Please find below and attached the February 2026 Edition of the Midland Bonsai Society (MBS) and Redditch Bonsai Society (RBS) Newsletter which is available completely for FREE as a PDF Download at the bottom of this page.
REDDITCH BONSAI
www.midlandbonsai.org www.redditchbonsai.co.uk
Edition of February 2026.
EDITOR’S REMARKS.
We are pleased to tell you that steps are being taken to bring the MBS website up to date. David
Attwood, your new chairman, has formed a sub-committee of “younger” members to oversee this
project. Some improvements have already been made so have a look at them. More news in due
course.
Whilst on that subject the Redditch site has recently been vastly improved thanks to the interest
and initiative of the Society’s Chairman, David Haw. It’s worth a look. Just search “Redditch
Bonsai”.
YOU TUBE.
Members are reminded that if they should happen to view what they consider to be a useful bonsai
related video on You Tube they might consider letting other members know about it. They can do
this by using What’s App and/or letting us know so that we can publish the details here.
COMING UP AT REDDITCH BONSAI.
The February meeting on 19th of the month will feature a Re-potting workshop.
COMING UP AT THE MBS.
The MBS meeting on 5th February also features a Re-potting and Root pruning workshop. Let’s
hope that this meeting and the Redditch meeting are not affected by the weather as the MBS
January event was. We hope that you will all agree that the decision to cancel that meeting was the
right one in the circumstances!
BONSAI TIP OF THE MONTH.
It’s time to think about re-potting, hence the choice of subject for this month’s meeting. Whilst we
are not ones to keep detailed records of the progress/development of our trees we do at least keep a
record of what has and what hasn’t been re-potted each year. Without this record we would be all
at sea trying to remember what was and what wasn’t re-potted. We are not going to tell you how
often to re-pot your trees. There is no hard and fast rule. Generally younger trees require re-potting
more often than older specimens, perhaps every year. Trees that have become “pot bound” should
also be attended to at this time. Faster growing varieties such as trident maple, hornbeam and
cotoneaster will require attention more frequently than pines and junipers for example. Specimens
of the latter may not require attention for up to five or six years. All re-potted trees should be
sheltered from the worst of the weather for a couple of weeks.
GARDENING TIP OF THE MONTH.
Keep lawns free of fallen leaves. There’s still time to plant bare root roses, shrubs and hedging.
Take root cuttings of verbascum and oriental poppies and hardwood cuttings of viburnum. Winter
prune apples and pears trying to keep an open aspect in the canopy – Angela’s uncle used to say
that you should be able to throw your hat up /through a large tree! Towards the end of February
you could think about cutting back autumn raspberries – take them down to about 6/8 inches. If
frost threatens however, we advise waiting a while.
If it’s raining then take the time to sort out your seeds for 2026 and make a plan/timetable for
planting during the year. Have a look at Chiltern Seeds for some new ideas. They have a very
extensive catalogue.
PAST ARTICLES.
We would like to remind you that there are several articles still available about various aspects of
Bonsai culture/practice which we would be happy to send to anyone requesting same.
David Cheshire has provided 3 as follows:-
- Bonsai Soils and Mixes.
- Feeding pines, and
- Japanese White Pines.
Malcolm Hughes has provided an article on Judging Criteria.
Let us know if you are interested.
CAR WINDOW STICKER.
The stickers have finally arrived, Having agreed upon/finalised the design arrangements were
made to have the printer post them to our address – thus avoiding the necessity of a trip to
Bromsgrove to collect them. This is where things went wrong – thanks to the Royal Mail. The
stickers just didn’t turn up in what was considered to be a reasonable time. We haven’t had a
regular postal delivery here in Northfield during the whole of the month but we have had a couple
of deliveries in the last 10 days -but no stickers. Having reported this to Bromsgrove Printing the
owner went to the trouble of delivering them here on Thursday evening, so we will be bringing
them along on Thursday. We think that they are excellent! We have sent a note to the printer
thanking him for his kindness.
THE LIBRARY.
