There were fewer members at the meeting on Monday due to sickness and holidays, nevertheless we covered the care of some interesting trees.
I brought in a multi trunked scots pine on which I have been concentrating on improving the foliage, but when Kev said ‘what’s that trunk for’ I didn’t have an answer. It was a lesson for me to revisit decisions made years ago to see if they are still the right ones.
Similarly, Nigel’s cotoneaster is a tree that has been cut back year after year but with no clear plan. We encouraged him to make some decisions about the future shape and style of the tree so that any cutting back from now on has a clear purpose.
James brought a juniper that on the face of it had good potential but on closer inspection the crossing of the twin trunks caused a great deal of head scratching and no real decision was arrived at.
A white pine belonging to Berice, a potential exhibit at the Bonsai in the Park show, unfortunately had to be rejected due to it carrying too much wire. It’s a nice tree however and with a little restyling would be a good candidate in the future.
Two trees that were selected for the show were Alan’s hawthorn, still looking good despite the approach of autumn, and a fine San Jose juniper belonging to Roy, that he has painstakingly pruned to eliminate almost all of it’s juvenile foliage.
The show is at Lupton House near Brixham on 15th September.