Programmes 2015-2023
Below are previous programmes which will give you a history of our activities
PROGRAMME 2023
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Unless otherwise stated the meetings will be held on the first Thursday of the month in the Weston Favell Parish Hall starting at 19:00 hrs until 22.00 hrs
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January 5th 7-10 Tree critique and subscriptions for 2023
February 2nd 7-10 Show & Tell
March 2nd 7-10 Evening member’s workshop
March 4th 10-4 Saturday Member’s workshop, free to members
March 4th Saturday NBS exhibiting at Cherry Lane Garden Centre, Podington
March 18th 10-4 Saturday Corin Tomlinson 1-2-1 Workshop.
Limited to 10 people, approximate cost £40 each
April 6th 7-10 Workshop including Exhibition Preparation
May 4th 7-10 NOTE: Change of venue BACK TO NORMAL at WFPH
Simon Roberts talk - Japanese Bonsai shows
May 13th & 14th 10-4 Sat/Sun Greenwood Bonsai Bash, Nottingham
June 1st 7-10 NBS Annual Show in Weston Favell Village Hall
June 3rd Saturday NBS exhibiting at Milton Keynes Library
July 2nd 1-5 Sunday NBS exhibiting in church hall at Weston Favell Open Garden
July 6th 7-10 Evening member’s workshop
August 3rd 7-10 Members to bring Bonsai related items for display
and discussion. (favourite pot, suiseki etc.)
September 7th 7-10 Evening member’s workshop
September 23rd 10-4 Saturday Member’s workshop, free to members
October 5th 7-10 Mark & Ming Moreland joint guest speakers
Members £4 visitors £5
November 2nd 7-10 Evening member’s workshop
PLUS Presidents Problem – Bring your problem tree and Jim
will work on it... un-challenged
December 7th 7-10 AGM and social evening with December raffle draw
and the usual member table trees
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PROGRAMME 2022
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January 6th 7-10 Subscriptions and Tree Critique so please bring along trees for comments and advice
February 3rd 7-10 Jim Amos talk. My 40 years of Bonsai
March 3rd 7-10 Member’s workshop
March 19th Saturday 10-4 Member’s workshop
March 26th Saturday 10-4 Corin Tomlinson 1-2-1 Workshop. Limited to 10 people at Approx £30 per person
April 7th 7-10 Guest speaker Corin Tomlinson Deciduous Tree Refinement
Members £4 non members £5
May 5th 7-10 NBS show at WFPH 7-10. Bring along 1 or 2 trees to exhibit
May 8th Sunday 10-4 Expo Bonsai K2 Crawley
June 2nd 7-10 Member’s workshop
July 7th 7-10 Guest speaker Mark Moreland
Members £4 non members £5
August 4th 7-10 Steve Brown talk
September 1st 7-10 Member’s workshop
September 11th Sunday 10-4 Heathrow Bonsai Show Bracknell Leisure centre
September 17th & 18th 10-4 Greenwood Bonsai Bash FREE with Corin Tomlinson in Nottingham
September 24th Saturday 10-4 Free member’s workshop
October 6th 7-10 Guest speaker David Cheshire
Members £4 non members £5
November 3rd 7-10 Bonsai and related items bring and buy sale/exchange
PLUS
Presidents Problem – Bring your problem tree and Jim will work on it – un-challenged
December 1st 7-10 AGM and Social evening with December raffle and alternative date for NBS show
2021 - During COVID restrictions...
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Until we resumed normal meetings, each month we watched a video (in our own time)
followed by meeting via Zoom video conference on the dates below at 7pm to discuss it.
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Details of how to join the Zoom meeting will be e-mailed to each Northamptonshire Bonsai Society member
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January 7th 7pm Zoom meeting (login details sent to members) to discuss the following videos
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The first short video is by Heike van Gunst, a lady I have to admit I had not heard of before I saw this video. Nevertheless she has an undoubted talent and an internationally recognised track record for excellence in creating bonsai.
Video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaVVqNecf2g&feature=share
For those of you who might not be quite so interested in decisions surrounding pot choice, perhaps this second video would be more to your liking. This is another well respected bonsai grower who some of you will no doubt know of by the name of Walter Pall. In this 8 minute video Walter talks about the correct way to develop thicker trunks in your bonsai, and a little of the science and reasoning behind his success.
