keep all the good stuff for themselves

and

b) There are NO inexpensive GOOD bonsai in Japan

Welcome to follower number 4

2011-06-05T08:43:00.000-07:00

Welcome Ruben, thanks for joining us.

The "Late Late Winter Image Show" at Ashfield Bonsai Club

2011-06-02T16:41:00.000-07:00

We've depressed ourselves so much over the last 2 months talking about our trees that died after the lowest winter temperatures that many of us can remember, minus 17-18 deg for the best part of 2 weeks.
So we decided to make light of the situation and have a laugh at ourselves.
We present for you the "Late Late Winter Image Show" at Ashfield Bonsai Club.

Here are a small selection of our "ex" bonsai:

Trident Maple on rock

Shohin Trident Maple

Hawthorn

Japanese White Pine

Apricot

For good measure we threw a couple of live ones in !

Satsuki Azalea

Shohin Zelkova

We're sure that we aren't the only club that has suffered major tree losses this year due to the extreme cold.
We just hope that we don't get any more winters like the one just passed.

A conservative estimate of losses, (dead trees), sustained by club members is currently at £25,000 and rising.....you win some...you lose some !

Welcome to follower number 3

2011-05-20T08:19:00.000-07:00

We now have our 3rd follower.
A big welcome to Mario, many thanks for your support !

John Armitage visits Ashfield Bonsai Club to explain grafting

2011-05-20T08:14:00.000-07:00

John Armitage visited our club yesterday and gave a thoroughly entertaining talk with "slideshow" on the merits of grafting and how it's done.
John explained that the popularity of grafting is growing rapidly in Japanese bonsai circles as a way to improve the quality and subsequent value of many bonsai.
Here are some pictures of John in action and a few trees from the club table show, along with a few shots from the "F.B.I.'s Most Wanted" file.

John shows the type of material used for grafting

This is one of Johns tree's a fantastic little shohin in the making

A close up of the new itoigawa foliage being grafted onto San Jose trunk

John threatens his laptop.....would you argue with him ??

Mr Armitage & Mr Pitt discuss John Pitts lovely trident over rock

Mountain Maple

Satsuki Azalea

Trident on Rock

Duncan Hield paid a welcome visit.....he is awake.....honestly !!

"Mad Phil Manson"......don't let the smile fool you.
John Pitt watches tentatively from a distance.......

All our members agreed that a thoroughly rewarding and informative evening had been had
We would not hesitate in recommending that your club invites John Armitage along to one or more of your meetings.

Table show and shots from ABC meeting 5th May 2011

2011-05-05T16:26:00.000-07:00

Juniper Kishu

A few shots from our table show 5th May 2011, and a picture of Crazy Chris Dodds actually wiring a rather nice Cedar.

Juniper Squamata

Satsuki Azalea

Juniper Itoigawa

Satsuki Azalea Kozan

Hawthorn in flower

Crazy Chris Dodds wiring cedar

And another warm welcome to our second follower

2011-04-23T15:07:00.000-07:00

Hi Ian,
Nice to see you following the blog, thanks for your support.

Regards

John

A warm welcome to our first follower

2011-04-23T11:59:00.000-07:00

A warm welcome to Nik Rozman who has joined Ashfield Bonsai Clubs blog as our first follower.

Hi Nik, nice to see you here, hopefully one day we will be able to meet you during one of our journeys to Europe.
Regards
John

A progression of one of our members trees from 2006 to 2011

2011-04-23T11:52:00.000-07:00

Please click on the link below to see a 5 year progression of a Kishu juniper, first worked on during a club visit to Kevin Willsons nursery, before he buggered off to sunny Spain.

http://ibonsaiclub.forumotion.com/t6340-kishu-juniper-progression

Best of British Bonsai 2011

2011-04-09T11:03:00.000-07:00

Enjoy some pictures from the Best of British Bonsai exhibition at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens, April 2011.

