AusBonsai

The Australian Plants as Bonsai 2024 exhibition is on the February 24th and 25th. The exhibition will be hosted at the Australian Botanical Gardens, Crosbie Morrison building. The display will be open from 9:30am until 4:00pm on Saturday and Sunday. We will have over 50 Australian native bonsai on display with demos each day at 11am and 2pm.

Come down and check it out.

More details can be found at http://www.cbs.org.au/

The APaB 2024 exhibition is happening this weekend. It's shaping up to be a fabulous exhibition with just over 40 trees registered. Come down and check out the trees and say G'day.

These are my three entries for the show - sorry about the background, my proper one has died of old age and bad treatment. The show is still on tomorrow, 9am - 4pm.

Kunzea phylicoides "Snowman":
Kunzea ambigua: (Pot by Grahame Cook in Bombala)
Melaleuca hypericifolia:
I've tried to avoid tightly trimmed foliage pads and left things open, with complex branches and foliage patterns and no simplistic "silhouettes".

Gavin

very cool Gavin...interesting compositions..very very cool

Cool gnarly trees Gavin

KCaR: I've never managed to be cool in my life... I like trees that look as if they've had a hard life full of complications, but I know they're not to everyone's taste. I don't think our trees should look Japanese, or Chinese, or American, or German. Or neat.

Patmet: the dramatic jins on the Kunzea "Snowman" are entirely "natural" - the damn thing has tried to die on me twice, and barely made it through. I would never have been brave enough to kill off entire sub-trunks like that, but I like it now that it's done it.

Some more from the show. Sorry, the lighting in the room isn't good.
A wild-dug Kunzea
And another
A literati Kunzea. The fine detail of Kunzeas makes for good small-scale trees.
A very small-leafed Kunzea that grows in alpine swamps, on a "stand" that extends the picture to another level.
Eucalyptus scoparia. The trunk colour glows much better in real life, and the shari is "natural".
Eucalyptus vernicosa, from Tas. Dense small foliage. I've killed every one I've had, but this one grows well here. I'm clearly the problem...
And a carefree Angophora floribunda. No-one told him it can't be done, Angophora won't make small bonsai, so he did.

Three very different Eucs, each with their own story to tell.
The middle tree is a Kunzea that looks like a gum tree away in a paddock somewhere - another variation on "Eucs".
A better photo of my Melaleuca hypericifolia. The dense foliage mass at the top left looks nothing like that in real life - it balances better with the rest.

There will be a complete file of much better photos on the CBS website at some stage.

Gavin

GavinG wrote: ↑February 26th, 2024, 3:07 pm KCaR: I've never managed to be cool in my life...

exactly..."if you've gotta think about being cool, you ain't cool" ...Keith Richards

Gavin.... I love your 3 trees that you posted, but I dislike your pot choices for those.
Very natural looking and would be wonderful to just sit and stare at those.

Nice trees Gavin. I think they look quite natural, which is a trait a really like with Natives.

Sent from my SM-G975F using Tapatalk

Rory, thanks for the beer compliment - high praise indeed! I'm curious why you don't like the pots, I thought they sat fairly well.

Gavin

The Canberra Bonsai Society will be holding the next exhibition of Australian Plants as Bonsai with the theme that 'Australian Plants make Beautiful Bonsai' on 22 and 23 February. We expect to have over 40 bonsai on display. The venue is the Banksia Centre, Australian National Botanic Gardens with demonstrations of the art of bonsai using Australian plants at 11 am and 2 pm. Times are 9.30am to 4pm Saturday and Sunday. We hope you can join us.
Linda S
Committee Chair.