Tiny trees a labour of love

IN the 1970s, David Allen had nothing but one book to go off to help him establish a healthy supply of potted plants.

Now, he boasts a collection of about 500 bonsai, or miniature trees, on his two-acre property all grown with the help of the Bendigo Bonsai Club.

“I was always interested in gardening but because I moved around a fair bit and wasn’t able to establish a proper garden, I looked at having stuff in pots,” Mr Allen said.

“I tried doing it, I had nobody to help me or get advice from, all I could do was follow what this little book told me and everything I had died.

“I sort of gave up as my kids were born and I went on with life.

“When I moved to Bendigo in 1992, I was walking around at the Easter Fair and I saw a bonsai exhibition and thought ‘oh, I’ll go and have a look at that’.

“The stuff I saw was amazing and I thought ‘this is what I’ve always been trying to do’.”

First established in 1978, the club meets once a month to share horticulture tips and socialise, with kids encouraged to join in learning about the Japanese art.

But the work doesn’t come easy, or fast, with a small bonsai taking two to three years to grow from a seed, according to Mr Allen.

“Bonsai is a journey. You can buy a finished bonsai and try and care for it and maintain it to what it is when you bought it, or you can start the tree yourself and create the journey of the tree,” he said.