Bonsai grow on show

MARVEL over more than one hundred bonsai at the Bendigo Bonsai Club’s Easter exhibition.

Club treasurer Brenda Logan said all the miniature manicured trees on display have been grown and cared for by local green thumbs.

“The members of our club are passionate about the art of bonsai, and we like to share that with other people,” she said.

“We do demonstrations so people get to see how a bonsai can be created from just a stock plant. It’s a very interesting way to spend a couple of hours.

“There’s also a trading table. It will hold pretty much anything that you will need to create a bonsai: pots, tools, we’ll have soil available, books on the basic care of it, there will be stock plants available and there will be completed trees for sale all over the Easter period.”

Entry is $3, with the money to be put back into the club to increase knowledge and hold demonstrations.

“We’ve had overseas visitors come and do demonstrations and it is for the benefit of the club. It’s our biggest fundraiser for the year. We plan to do things like digs and club members have said it’s about time we do a nursery crawl,” Ms Logan said.

As well as being their main annual fundraiser, the exhibition is also the club’s major recruitment drive where prospective members “see what they can achieve.”

“Anybody who’s got an interest in it then can follow up and come to a club meeting and see if they’re as passionate about it as some of our members are,” Ms Logan said.

The exhibition will open from 10am to 5pm this Saturday and Sunday, and 10am to 3pm on Monday at the Uniting Church Hall on Forest Street.