SEQUIM — The Dungeness Bonsai Society will host its 43rd annual Spring Bonsai Show at the clubhouse at Pioneer Memorial Park on Saturday.
Members are preparing for a colorful and creative event to show off their craft at the show set from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Pioneer Memorial Park clubhouse at 387 E. Washington St.
Admission will be free, although donations will be welcomed.
The Dungeness Bonsai Society will have trees on exhibit that range in age from 5 to older than 100 years old.
Members will be on hand to answer questions.
A special demonstration at 1 p.m. will show how to make a bonsai. The tree will be raffled off at the end of the day. Winners need not be present to win.
Longtime society member Ron Quigley is bringing several trees from his own collection to the event and he’s excited to show them.
His personal collection may be smaller these days — he decided to trim down a collection of bonsai trees that numbered about 50 to just seven trees last year after a health scare — but his bonsai are still impressive for their quality.
“Bonsai is a living art form, one that’s always changing,” Quigley said. “Watching it evolve and through the trees is a joy.”
While most bonsai practitioners generally have an idea of what they want the tree to look like before they start “training” the branches with careful trimming and the use of flexible aluminum or copper wires, Quigley said that often nature can force changes.
“Sometimes even something as simple as wind will force you to change and adapt,” he said. “Sometimes the tree grows or changes in ways that make you do something else. It’s a constant search for balance.”
Quigley said that the Dungeness Bonsai Society will have about 50 trees in all on display Saturday, representing various examples of the five core styles of bonsai, a word that literally means “tray planting.”
Bonsai, which means “tree in a pot,” is an ancient art that started in China in 200 B.C., club members said. Several hundred years later the Japanese refined the art, creating five different “classic” styles.
The show will be will be for people of all stripes in the bonsai world, with anyone from those simply curious about what it is to full blown enthusiasts. Quigley said that he expects from 300 to 400 attendees.
The society is always hoping to attract new members as well, he said. The group meets at 10 a.m. the first Tuesday of each month at the same location as the spring show.
It is accepting members of all experience levels, and particularly welcome novices eager to learn the art of bonsai.
For more information, contact Don Hinrichsen at 360-504-2148 or see dunge nessbonsai.wordpress.com.
Ron Quigley stands with one of his prized bonsai, a Nikko Satsuki Azalea, that will be on display at the Dungeness Bonsai Society spring show on Saturday. (Conor Dowley/Olympic Peninsula News Group)
Ron Quigley describes the work he’s done with a Trident Maple he’s worked into an “informal upright” style of Bonsai. (Conor Dowley/Olympic Peninsula News Group)
