Clent Gardening Club

The April meeting of the club welcomed Rob Thomas from Kidderminster to give a talk entitled “The art of Bonsai with demonstration”.

Rob is from Kidderminster and has been interested in the art of Bonsai for many years and has an extensive collection of these wonderful plants and he brought a small selection of his magnificent specimens to display to Club members.

He began his talk with a brief potted history of Bonsai and surprised many members with the information that Bonsai was not invented by the Japanese which is the popular view but in fact was taken over and embellished by the Japanese from the Chinese who had originated this art.

He then produced a somewhat straggly box plant and proceeded to demonstrate how to convert this into a potential Bonsai tree. He explained that virtually any tree or woody plant could be converted into a miniature tree.

He proceeded to cut away most of the branches and foliage of the box plant to leave a small skeleton plant and he explained which branches he was retaining to form the new Bonsai tree. He said that an experienced eye was necessary to get the best results and it could take many years to develop this skill.

He also advised that specialist and expensive tools were needed to carry out this form of pruning as a standard pair of garden secateurs would be too unwieldly. He also demonstrated how the new plant was wired to form the required shape and that various gauges of wire were needed for the various sized branches. A very skilled operation.

Members were fascinated by his talk and demonstration as evidenced by the large number of questions generated from the audience following which the chairman proposed a vote of thanks for what had been a thoroughly interesting evening.

After the usual break for tea, coffee and biscuits the chairman drew the raffle and announced the results of the various monthly competitions and thanked members for brightening up the meeting with some splendid entries.

Following the break the Chairman reminded members that the next meeting was the annual joint meeting with the Belbroughton Horticultural Society which was this year the turn of Belbroughton to be hosts. The meeting comprises a talk entitled “Shaded Garden” by Mr Duncan Coombes from Pershore College.

All are welcome at our meetings which are held at Clent Village Hall on the 4th Friday each month and anyone interested in either joining or just visiting the Club can get further details by visiting our website on https://clentgardeningclub.wordpress.com or by contacting our Chairman Martin Grange 01562 883009/07917 184762.