Photo's from the October meeting

A great meeting with Keith Stanley doing critiques on a range of trees which members are planning to exhibit at the show next week. 

Meeting this Saturday 26th October 2019

Our monthly club meeting is on this Saturday at the Wellington Point Recreation Hall ( https://goo.gl/maps/aNiaQUmhoGu3azLQ9 )

The Learners group will run from 11AM, all others please try to be there by 12:30PM,

This can be one of the more educational meetings of the year. We have for a number of years used the meeting before the show for those planning on exhibiting trees at the show to bring some of the trees being exhibited for a pre-show critique. It's an opportunity to have an experienced eye cast over trees for any final tweaks which might make a difference in the presentation of the trees. It's also often any interesting discussion around future directions for trees, changes that it's too late to make for this year but which might help the tree long term. This year Keith Stanley (he presented at the May meeting this year) will be doing the critiques. It has been suggested that it could be beneficial for some to bring stand, accent plants etc.

I have found this process especially helpful in developing my understanding of what makes a great bonsai in past years. I'm seeing trees near their current best with commentary on refinement and future directions. Those are lesson's I've been able to take home and apply to trees much less advanced in their development to set them on new paths.

We strongly encourage members who are planning to show trees to bring some of them for critique, for those not showing grab the opportunity to get some great real world examples of how to get that extra impact from trees and setup for the future.

For members who have not done so yet a reminder to read this months newsletter. There is a lot of information in there about the show (and it's always a useful read anyway).

Slideshow of the 2018 Show trees

With the 2019 show fast approaching I've pulled together a slideshow from photo's taken at the 2018 show.
Unfortunately it's not an exhaustive set so apologies to anybody who's trees are missing or for any other errors.

RBS 2018 Show trees

A pair of critique video's from last saturdays meeting

A couple of video's were captured of critiques at Saturday's meeting. 

Handheld camera work with quite a bit of distraction for Bob as his trees were critiqued while he was trying to video the critique. Eg technical quality of the camera work is a lacking however there is value in seeing the critique process.

Apart from the opportunity to show off trees that are looking good the display and critique process is useful for the development of trees (and it can be useful practice in preparing a tree for showing).

- https://youtu.be/MPB5WIyH6GQ Steve's Leptospermum 'Merinda'
- https://youtu.be/gP4y792w7sQ Bob's Bougainvillea