Burridge Bonsai Fuchsia Group
Solent Fuchsia Club has a Bonsai Workshop Group
The bonsai to the left is Magellanica Alba and was grown by Solent Fuchsia Club member, Peter Lewis.
It has won the bonsai class in each of these competitions and received the following accolades:
Solent Fuchsia Club Show 2006
BFS London Show 2006. The Blue Rosette (3rd Best in Show)
BFS Southern Show 2006 (Runner up Best in Show)
BFS London Show 2007
An optional extra available to all Solent Fuchsia Club members is the opportunity to attend the meetings of the Bonsai Special Interest Group. Our little band has been meeting regularly every six weeks and has definitely been gaining in confidence. Three of us are training our fuchsia plants to eventually to form cascade bonsai. Please check the meetings page to see when we are holding our bonsai meetings.
The Burridge Bonsai Group have met on two occasions this year.
At our February meeting, after discussing the plants taken to the meeting for advice, we looked at Peter’s Bonsai which had been air layered last year. Through the polythene we could see fine white roots. After carefully removing the polythene, we noticed a problem.
Some of the roots were caught up in the Sellotape™ holding the polythene in place and were slightly damaged when it was being removed.
There seemed to be more rooting outside the mossed area than within it. After careful consideration, it was decided that there was too much top growth and there would be insufficient new roots to sustain it if we inadvertently damaged any more of the old roots. Watering will be from the top of the pot only and the bottom of the pot will be kept dry. This hopefully will encourage new top roots to develop. We will keep you posted on our progress.
The April meeting saw us pruning excessive new growth from Peter’s plants and he started shaping some of the younger plants. These are now in gentle curves and three dimensional. Peter is of the opinion that the best time to take cuttings for Bonsai work is August.
They should be ready to begin training just after Christmas when the light levels are starting to improve. Much to our surprise, as we were leaving, Peter showed us two Bonsai Fuchsias which he had planted out in the border last summer. Both of these plants were shooting from top to bottom. He will continue pruning these into shape in situ and when the trunk has thickened up, will probably dig them up, root prune and then plant them into containers. This is the method used in commercial production in Japan. Plants will be a minimum of five years old before they are dug up and pruned into shape.
Report by Mary Knight
Are you interested in growing fuchsias?
Need to know what that fuchsia is called?
Want to know how to over winter them?
Interested in talking to and meeting other fuchsia growers?
Fancy going on organized day trips?
Then come and join us!
We always welcome new members.