How to organise a workshop?

[BoNZai]

Good morning from NZ,

Long time no see nor hear from me, but not to worry, I keep an eye on the site on a regular basis.
I have had a busy past 10 months with family weddings, grand children and change of job. However, my trees have not suffered from any of that.
Last November our property was part of the Hunter's Garden Marlborough festival. We had close to 400 people through our garden of 3 days. This was the first time we ever done this, reluctantly and after a fair bit of pressure I might add!

However, our bonsai area was the biggest hit on the end of the day and people oohed & aahed over it, asked intelligent and stupid questions and we had a fantastic time showing these people through.

For next year's event which is normally held in November, I have been asked by the organizing team to run a workshop especially on the bonsai aspect of our garden.
My first thoughts were: great, fantastic! Thinking it over a little more, there is more to it and just mumble to a group of people about trees in pots.

My aim would be to introduce people to the art of bonsai by starting at ground level, basically get them interested and exited, covering very basic issues like; selection of material, basic growing techniques, watering.
There is only so much time for the workshop and I want to provide good bang for their buck.
I would like to provide everyone with a potensai of some sort and base the workshop around turning this into bonsai over time covering some of the basic techniques.
Who knows, this might even turn into a local club!

Any chance of you guys out there to give me some ideas and inspiration

Thanks a lot

BoNZai

[LLK]

Hello BoNZai,

What an interesting project! You're in NZ, but I don't know where, and since the climates of N and S differ rather a lot, that makes it a bit harder to supply any ideas. However, reading your post, I feel that you are quite up to tackling the challenge. My first bit of advice would be: get an assistant to help you. Second: choose your potensai in plenty of time! Don't take junipers, because of the risk of allergies. Concentrate hard on details, like where are you going to work, how will people be seated, what tools will you have available, etc. Having everyone perfectly at ease before you start is half the battle won.

We may have met, I was in Christchurch and Auckland for the annual symposia there and have the most pleasant memories of it.

Lisa

[lennard]

Our Kai do a beginnersworkshop every spring.

We start with what bonsai is, but very basic. Then we talk about sources for bonsai. Then we move on to culture- again very basic. Then the five basic styles. After that basic techniques and then we do some practical stuff by giving the participants a tree to select the trunkline and branches and also how to wire - under close supervision of course!

This take about 3 hours.

We also supply them with our own, Bonsai for beginners, booklets.

A nice teachers guide here:

http://www.bonsaimalta.org/resources/le ... _guide.pdf

Lennard

[Japh]

Hey BoNZai!

I'm actually just about to head into Island Bonsai, which is a fantastic bonsai-only nursery in Southern Tasmania run by Will Fletcher, who frequently runs a beginnger bonsai class their for the Adult Education department. I'll ask him if he has any suggestions for you, or perhaps even if he'd be willing to pop on here and post a reply for you himself.

My personal recommendations would be to go with a schedule such as:

• Brief history of bonsai and its purpose
• Guide through potting up of potensai with a view to turning into bonsai
• Basic care instructions
• Provide info on further resources
• Some advice on where to next

I hope that helps somewhat Good luck!

[Japh]

Sorry, BoNZai, Will was busy chatting with other customers when I visited and I was busying showing my wife around the nursery (her first visit there), so I didn't get to chat with him about this.

If you like, you can PM him here, or I can shoot him an email?

[Pup]

Bonzai! First of do you want to conduct Lessons, or just workshops?. There is a big difference. Lessons involve teaching the Basics to people by explaining what Bonsai/ Penjing is ( the reason I say Penjing is most people today have penjing ), then how we go about obtaining. By mechanical means or pruning, wiring and bending for shape, or pruning, for the same affect.

Where as workshops are structured for the students to actually work on stock.Then you as the Tutor, show them how to style the stock so it is the a tree in training.

What is good stock for creating Bonsai
Why the roots are pruned what is the role of the correct soil mix, a good fertiliser regime. The Basic styles of Bonsai. How we can reduce leaf size and the role of leaving some leaves on to thicken up certain parts of the branch trunk.
All this is what lessons are about.

Where as with workshops, you do a practical day of working with them, to create a tree in training, also explaining why certain things are done. Workshops are usually conducted with Bonsai enthusiasts of varying levels of expertize.
I hope this helps in some way,
Cheers Pup

[BoNZai]

Thanks LLK, Lennard, Japh and Pup for your valuable contributions. Your input is much appreciated. .

I feel like I'm starting from ground zero with this but you have given me lots to think about. I guess I have stirred some interest amongst local people and now is a good time to build on that.

Starting lessons through a structured way by introducing the art of Bonsai culture will eventually turn into workshops.

I see this as a win-win situation: for the Garden Marlborough organizing committee and also for the enhancement of Bonsai in our area.

I will give this some more thought over the next week or so and keep you in the picture how things will progress from here.

Thanks again for all your input, much appreciated

BoNZai