Successful workshop!

The workshop that we held on Saturday was quite successful.  It would not have been if I did not have the help of two wonderful friends.  Phil and Jeff came by to help me and I appreciate their help immensely.  We all started out with a procumbens nana juniper.  We separated each table with about 5 people each.  I started out by showing out how to thin the tree to see the potential in the tree.  Phil and Jeff went around helping people who needed help and I did the same.  Some people caught onto the idea right away and others needed a little help.  After the initial thinning, people started to remove branching.  We explained about trying not to have multiple branching in the same area(bar – branches).  Again, some did well and others needed help.  After the removing of branches, we started to wire the trees.  I showed how to wire on a branch and let the student finish the wiring.  I then went to the next student and got them started.  When I finished, I would go back to the first student.  Again, Phil and Jeff were instrumental in each step of the teaching process.  It is always nice to have extra hands.  When we were all done, we critiqued the finished trees.  Most were quite amazing for a first try.  One lady plucked off most of the foliage off of each branch.  When I started to help her wire, it was much easier because there was no foliage to get in the way.  The tree looked odd, but in the end it was one of the nicer shaped trees.  Since she just plucked the foliage off, there was enough on the branch for it to start to push growth in a few weeks.  All in all, it was a delightful morning.  Some of the students were so excited on working on a plant, that they purchased an extra plant to work on for themselves.  I think we may have some new bonsai club members.

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This post was written by George