Video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Cpc-ivdCXU&feature=share
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February 4th 7pm Zoom meeting (login details sent to members) to discuss the following videos
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The first video is Tony Tickle with some advice on the most basic technique used to develop bonsai, called Clip and Grow. Although a basic technique that many of you will be familiar with, some bonsai ‘artists’ make this seem very complicated. Tony simplifies this method into a 5 minute video using (mostly) commonly available material.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWIkRr2U-4s
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The second video is a little more involved with Graham Potter showing how to develop Junipers, a species that many find difficult. This video runs for 9 minutes and gives a good insight into how to get started with very raw Junipers.
Graham Potter of Kaizen Bonsai talking about developing bonsai from basic material
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mGo7ORpiHY
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The third video is another 9 minute film by Graham but this time looking at developing deciduous material salvaged from a garden. So if you have a shrub or small tree in your garden and are wondering how to create a bonsai from it, this will give you a good start. ​Graham Potter again offering something for nothing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72-glgsc0HA
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March 4th 7pm Zoom meeting (login details sent to members) to discuss the following videos
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This month, and with an eye on repotting and pruning, I have chosen three videos, two of which are from Corin Tomlinson.
The first showing how to create a pre-bonsai quickly from garden centre material with some fairly significant pruning.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FC_9IxAIDQ4 8 minutes
The second video from Corin shows spring pruning and repotting of a very nice Japanese Maple, perhaps the opposite end of the spectrum from the first video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5e5qlGHPxcU 20 minutes
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The third video features a Japanese grower illustrating some more advance heavy pruning and grafting of roots on a Japanese Maple.
Rebuild roots,not branches or trunks 9 minutes
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April 1st 7pm Zoom meeting (login details sent to members) to discuss the following videos
The first video is by Bjorn Bjorholm who speaks about the tasks and techniques used throughout the growing season on Deciduous and Broadleaf Evergreen bonsai. As some of you will know Bjorn is an apprentice trained American bonsai artist. I mention this because Bjorn does recommend the use of certain products which are not generally available in the UK, particularly chemical treatments such as the banned pesticide Imidacloprid, and anti-fungal treatment ‘Infuse’. He also makes reference to certain types of fertiliser which may be hard to find here, but the actual products used are less important than the reason for their use. Suitable alternatives are usually available though. As always it’s the techniques and timings which are most relevant in this video, always allowing for the slight climatic and seasonal differences between here and Tennessee.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGw-CeuSdNA
The second video requires much less of an introduction thank goodness. It’s Corin Tomlinson constructing a large Japanese Maple forest from nursery stock!
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Richard will give an overview presentation of Bonsai Album he uses to record his bonsai.
It works on Windows PC, Apple Mac, iPad and iPhone
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May 6th 7pm Zoom meeting (login details sent to members) to discuss the following video
A 10 minute video from Corin at Greenwood Bonsai with a short demo on Larch pruning. He’s working on Japanese Larch but the same process translates across to European Larch just as well. The timing might appear to be a bit ‘off’ as he’s doing this back in March, but with the cold weather we’ve had in the past month causing slower spring growth I think you might still be ok to do this work if your Larch is in need of a trim.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24b0QnuzEX0
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As an extra treat here’s another video I thought you might like to watch Graham Potter demonstrating his air layering technique.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CREGA3jxGJE
On the zoom stream on the 6th May we’re going to be talking about what work you might have done to your trees during the past month or so and what you might be looking at doing in the next few weeks. We’ll also look at how trees have responded to the recent unseasonably cold and dreary weather, and what pests and diseases you should be on the lookout for now that your trees are starting to grow stronger.
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This may be of interest. It’s a range of natural products, recommended to me by a trade contact, that will combat a wide range of pests and diseases for all garden plants, but are very useful to protect bonsai.
