AusBonsai

Here at the NBPCA, we were lucky enough to have Yusuke Uchida come and help us out with some of our pines and junipers. It has been wonderful having Yusuke here, the staff and volunteers have learned valuable styling techniques and tree work processes for autumn/winter work. We are hoping to have him back in Spring to help us understand his techniques for Spring tree work.

Here are a few photos of Yusuke with some of the trees he worked on.

We have also been very lucky to have Grant Bowie working with us. Grant has been working with us 3 days per week, his sole task being tree work. I decided to keep Grant away from the computer and any paperwork, and I believe he is enjoying just working on the trees, he certainly looks like he is having fun with this awesome Trident Maple !

Cheers,
Leigh.

Tell us more about that trident... What's it's story?

Adam

Great photo's leigh, thankyou for sharing them

Thanks guys.

The Trident was imported to Australia from Korea in the 1990's by Lynne Farrell from Tasmania. It is approximately 80cm tall. We aren't too sure of its age, but appears to be very well grown in the field. The tree was donated to the Collection last year by Lynne in memory of her late husband Neale.

Awesome pics Leigh san...

I like that in the pictures of Grant, you can see Yusuke working in the background. I'd love to spend a day sitting there watching both of them work.

Whilst in Canberra last Friday my No.1 destination was the NBPCA at the brand new National Arboretum. After being blown away with all the trees on display and superb setup, I managed to garner Grant's attention, upon which I was invited 'backstage'. Busy as they were, Grant and Leigh still made time for a quick chat and I was introduced to Yusuke Uchida who was into his third day restyling the Shimpaku Juniper group. It was amazing to watch him work just for a short while, but when I saw a before shot of the group he was working my jaw dropped. My visit got even better when one of the volunteers (sorry I'm bad with names and met so many people on my trip , but I think it was Alex?) who was so generous with his time, gave us a detailed backstage tour of the collection in progress, trees being worked on, restyled and rejuvenated.

A very big thank you to Leigh, Grant, Uchi and everyone else who I met at the NBPCA, gave of their time, that made my visit the absolute highlight of my vacation!

So if you're in Canberra this place is definitely a must see!

Thanks
Ryan

Thanks Ryan, it was great to catch up with you again.

One thing I am working on here at the NBPCA is that of a "visiting volunteer". More details of this will arise soon, but in a nutshell, as the NBPCA is a partnership between the ACT Government and the bonsai community, I am looking into ways that I can involve interstate bonsai clubs and their members to have a little more involvement.

In the mean time, here is another picture of the trident maple just before it came to the Collection.
Cheers,
Leigh.

Here is an old before pic of the shimpaku group that Yusuke was working on.

NBPCA wrote: One thing I am working on here at the NBPCA is that of a "visiting volunteer". More details of this will arise soon, but in a nutshell, as the NBPCA is a partnership between the ACT Government and the bonsai community, I am looking into ways that I can involve interstate bonsai clubs and their members to have a little more involvement.

Great idea Leigh
Cheers, Dario.

Hi,

The old before picture of that Juniper group is so beautiful and serene.

Ash

I notice that the Juniper that won the competition, has had some significant work done with some branch removal.


Cheers Pup

really enjoy and learn a lot from these posts. thanks for sharing.

Ash wrote:The old before picture of that Juniper group is so beautiful and serene.

I agree Ash, that was a lovely silhoette it created. It will be good to see the group once filled out in a season or two and then compare the two images.

Pup wrote:I notice that the Juniper that won the competition, has had some significant work done with some branch removal.

Hi Pup, I have never seen this Juniper in person and hopefully will be down there soon but what is the deadwood like on the lower section ? Is it as smooth as it appears in the photo or is the surface textured ? Hope you don't mind the question.

Cheers

David

DavidWilloughby wrote:

Ash wrote:

Pup wrote:I notice that the Juniper that won the competition, has had some significant work done with some branch removal.

Hi Pup, I have never seen this Juniper in person and hopefully will be down there soon but what is the deadwood like on the lower section ? Is it as smooth as it appears in the photo or is the surface textured ? Hope you don't mind the question.

Cheers

David

Hi David the shari is very smooth, also you can see the tool marks which was dissapointing.

Cheers Pup