Te Kura Nui

-Nga mihi ki a koutou katoa -

A BONSAI called te kura nui!
Throughout the week just gone, the Otago Bonsai Society staged an exhibition at the community gallery - a BONSAI exhibition!! I went 3 times & i found the whole thing absolutely stunning! The shapes, sizes, colours, ages, arrangements were all just amazing!

From memory there were larch, spruce, maple, juniper, hornbeam?, & some native totara. I wish i had taken a camera! Ages ranged from 1949 - 2007; all shades of greens & some i have never seen before.

So, i registered for the workshop which finished just an hour or so ago.

We kicked off with a demonstration of wiring the tree by Jan - the expert in the Otago region
Then we chose our trees & went to a table to begin to make our first bonsai. I chose a totara which had no apex and tons of branches like the spokes of a wheel. Jan was the tutor at our table.

- I took off the old leaves and trimmed all the branches back by a third
- then i selected the branches to keep
- pruned all the branches that i did not need
- trimmed back the branches some more
- selected the branch for the apex and trimmed the other branches around it
- wiring: started from the bottom up - wired up all the branches & trunk with different sized branches depending on thickness of branch
- then selected the front
- bent the branches into shape
- trimmed some more
- 'created' the apex
- pulled the treee out of the plastic pot
- trimmed the root system
- selected a bonsai pot
- partly fille the pot with soil/gravel mix
- potted the tree slightly off centre & towards the back
- packed the pot with soil
- placed a rock & moss over the surface

When i got home i soaked the entire pot in water for about 15'
The i placed it outside in the shade near some trees

Thats my introduction to BONSAI
I also gave it name: te kura nui - because it is my first attempt, my first born so to speak

It is almost the end of spring here in Aotearoa - i need to water it quite frequently right through summer, give it some kai - BIOgold to help it grow!!

When i get my hands on a camera next week, i will put a picture up!!

Yesterday i grabbed some information from the internet and put together a PDF - great information!!