FoBBS Chair : Peter Fielding: Bonsai Profile


I was bitten by the bonsai bug in 1982. Attending Cardiff horticultural show I saw some very good Bonsai exhibited by Ken Shallicker who ran a bonsai nursery in Liverpool.

I bought a couple of small pots from him and dug up some birch saplings growing in a water course running behind our house in Peterston Super Ely. These first attempts thrived, I still have one today!

I was then playing in the Orchestra of Welsh National Opera whose touring schedule included many cities in Britain. This gave me ample opportunity to visit many bonsai nurseries. I became acquainted with a number of bonsai masters and had ample time to study their work. Over the next 27years I bought trees, pots, and sundries and became friends with many wonderful bonsai people. I was in at the beginning of Cardiff Bonsai Club and had two spells as Chair. I became friends with Peter Adams and on at least three visits to the UK he came to Cardiff, took a club meeting, day workshop and stayed with us. Harry Tomlinson and Dan Barton were also regular visitors to the Cardiff club.

When I retired from WNO in 2009 our Club secretary Anne Campbell suggested I join the FoBBS Committee. I was duly proposed and have been a member of the Committee since then.

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