AusBonsai

I purchased my first Bonsai in 1983. The next year or two were spent blundering around trying to piece together how to do this Bonsai thing as well as collecting an enormous amount of totally unsuitable material! Sound familiar? Living in Queensland on the Sunshine Coast, we only had one specialist Bonsai Nursery close to us, that was in Brisbane about an hours drive away (not that i consider 1 hour a distance, especially if there is quality Bonsai at the other end). I kept hearing the name Koreshoff mentioned by others in the Bonsai world so i thought i would look into the name a bit further. I discovered that they were most likely the first people to do Bonsai in Australia. They had a nursery in Castle Hill, Sydney. My Girlfriend (Karen) and I decided in 1985 that the following year we would go to Canberra for two years and earn some money, come home after that and get married etc. During our first year in Canberra i worked, on average throughout the year, 76 hours per week. That didnt leave a lot of spare time! On my first weekend off, in March 1986, we decided to go to Sydney to see this Nursery we had heard so much about. After finishing work late Friday night, grabbing a few hours sleep, we set off to Sydney. We were waiting at the gate at 7.30 am Saturday morning for the nursery to open. What an expieriance going to a nursery of this calibar for the first time! We were not dissapointed either, the material both on display and offered for sale was better then we had ever seen before.
We didnt leave the nursery untill late in the afternoon and we had seen everything at least twice! I found the following pictures recently (taken in March 1986) and have had them scanned so i could post them here to share with you all. I do hope you enjoy them as much as i enjoyed this first visit and many other subsequent visits. These people are truly pioneers in the Bonsai world in Australia and i feel certain that we wouldnt be were we are today without the Koreshoff's and there kind. The thing that has stayed with me over the years is there ease of which they shared information and how freely they offered advice. It was truly a great part of why i do Bonsai today and for that i am eternally grateful to them, if you can find something in your lifetime that you can be passionate about, you are very lucky indeed. I hope you enjoy the following pictures as much as i enjoyed sharing them with you.
Yours in friendship and all things Bonsai,
Peter.

Wow! they are fantastic, Peter, I especially like the trees in the last photo. Do you know what specie the one in the second photo is? I wonder just how many are still alive today. I won't dare say anything about your legs.
Penny.

Great post Peter, thanks for sharing with us!

Regards,
Steven

Excellent post Peter, I have some photos from the nursery as well, although some years later.

Jon

mudlarkpottery wrote: Do you know what specie the one in the second photo is? Penny.

Ithink it may be a Mexican Weeping Pine - Pinus patula. But couldnt be sure Penny.

AusBonsai wrote:Great post Peter, thanks for sharing with us!

Regards,
Steven

My pleasure Steven.

Jon Chown wrote:Excellent post Peter, I have some photos from the nursery as well, although some years later.

Jon

Are they electronic copies Jon? and thank you for your comments.

Regards
Peter

Are they electronic copies Jon?

No they were taken with a film camera unfortunately and the nursery was nearing closing so the trees were not as well maintained.

Jon

Mexican pine. Hmmmmm...... that could be interesting. As if I don't have enough already.
Penny.

Hi
I am new to this forum and have wants to see the photos that PeterW had posted. How do I do that? Any help would be greatful.

Jen

Seems as though those photos have disappeared...I'd like a look too

Gone!....

Ad.

JLuu wrote:Hi
I am new to this forum and have wants to see the photos that PeterW had posted. How do I do that? Any help would be greatful.

Jen

This is a very old thread... I guess the images have been archived off somewhere, or possibly culled altogether. A forum like this gets a lot of images, which take up a lot of space after a while.

That is a shame. I am new to the Bonsai thing, and have started reading. I found this little book published by Vita and Dorothy Koreshoff which was so much more useful than any other expensive books, and best of all, it was from the Australian perspective. It would have been good to see those photos.

J.

JLuu wrote:That is a shame. I am new to the Bonsai thing, and have started reading. I found this little book published by Vita and Dorothy Koreshoff which was so much more useful than any other expensive books, and best of all, it was from the Australian perspective. It would have been good to see those photos.

J.

The Best beginners book on the market. It was the first book I read on Bonsai. It was given to me and I have that person to thank for this obsession.

There Book on Natives, I also credit with being my best teacher on Australian Natives, along with my enquiring aging mind it is a pity that such an Iconic nursery went the way of so many. It proves a point unless we support them even the best can succumb to .

Pup

I would be interested to see the photos as well.

I think I first visited the Koreshoff nursery in 1970.

Cant see a thing!