January 2026
Auckland New Zealand
During my visit to New Zealand to spend time with my daughter who has lived in Auckland for 10 years i was introduced to a fellow Bonsai enthusiast Martin Walters through a mutual friend Will Baddeley who had worked out there in the past and I spent a very pleasant morning in his garden luckily only half an hour from my daughters house across Auckland.
He has some very nice trees from the native Pohutukawa known as the New Zealand Christmas tree because it is covered in red flowers over the Christmas period. Along with the more familiar trees to us various pines, junipers, yews, oaks Larch and hawthorns.
As no imports are aloud into New Zealand the only way to obtain old well established material is from the older bonsai community who are selling up etc but the main advantage they have over the UK is the climate, warm but with a good amount of rain this encourages all plants to put on a lot of growth during the summer period up to three flushes on pines and many established trees will need pruning every two to four weeks.
The other advantage is the speed you can develop trees Martin had a number of yamadori pines in crates and we would normally leave them alone for maybe a couple of years in the UK in new Zealand he has already started cutting them back hard after about six months in the create and you can see the buds developing in great numbers. Hopefully next time I visit my daughter I will spend more time with Martin chatting Bonsai.
Dave Fryer
Ipswich Bonsai Society.
Auckland New Zealand
During my visit to New Zealand to spend time with my daughter who has lived in Auckland for 10 years i was introduced to a fellow Bonsai enthusiast Martin Walters through a mutual friend Will Baddeley who had worked out there in the past and I spent a very pleasant morning in his garden luckily only half an hour from my daughters house across Auckland.
He has some very nice trees from the native Pohutukawa known as the New Zealand Christmas tree because it is covered in red flowers over the Christmas period. Along with the more familiar trees to us various pines, junipers, yews, oaks Larch and hawthorns.
As no imports are aloud into New Zealand the only way to obtain old well established material is from the older bonsai community who are selling up etc but the main advantage they have over the UK is the climate, warm but with a good amount of rain this encourages all plants to put on a lot of growth during the summer period up to three flushes on pines and many established trees will need pruning every two to four weeks.
The other advantage is the speed you can develop trees Martin had a number of yamadori pines in crates and we would normally leave them alone for maybe a couple of years in the UK in new Zealand he has already started cutting them back hard after about six months in the create and you can see the buds developing in great numbers. Hopefully next time I visit my daughter I will spend more time with Martin chatting Bonsai.
Dave Fryer
Ipswich Bonsai Society.