https://www.greengardener.co.uk/shop/sale-page/
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June 3rd 7pm Zoom meeting (login details sent to members) to discuss the following video
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I thought we’d keep the video recommendation simple this time with some basic pruning demonstrations by Blue Sky Bonsai. This eleven minute video has been recommended to me by a fellow club member so have a look and see how it might apply to your trees. Here is the link: Bonsai tree pruning | Deciding which branches to prune - YouTube
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June 5th 2pm Informal Garden meeting
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Our first face to face meeting, socially distanced outside in the sunshine. It was an informal meeting in a member's garden where we brought along a tree with some members working on their tree. It was good to be able to chat and keep up with the news. CLICK to see photos
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July 1st 7pm Zoom meeting (login details sent to members) to discuss the following video
A video from Corin Tomlinson for you to watch. In this video he’s working on a couple of large rare maples of a variety not commonly available, known as Kotohime. He’s showing a few different methods to take air layers from these trees. Here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIcY40TUvGY
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August 5th 7pm Zoom meeting (login details sent to members) to discuss the following video
Two videos for you, both by Corin Tomlinson and both about the same tree. This is an unusually large Hinoki Cypress, and the two videos cover the initial styling of this tree.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqAso1tIaWs&list=PLTOZcgaczif7i-1UdfjwTthT9i25N_zIY&index=4&t=10s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Q0ZwLX7vpw&list=PLTOZcgaczif7i-1UdfjwTthT9i25N_zIY&index=3
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2021 "Back to Normal" Meetings
August 7th Saturday 2-5pm Wollaston Village Hall
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Our guest speaker for the afternoon is local bonsai expert Steve McKee. Steve has exhibited at all of the highest level shows in Europe and is a well respected hobbyist in the bonsai community.
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Wollaston Village hall is located in Wollaston High Street, NN29 7QE
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As we have a guest speaker the meeting will be open to our friends from Milton Keynes and Bedford bonsai clubs. For non-members it is customary to pay a small fee on the door and we would ask £5 to offset our costs for visitors from other clubs. Please feel free to bring a tree to show and discuss.
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Northamptonshire Bonsai Society has resumed regular monthly meetings at the Weston Favell Village Hall (unless otherwise stated) commencing on Thursday 2nd September at 7pm. We welcome back as many of our members as are able to attend, and new and prospective members are also very welcome to join us.
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September 2nd 7-10 General Workshop
October 7th 7-10 Guest speaker Harry Harrington - Talk and Demonstration
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Part of Harry’s talk will be a gentle critique of table trees and so we invite you to bring a tree for display.
Harry Harrington will be on BBC2 Gardeners World Special from 20.30 GMT Friday 8th October
Members who did not pay subscriptions for 2020 will pay a £2 fee for each meeting left during 2021. An additional £3 will be charged for guest speakers for everyone at October’s meeting.
Non-Member guests £5 but must pre book by contacting us beforehand.
November 4th 7-10 General Workshop
December 2nd 7-10 AGM and Social evening with December raffle and ‘Best Christmas Bonsai’
January 6th 2022 7-10 Subscriptions
Unless otherwise stated the meetings will be held on the first Thursday of the month in the Weston Favell Parish Hall starting at 19:00 hrs
PROGRAMME 2020
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Unless otherwise stated, meetings are held on the first Thursday of the month at 19:00 until 22.00
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January 2nd 7-10pm Subscriptions. Review trees for development in 2020 and take photographs
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February 6th 7-10pm Members’ Workshop
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March 5th 7-10pm Members’ Workshop. Review the ‘2020’ trees
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Due to Covid-19 all further meetings suspended until further notice
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March 14th Sat. 10-4pm Members’ Workshop
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March 21st Sat. 10-4pm Corin Tomlinson Workshop
April 2nd 7-10pm David Cheshire demonstration
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May 7th 7-10pm Garden Party hosted by Steve and Hilary Brown
June 4th 7-10pm Preview trees for Annual Exhibition
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June 20th Sat 10-4 NBS Annual Show (Venue TBA)
June 21st Sun 10-4 NBS Annual Show (Venue TBA)
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July 2nd 7-10pm Members’ Workshop
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August 6th 7-10pm Steve McKee demonstration
September 3rd 7-10pm Members’ Workshop. Review the ‘2020’ trees
October 1st 7-10pm Harry Harrington demonstration
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October 17th Sat. 10-4 Members’ Workshop
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November 5th 7-10pm Members’ Workshop. Review the ‘2020’ trees
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December 3rd 7-10pm AGM and Social evening with December raffle and ‘Best Christmas Bonsai’
January 7th 2021 7-10pm Subscriptions
Unless otherwise stated the meetings will be held on the first Thursday of the month in the Weston Favell Parish Hall starting at 19:00 hrs
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