Newbury & District Bonsai Society

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The club meets on the first Wednesday of each month (except January) at 7.30pm at Speen Village Hall, Newbury.
 Most of the meetings include hands-on workshops where we bring trees to work on and get advice from other members of the club. They hold frequent discussions, presentations and demonstrations on various bonsai topics: horticultural skills, practical skills, bonsai aesthetics and general botanical subjects. Gaining their external expertise via weekend workshops with an expert and they arrange digs at local sites where some prime bonsai material has been obtained over the years. 

They are a friendly group of enthusiasts and you’ll be very welcome to come along to see what they are all about. Please get in touch via newbury.bonsai@btinternet.com or ring Dave on 0118 983 3188.

Here’s a flavour of the displays we put on at various shows during the year. Newbury Bonsai Society will be displaying at our Winter Image Show this Sunday.

Raffle prize, Stone Monkey pot

Stone Monkey Ceramics pot

Size is 12 x 12 x 21.5 cm internal

Andrew Prett-Pearson has kindly donated this fantastic and impressive pot for the raffle at our upcoming Winter Show. You will have to turn up on the day and buy a ticket and also be around at lunch time (if you are lucky enough to win) and receive this wonderful prize. Thanks Andy.

Stone Monkey Ceramics pot

If you like what you see and want to see more visit www.stonemonkeyceramics.co.uk

List of awards

Best Large Deciduous Award for his Elm (Ulmus parvifolia) was presented to Dennis Henley of Swindon and District Bonsai Club by John Pitt our Show Sponsor

At our next Winter Show we will be using a panel of judges, similar to the system used at several recent bonsai events. It will be made up of professional and experienced amateurs, each judge will select three trees in each category. There is no need to select 1st, 2nd & 3rd, so the order is irrelevant. The results will then be aggregated and details displayed for all to see including the voting and any comments made.
 In the event of a tie between two or more, all the judging panel will be asked to vote again to select the winner.
 The winning trees/displays will be identified by name cards and the main Awards will be presented later in the show.

  • Best Club display
  • Best Shohin Tree, approx 20 cm from pot
  • Best Chuhin Tree, approx 45 cm from pot
  • Best Deciduous Tree
  • Best Conifer tree
  • Best Overall Display in show (Area within a backdrop, 
includes Tree/Pot/stand/scroll, accent depending on what used)
  • Best Tree/Pot combo awarded by Walsall Studio Ceramic
  • Best Accent awarded by Mendip Bonsai
  • ‘Arihato Award’ best small tree, awarded and judged by Kit Bowns

Bonsai San Exhibition

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This year the European Bonsai San Show was, as usual, very impressive; trees from Japan as well from Italy, Spain and more. The guests included, Ryan Neil, Andres Alvarez Iglesias and David Benavente. The demonstrations were really interesting which covered what trees needs for the first styling only.

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October tree of the month

1st place, SM Trident Maple

1st place, SM Trident Maple

So this month we decided to use the new voting system, advocated by Mark & Ritta to our tree of the month competition. Partly for a practice run ahead of our show and the rest for a giggle.

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Bonsai Shohin Passion

This book has gained a lot of attention since it began production, and deservedly so. One of very few books available targeting specifically smaller shohin sized trees, and an intermediate to advanced audience – it covers a series of case studies of Roland’s own trees through many years of development. His writing style is both fun and informative

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