SHOHIN OFF, MARCH 2011, BRITISH SHOHIN ASSOCIATION, WILLOWBOG

2011-03-21T14:47:00.000-07:00

Some pictures from the BSA "Shohin Off" event at Willowbog in March 2011:

Accent

Forsythia

White Pine, Ibota, Berberis

Oriental Bittersweet

Trident Maple on rock

Rosemary & Mountain Maple

Chinese Elm

Cork bark Chinese Elm

Ibota (privet)

Juniper, Oriental Bittersweet

Accent

Ashfield Bonsai Club Display:Juniper, Quince, Chinese Elm

PETER WARREN TREE CRITIQUE MARCH 2011

2011-03-21T14:01:00.000-07:00

Peter Warren, visited the club again in March whilst carrying out workshops with club members.
He carried out a thouroghly enjoyable and informative critique of trees that member had bought along for discussion:

Peters White pine

Pauls Azalea

Johns Maple

Chris Maple

Mikes Yew

Petes Cotoneaster

PICTURES FROM SWINDON WINTER IMAGE 2011

2011-02-21T03:49:00.000-08:00

These are just a selection of trees and accents from the show.
This is a show that you shouldn't miss, the quality of the majority of trees displayed was fantastic.
Apologies for the picture quality, the lighting at the show wasn't the best, all pictures were taken with a flash (the camera that is !)

ASHFIELD DISPLAY AT SWINDON WINTER IMAGE CLUB SHOW 2011

2011-02-21T03:05:00.000-08:00

4 intrepid Ashfield Club members braved the weekend in Swindon to set up a club display at the highly acclaimed Swindon Winter Image show.

Shown here are the trees displayed by Ashfield Club members.

We were pleasantly surprised to be awarded a certificate of merit for the Ilex Serrata included in our Club display.

During the show we were invited to display two of the compositions at the British Shohin Association event at Willowbog Bonsai in March 2011 (Sat 19th & Sun 20th)

Shohin Composition:

Juniper (top centre)

Quince (middle)

Chinese Elm (bottom right)

Ilex Serrata (awarded certificate of merit)

Chuhin Composition:
Juniper (top right)
Trident Maple (bottom left)

Kashima Maple

Black Pine

The overall standard of trees at the show was excellent, and a credit to all involved.

Ashfield visit to Noelanders Trophy in Belgium January 2011

2011-02-06T02:21:00.000-08:00

English Hawthorn

Japanese Yew

English Yew

Winner of Noelanders Trophy 2011
Mugo Pine

English Yew

Privet

Larch

Ashfield Bonsai Club Table Show 6th January 2011

2011-01-07T10:08:00.000-08:00

Gardenia
Pot, Hattori (Japan)

Cotoneaster
Pot, Erin (UK)

Potentilla
Pot, Erin (UK)

Did we mention we'd been to Japan ?

2010-09-30T12:52:00.000-07:00

Just reminiscing over my pictures from a fantastic trip to Japan in February

Sheffield BTA

2010-09-27T12:31:00.000-07:00

Ashfield's Display of Shohin, which won the Gold Award for the Best Club Display at the Don Valley BTA Event 2010.

2010 annual club show

2010-09-27T12:19:00.000-07:00

Ashfield Bonsai Club held its annual Club Show on 16 September.. The entries were of a particularly high standard this year and voting was close in all three classes. The winners were: Best Shohin -- Mike Rose (Trident Maple); Best Chuhin -- John Pitt (Itogoiwa Juniper); Best Large Tree -- Peter Goodhead (Trident Maple).

The Trident of Peter Goodhead was voted Best in Show and he is shown receiving the David Oliver Shield from Derek Hill (Club Treasurer).

The Winning Trees

Peter Goodhead (left) receiving his trophy

Club Meeting on 18 March 2010

2010-04-12T13:37:00.000-07:00

The three members who had recently visited Japan (taking in several nurseries and the Kokofu Exhibition) gave an illustrated talk. Mike Rose had prepared an excellent slide show and it proved to be an absorbing evening.

John Brocklehurst

Mike Rose, Peter Warren & John Pitt

4th March Guest speaker Peter Warren

2010-03-16T11:52:00.000-07:00

Regular visitor Peter Warren dropped in for the first meeting of March and gave a critique of members trees. He discussed the potential of 14 trees with his usual great expertise and attention to detail. He always finds a responsive audience at Ashfield. On the following Saterday he held a workshop for members, whilst alsospending several days with club members on a one-to-one basis

Ashfield Bonsai Society

2010-02-21T12:34:00.000-08:00

Ashfield Bonsai Society

18 Feb Workshop and show (winter images)

2010-02-21T05:40:00.000-08:00

The members hard at work

The winning trees

The February workshop had the usual hands-on format, with members sharing experiences and ideas. It also encompassed the clubs fourth annual Winter Images competition. The standard of entries improves every year. The winning tree was a Kashima Maple and the runner-up a Nothofagus Antartica. Three members have recently visited Japan, taking in the Kokufu exhibition and trips to several nurseries.
An informal presentation will be given on the 18th March