The tree of the month competition was well attended and the winner goes to Paul Bowerbank this month for his Siberian Elm. In second place was a beautiful Larch from Dennis Henly and in joint third were a Yew that belongs to Mike Partridge and a Cork Bark Elm of Derek May. There was a good range of species entered beyond the winning trees including a Ficus, Serissa, Zelkova, Privet, Hornbeam, Ivy and Juniper.

This year kicked off with a review and discussion of last year’s events with a slide show of photographs of bonsai trees at various shows. Details and developments of our upcoming Winter Show were also discussed, anybody who has ever organised an event such as this will know the level of planning and detail that you have to go into just to make it work. We have all been putting a good deal of thought and effort to ensure that this year, our tenth anniversary is a special event for everyone.

Ritta giving a previous presentation

Ritta is well known for her accent plantings and Kusamono.

An example of Kusamono

During the show she will be making a presentation which will cover everything you need to know on the subject.

Ritta attended the Swindon Club in Aug 2011 and gave an interesting talk, after which, club members constructed some of their own. For a copy of the report see https://swindon-bonsai.co.uk/2011/08/09/kusamono-and-shitakusa-by-ritta-cooper/#more-2321

One not to miss for ideas, especially in the run up to the Magical Bonsai Accents show on Sunday the 27th May 2012, at Failand Village Hall, Nr Bristol

http://magicalbonsaiaccents.wordpress.com/2011/06/30/hello-world/

Ritta, together with her husband Mark, have a lovely collection of bonsai and some of them will be on display in the main display hall.

John working on his little tree at last years show

For a number of years, John has kindly conducted a workshop and demonstration of his trees, at the Swindon ‘Winter Image’ show.

At the next show on Sunday, the 19th Feb 2012, he is also doing a tree clinic for anyone who wants to discuss their trees or any problems they are having. He will also be working on some of his little trees.

John has been interested in bonsai since a young age and in 2007 he trained in Japan.   He has collected many awards for his trees and is well known for his lovely shohin.

 

More is explained on his blog at http://johnarmitagebonsai.wordpress.com/ 

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Doug Mudd creates gorgeous bonsai tables and he will be a trader at the 2012 Swindon Winter Image Show. Doug makes delicate hand crafted wooden bonsai display tables and you will be able to see his work and perhaps treat yourself to one of his beautiful range of bonsai tables. For futher details on how he makes the bonsai tables visit his website.

Doug has offered a voucher as a raffle prize either towards a bespoke bonsai table or for a bonsai table he has already made so make sure you buy your tickets for our winter show raffle to stand a chance of winning this fantastic prize.

So how does this Escallonia bush…

Escallonia bush before becoming a bonsai

Become this bonsai in five years?

Escallonia bush transformed into a bonsai in five years

Come along to our 10th Anniversary Swindon Winter Image Show. Tony Tickle will be doing a  presentation called ‘The BIG Escallonia: Bush to Bonsai in Five years’ a presentation to explain the process. In the meantime for anyone who is not familiar with Tony Tickle, and his amazing bonsai work visit his website at Yamadori to get a good insight before his presenation.

To quite know what to say, about the man who can turn his hand to create anything from bonsai pots to wonderful works of bonsai art, you only need to know him as Dan Barton.

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A new trader at this years 10th Anniversary Winter Image Show will be Josephine Ikeda of Imari Design and she will be selling unique handmade oriental handbags, purses, accessories and clothing with a very strong Japanese cultural theme. They are all handmade from vintage Japanese Kimono and contemporary fabrics and they are beautifully designed.

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Ken Leaver of WindyBank Bonsai will have a stand at this years forth coming 10th Anniversary Winter Image Show and he will not disappoint all those looking to expand their bonsai tree collections or even start a collection.

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