Kelly, NZBA Committee Member
Kelly writes, “I've always been interested in plants and nature, and was encouraged to help in the Vegetable Garden at an early age by Mum and Dad. Later on in my teens my Gran would bring me on 'plant crawls' with her local Horticultural Society, where I was exposed to a the fascinating world of gardening. Every person you meet in life influences you in a certain way, and these types of people enlarged my mind to what was possible if you had a handful of seeds and a tonne of patience—great attributes for bonsai I found out…
I went on to study Landscape Architecture, and worked at Kings Plant Barn which proved invaluable for horticultural knowledge, before graduating and working for an architecture firm, eventually drawing both houses and gardens in symbiosis.
Around 2007, I joined the Auckland Bonsai Society after seeing their display at the Ellerslie Flower Show several years earlier. I recall being fascinated by the small trees and the magical way they promised entire landscapes with just a single tree (that and seeing them on Karate Kid... I think I spent several hours at the stand). Here I met Bob, Simon, Sam and Ruth Benjamin, Sue Shatzedorfer, and other founding stalwarts of the club. Eventually I got coerced onto the committee by Lindsay Muirhead, and the rest is history as they say.
I don't have a favourite species for bonsai. Having a super green thumb I have got everything from pine to beech, to plum, cork oak, parrotia, rose, ficus, totara, ginkgo, etc., to name a few, down to the humble privet and hawthorn. This is both a blessing and a curse, and I have found myself being a lot more selective in the last year or so.... I also love 'hunting yamadori' and this is where I have got many of my plants from, as well as from nursery throw-out piles!
I believe the local clubs are an intrinsic part of the bonsai scene, and often are a first contact for a lot of people, so they need to be both welcoming and inspirational. I enjoy teaching beginners as it is such a great feeling to see them flourish, and their enthusiasm for bonsai is infectious, much like when we all first started.
It is a great time to be doing bonsai. More than ever before, there is an abundance of quality information to be found (recently I am soaking up the podcasts and YouTube videos that are online, especially from Ryan Neil at Bonsai Mirai), and an ever-increasing professional scene outside of Japan. Add to this the growing wave of interest from younger people, bringing much needed enthusiasm and fresh ideas to the club scene, and the future looks bright for Bonsai in NZ, much more so than when I started a decade ago.”