INTRODUCTION TO GROWING BONSAI
So your friend gave you a bonsai tree, and you just don’t know how to care for it!
You may have seen the beautiful display at the Annual Bonsai Show and wanted to understand the mysteries of Bonsai.
Or you always wanted to try growing some and wondered where to start.
Bonsai Winnipeg has been introducing bonsai techniques to novices since 1981, when the club was a small informal group. This handful of people was joined by others and grew to become a club with a formal structure, still led and managed by volunteers.
The Bonsai Society of Winnipeg now offers the Introduction to Growing Bonsai (ITGB) Course each year. Through lectures, videos, and hands-on workshops, Bonsai Winnipeg volunteer teachers cover the basics of creating and caring for Bonsai. A course manual, tools, wire, membership, and pre-bonsai trees are included. Course participants can also harvest additional trees native to Manitoba on guided field trips each spring and fall or purchase them from a local nursery.
This is a wonderful way to learn about the artistic and horticultural aspects of the hobby. It is highly recommended for anyone who wants to grow Bonsai in Manitoba.
We designed a new format to get you up to speed over just two intensive and immersive weekends. This condensed format is excellent for busy people who like to accelerate learning.
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
Day One: Lectures, Videos, and Demos: 9 AM to 5 PM
- Bonsai history and basics
- Bonsai styles and artistic principles
- Techniques for pruning and shaping trees
- Lunch break (cost included in course fees)
- Care of Bonsai, including watering, fertilizing, re-potting, pest control, and over-wintering
- Sources of tools, pots, wire, soil, and other supplies
- Species and sources of trees appropriate for your location
Day Two: Workshops: 9 AM to 5 PM
- Introduction to wiring and hands-on practice. Includes a practice tree.
- Lunch break (cost included in course fees)
- Introduction to pruning and hands-on practice
- Introduction to potting and hands-on practice
Day Three: Workshops: 9 AM to 5 PM
- Includes a pre-bonsai tree
- Analysing your pre-bonsai and developing a styling strategy
- Pruning your pre-bonsai
- Lunch break (cost included in course fees)
- Wiring your pre-bonsai and setting the branches for their first year of training
- Aftercare for your pre-bonsai
COST: $400 PER PERSON AND INCLUDES:
- A field-grown pre-bonsai, Dwarf Alberta Spruce (Picea glauca “conica”) or similar.
- A digital course manual that you keep as a handy reference
- Authentic bonsai tools: Ryuga Ashinaga Shear and Ryuga Concave Cutter
- Lunches on three days
- Supplies used during course workshops and demonstrations
- One-year full membership to the Bonsai Society of Winnipeg
The pre-bonsai are nursery trees that are ideal specimens to shape as formal, informal, or slanting Bonsai and we can apply all the fundamental guidelines that will result in a good-quality bonsai. These trees will have one or two trunks or more, with strong, tapering trunks and many branches to work with.
Individuals taking the course are encouraged to attend as many club meetings as possible to reinforce what they have learned in the course.
THE COURSE DATES FOR 2024:
SATURDAY, JUNE 8, SUNDAY, JUNE 9
SATURDAY, JUNE 15.
A DEPOSIT IS REQUIRED WHEN YOU CONFIRM YOUR PARTICIPATION. THE BALANCE IS DUE AT THE FIRST CLASS.
Your own set of Ryuga Ashinaga Shear, Ryuga Concave Cutter are included
After seeing the clubs annual display at the Norwood community club in 2022, I joined up soon after and attended the monthly meetings. I patiently waited to take the 2023 Spring Introduction to Bonsai course which I thoroughly enjoyed. It was informative with enthusiastic instructors who definitely have a passion for Bonsai. The monthly meetings are good, as the members are friendly, humorous and respectful! I’m glad that I joined.
—Kimberly
Useful Links
Get On Our Mailing List
Contact Us
Bonsai Society of Winnipeg.
All rights reserved.
