Bonsai Mauritius

xtolord

Critique de François Jeker sur trois arbre expose a la dernière African Bonsai Convention ( ABC4 ) à Stellensbosch.

Pine stylisé par Ryan Neil
Bunjin shohin par Viky Petermann

xtolord

Chuhin shohin and accents

Larger trees

xtolord

xtolord

Part II

Continuing where I left this Leucaena Leucocephala, what we call "false acacia" here in Mauritius or sometimes white acacia.
The plant has had lots of new growth since the last hard pruning session.
It was time to repot the plant and have a look at the root system and start to prepare it for a future bonsai pot.

Big surprise on a the roots. There is this thick horizontal root that's completely out of place on the plant and needed to be removed.

xtolord

The facts about Bonsai Europa

There has not been a European Bonsai event in the UK since 1999, there are no other major events planned by any other groups or individuals, only club and small scale ‘specialist’ shows. Tony Tickle wish to create a major annual/biannual event that will place Bury and the UK on the Bonsai cultural map and a destination event for those traveling a long way.

Venue

The Venue is the Castle Armoury in Bury Town Center, near Manchester UK. The main exhibition space and most traders are located on the ground floor in one very large space with direct access to the street.
A demonstration room off the main hall that seats over 100 people, and traders. Onsite catering, excellent Parking nearby.

Timing

Set up 1 day, 2 day event 10/11 October 2015.
Over 125 bonsai displayed with trees from across Europe. A section dedicated to new ways of presenting bonsai. Approximately 8 young demonstrators from across Europe
Trade space for approximately 30 traders

Infrastructure

Three airports within 1 hours drive from the venue, excellent transport links to Manchester City center, and Major motorway network nearby.
Two large hotel chains and many other accommodation options.

About Tony Tickle

Tony is a full time professional and has been working with bonsai since 1983, he specialises in native European trees, in particular; Hawthorn, Yew and Pine. He won his first Ginkgo awards in 1997, Noelanders nominations, UK winner and runner up in the European New talent competition in 1995.

Tony’s blog has had more than 1,400,000 visitors, his YouTube channel has over 1500 subscribers and three quarters of 1 million views. Well known for his controversial views Tony is not afraid of speaking his mind, in particular the poor judging at Bonsai Events.

In 2014 Tony was invited as honored judge at the National Penjing exhibition in China. Later this year Tony will be demonstrating alongside Ryan Neil, Francois Jeker and Mr. Hiroshi Takeyama ( Director of WBFF for Japan ) at ABC4 in South Africa.

xtolord

There will be a flower show at Cascavelle ( Flic-en-flac, Mauritius) this weekend : Blooming Day at Cascavelle ( 01 Aug as from 10:00 )
The orchid society will be displaying orchids as well as selling orchids there.

There will also be an ikebana display/section.

In addition Ashiq Boyjoo will be selling his hand made pots during the event.

I will be participating but not selling.
I'll display various trees in my collection, from prebonsai in late development stages to prebonsai in early development stages.

I will also be doing two introductory course on bonsai.
One from 11:00 - 12:00 & 14:00 -15:00 : Cours d'introduction sur les concepts de base de bonsaï
This should cover what is a bonsai, basic bonsai structures and basic stages in bonsai development.

The contents will be the same in both cases, just doing two to be able to reach a wider public.

Feel free to come over and say hi!

xtolord

In September there will be this year's Orchid Society of Mauritius's show.

Some of our bonsai members will be exposing their trees during there on the last day of that show.
I'm planning to display several trees and started prepare them two months beforehand.

Mame Cuphea
This little guy was entered in the last Ryuga 2013 online competition, together with a ficus and a miniature rose.
The link is here : Cuphea hyssopifolia false heather

At the end of last year it got badly hit by a heat wave. It loss its main leader and also several primary ramification structures.
Now I need to rebuild the whole ramification structures as well as rework the deadwoods.

Mame Ligustrum

This is a follow up on the ligustrum-003-progression
There has been some more growth in between and some wiring to reposition the various branches.
Right now its entering a new growth cycle and creating several buds. Some are already starting to develop.

If I leave it as it is, the stronger apical areas will get most of the growth and the inner structures will stay mostly underdevelopped.
So to encourage the tree to get new growth all over the place ( strong and weak areas ) I went ahead and fully defoliated the lil guy.
I'm also aiming to get a new set of smaller leaves for the September expo.
In a few weeks I'm expecting to get lots of smaller leaves all over the place.

I also went along a treated the deadwood with some lime sulphur.
In a few weeks later I'll treat it with some wood hardener.

Malpighia coccigera

Also did a quick cleanup on this singapore holly and added some rougth guy wires to reposition some branches.

xtolord

We had an introductory course in Bonsai for our FB Mauritius Bonsai Club on the 7th March at Hem's place.
The heavy rain prevented several members from coming unfortunately.

Topics that were covered :
> What is a bonsai?
> How does a bonsai differ from other potted plants ( kusamono, topiary or your average potted plant )?
> Basic bonsai structures
> Basic characteristics a plant need that fits basic bonsai techniques
> Basic introduction on training a nursery plant into a bonsai
> Basic root pruning and nebari development
> Basic bonsai soil, watering and feeding - how to create your own soil with local materials, how to water and when to feed your plant

There were several bonsai materials in various development stages on display too.

Here are some pics

There is another event coming up on the 9th May, which has been declared "World Bonsai Day" by the World Bonsai Friendship Federation. The upcoming event will be an "Introduction to root work in bonsai cultivation"
More details on the FB event : https://www.facebook.com/events/1580464548862375/

xtolord

Part I
Continuing where I left this Leucaena Leucocephala, what we call "false acacia" here or sometimes white acacia.
I am still waiting for the flowers to confirm its identity but it can wait.
The tree has grown, rested and there are several signs that it is starting a new growth cycle.
The old branches has elongated and are starting to lignify ( turn into wood )
There are bud swelling and developing towards the apex.

There is this little section with the two branches. It has a high potential to create a reverse taper in the long run. So I'm removing one of the two branches now.

Several signs of the new growth cycle are all over the place.
If I leave it as it is, there is a high chance that most of the energy will be fed into the apex ( upper structures ).