Seminar at Wolfgang Kaeflein's

On Saturday, April 25, 2009 we had a full day seminar at Wolfgang Kaeflein's place. There were about 50 people and we had action all day. I was very happy and the folks are telling me that they were too. Have a few glimpses.

Bonsai in Slovenia - 2009-2

Drago is on bonsai for only one year. It is amazing what a good eye he has developed for potential in raw material. With the help of Matija he has already a very promising collection of raw material.

Many who see these reports from Slovenia and Croatia will wonder about the amazing number of very recently collected trees and wonder whether they have any bonsai there too. Sure they have, but they have learned that these are just toys which were good enough for a start. These guys are serious. For great bonsai one needs great material. And they certainly got it. If they could get this together within only a few months I want to see what they have in ten years. It is good to have such students!

Bonsai in Slovenia - 2009-1

Matija is still as student, but is rather advanced in bonsai already. he lives in the north of Slovenia. Matija is a keen collector of indigenous material. In a very short time he has gotten a collection with great potential. The star is the big mugo, which is too big for him, he says. Matija is hoping for offers for that tree.

Bonsai in Croatia 2009-1-10

So this was the 3rd South east European Bonsai Symposium. It was a lot of fun and I had the feeling that just about everybody was happy. I was very content with the progress th students have made in only tow years. just feeling their enthusiasm and seeing the great material that they have collected in month gives me hope that something great will come out of this. In October they will have Marco Invernizzi. The Croatians are up to a great future in bonsai. Watch out!

Bonsai in Croatia 2009-1-9

On Sunday we had a special demonstration. Four students each had a tree on stage. Every tree was thoroughly discussed in public. Then the student s worked under the auspices of WP in parallel. This made an exiting day. There was always something going on, something to discuss, to watch. and one advantage of this kind of demo is that one can work with all sorts of material. and ether is no two hours of silent and boring wiring.
We had several trees in reseve and whoever was finsihed with oen tree started with the next one.
All those who look at this and are in a position to organize events should consider this set-up instead of ordinary demos.

Bonsai in Croatia 2009-1-8

Mario and his European hornbeam, Carpinus betulus.