AusBonsai

Hi Everyone
Many of you will have seen the topics recently on the 8th National Exhibition of Australian Plants as Bonsai and the new Symposium, being held 19-20 March at the National Botanic Gardens in Canberra. I noticed several people who were interested but couldn't get here this year.

The Symposium is about 'styling bonsai using Australian native species'. It will probe the range of styles that are suitable or unsuitable and why. There may be time for some queries on the technical 'how to' for particular species too.

Here is an offer that will let you still take part in the proceedings. There will be a 'question and answer' session on the Saturday morning. A panel of people with experience in growing and styling Australian native species will try to answer questions and discuss some of the tricky issues around this styling.

It would be fantastic if interested Ausbonsai members would send me questions on the topic that can be put to the panel. As I am moderating the panel discussion, I will endeavour to get someone to record the answers and then post them up on AusBonsai.

I can take questions either by replying to this topic, or via pm's. But I'd really like to have the questions no later than end of Wednesday 16 March. This will give me time to get them ready for the session. I can't guarantee that all will get asked, and some may be joined with other similar ones, but see if your query has an answer, or even try to stump or stir the panel.

Looking forward to your input. Maybe another year we may be able to organise the technos to get some live inputs via twitter or the like, but I don't think it will happen this year.

Cheers
Roger

Not swamped with questions yet

there are 28 online right now. How about questions from some of you?

I'm sure not everything you want to know about styling native species is known

Cheers
Roger

Gday Mr Roger!

I have been away for some time, so I am unaware if my questioning is out of order.

Nevertheless, my inquiry is about leaf reduction... I work with a lot of Eucalypts (mostly River Red Gum (E. camaldulensis)), and while folks often accept my trees' general form, they often worry about the size of the leaves. While I would love to reduce the size of the leaves on my various RRGs, I do not see it as a priority at this stage. How important is scale in the furthering of Australian Bonsai?

I feel that the miniaturising of foliage might be a fetish that would best be avoided when dealing with non-conifers.

Of course, many who will attend your symposium will be dealing with small-leaved trees such as Melaleuca species, so my query may not be entirely appropriate.

Thanks in advance, and I'm sorry that I won't be in Canberra for the show...

Peace.

Fly (Brian).

Hi Fly,
The question and statements you pose are entirely appropriate for the symposium. It matters not what those attending grow or think. The purpose of the session is to stimulate debate on all apects of bonsai with Australian native plants rather than just concurring with generally accepted 'wisdom'.
Hopefully we can get more thought provoking questions or even just statements that can form the basis for the start of a discussion.

Looking forward to more questions and ideas from other interested enthusiasts - experienced or new - so please don't feel embarrassed to put forward a point of view or a question for consideration.

Rather than a question I'll put up a thought:
I would like to consider whether the current Japanese styles classifications are appropriate for Australian trees. We have a far different climate and different species so trees naturally grow differently. I feel that continuing to use Japanese terms and styles puts subtle pressure on growers to include aspects of styling that are not usually found in our native trees.

and also:
Is it appropriate to use species that are naturally smaller bushes and shrubs to create bonsai? Do we style them in the style of their larger tree relatives or would it be more appropriate to style such species in their own natural growth shapes?

Looking forward to seeing more thought provoking questions and starting points.

It is a great thought Shibui and one which will likely cause some heated debate, personally I like to stick with the Japanese classifications but it is wrong to suggest that a tree "belongs" to a classification.

We should never style a tree with the intention of filling a set of criteria so that it fits into a classification. Instead we should use our artistic abilities to produce a pleasing composition, after we have done this we can use the classifications to describe what has been achieved.
I was going to suggest "a realistic composition" but I feel the Japanese have often gone beyond realistic and attempt to create perfect trees. Which is simply a greater degree of refinement which I like very much, so I think "pleasing" is what we should aim for.

The classification belongs to the tree and is nothing more than a description.
The tree does not belong to the classification.

All of the natives across the banner at the top of the page can easily be described using tradional classifications.