Yes, the MBS still has a library and having relinquished her position as chair Judith has agreed to
be responsible for it. So far she has taken the step of sorting the books into two piles, one to keep
and one to get rid of by sale or gift. There is a complete list of the books on the website but within
this letter there is a shorter list of the books which are proposed to be retained. The remainder will
be offered at the Bring and Buy later in the year.
Judith does not intend to bring all the books to every meeting. She will bring one or two for perusal
and possible loan but will of course also bring any specifically requested.
She will also be keeping a lookout for any new titles which she thinks may be of interest/use and
which might be added to the collection. If you come across a book or other publication which you
think may be of interest to your fellow members please let her know.
ANDREW PHILLIPS.
Some but not all of you will have seen the What’s App chat about the above. Mark Moreland of
UKBA had contacted us as he had heard that Andrew has died around Christmas and thought we
might know of him as he lived in Droitwich. Fortunately David Attwood knew him and by now
will have responded to Mark’s request for information as he wishes to include an obituary in an
upcoming bulletin. If anyone else has any information about him please let us know.
UPDATE.
Following David Attwood speaking with Mark Moreland we were asked to make enquiries of
Malcolm Hughes. A telephone call to Malcolm revealed that Andrew had been a member of the
MBS in the 70’s/80’s (before our time) and had then moved to South Staffs for a while. He then
moved to live in or around Droitwich when he got married and Malcolm had no more up to date
information about him. All this was conveyed to Mark Moreland but we believe that he will not be
pursuing his original plan of publishing an obituary.
Whilst looking through/editing old photos we found this photo of a tree owned by, we
believe,Junior Parris. It looks to be some sort of Juniper – perhaps he would kindly let us know
exactly what it is? We think you will agree that it really is rather lovely.
SUBSCRIPTIONS.
Wes reminds you that your subscription became due on 1st January, so, if you have not yet paid
would you please arrange to do so as soon as possible. The amount is £34.00 per member.
Thank you.
LIBRARY LIST – BOOKS BEING RETAINED.
Title Author Notes Date Pages
1 Man Lung Artistic Pot Plants Wing Lung Bank
Ltd. Art
Publications
1974 355
2 The Living Art of Bonsai Professor Amy
Liang
1992 288
3 Bonsai Techniques II John Naka Soft back 1982 442
4 The Art of Bonsai Peter Adams 1981 174
5 The Bonsai Book. The Definitive
Illustrated Guide
Dan Barton 1989 160
6 Gold Awarded Penjing of the World
Volume 1
Chen Zhiqi & Chen
Zhijiu
Colour plates
of
award-winning
trees
2006 216
7 Gold Awarded Penjing of the World
Volume 2
Chen Zhiqi & Chen
Zhijiu
Ditto 2006 202
8 The Bonsai Art of Kimura Katsuhito Onishi 1992 175
9 Bonsai Masterclass Peter Chan 1987 160
10 Bonsai, the Art of Growing & Keeping
Miniature Trees
Peter Chan 1985 174
11 The Complete Book of Bonsai Peter Chan 1989 160
12 Bonsai Art and Technique Pius Notter 1987 159
13 The Art of Indoor Bonsai John Ainsworth 1988 128
14 The Bonsai School Craig Coussins 2002 256
15 Miniature Bonsai Lin Kuo-cheng 1987 119
16 Penjing, the Chinese Art of Miniature
Gardens
Hu Yunhua
17 Saiki: Living Landscapes in Miniature Toshio Kawamoto 1977 133
18 Timeless trees. The U.S. National Bonsai
Collection
P L & M H Bloomer 1986 109
19 Japanese Five-needle Pine William N Valvanis Rare small
paperback
1976 66
20 The Best of British Bonsai 2011 Birmingham
Botanical Gardens
Incudes photos
of some entries
by MBS
members
2011 95
HOLDEN CERAMICS.
On Saturday last David Attwood, Brian Cooke and Tarun Raipure made the trip to Burton on Trent
to visit the workshop of Gavin Holden aka Holden Ceramics. Members will remember that Gavin
came along with a selection of his wares to our Annual Show at the Botanical Gardens in June last
year. It sounds as if Gavin will be coming along to the show this June as well. He will be most
welcome.
R and A Gilkes 2nd February 2026
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