The next part of the program that very much interested me was the demonstration by Clinton Nesci who is a well respected bonsai artist who works fulltime at the family bonsai nursery.

Clinton had the opportunity to dig a number of Baeckea virgata from a garden that was being redesigned about 18 months ago, and of course he took the opportunity. There is spectulation on how to spell Baeckea, or maybe Baeckia as much as there is speculation on the actual name of the plant but all those things aside, the plant looks very suitable for bonsai and is very attractive to look at. At the site Clinton dug two distinct types of stock, clump style stock and stock that looks to have the makings of literati style, and he had examples of both for the crowd to look at.

Clinton discussing a possible clump style bonsai

He had some photos of the dig that was conducted in hot sunny weather where the temperatures reached well over 30 deg celsius, but the trees responded well and there were very few trees lost.

The tree Clinton decided to demonstrate on was one of those that should make a reasonable literati bonsai in only 3 or 4 years time.

The selected stock

After a trim it is starting to take some shape

Some wire and some branch placement

A bit more work and it is well on its way

Clintons plan for this tree is to give it a couple of months to recover then feed well during the spring and if it doesn’t sell at the nursery, pot it into a suitable bonsai pot and develop it himself.