By Luke Voogt
The city’s best-trimmed will be on display in Geelong Bonsai Club’s annual exhibition next weekend.
Club president Paul Buttigieg will join 75 miniature-tree enthusiasts – aged 15 to 90 – from Geelong, Bellarine and the Surf Coast putting their masterwork on display.
“It’s a very friendly group,” he said.
The 70-year-old Batesford salesman got hooked on the art of pruning in 2009 when his four children bought him a bonsai course for Father’s Day.
“Apparently as they were growing up I said to them I’d like to do a bonsai course,” he said.
It was there Paul acquired his first juniper, which he has lovingly tended since.
“I can proudly say it is still alive and thriving,” he said.
“Often people lose their first tree.”
Paul’s collection has bloomed in the following years and provided him a welcome meditative escape.
“Anytime I come home from work and I’ve had a really stressful day, I’ll go out after dinner and spend an hour looking after the trees,” he said.
“When you’re working on one tree at a time, all you think about is that tree. You forget everything else – I almost go into a state of trance.”
“By the time I’ve finished all the stress is gone.”
The art may have even lowered his age several years, along with never touching cigarettes, Paul said wryly.
“No one believes me when I tell them I’m 70.”
Despite his hundred or so plants, Paul said he was not the greenest thumb in the club, which had been going since 1986.
“A few eat and breathe bonsai. For some people in the bonsai world, it’s an absolute obsession.”
The idea that bonsais are difficult to maintain is a myth, Paul said.
During two days the club will demonstrate methods of potting, training and styling bonsai, to show just how easy it is, he said.
“We’re more than happy to help people start from scratch.”
The show will include a number of bonsai and related equipment for sale, competitions and raffles.
Geelong Bonsai Club Annual Exhibition starts 13 November at the Geelong Masonic Centre in Belmont.
For information on show times and tickets, visit geelongbonsai.com.
In a unique giveaway, the club is offering Indy readers the chance to win their very own miniature tree.
The first five people to bring this article to show will get free bonsai complete with a training pot, Paul said.
