I started trying to grow bonsai in the late 1970s.
Mentors included Nell Saffin and Ron Anderson from BSV, Melbourne.
 

With land available I started to grow trees in the ground to speed up trunk growth. Excess trees were sold at club shows and trading days.
 

When the internet became well enough established and people became used to purchasing online I made the move to online sales and Shibui Bonsai was born.
 

Over the past 40 years, I’ve grown and developed thousands of trees for bonsai and trialled many different techniques to find out what works well and what is less effective.
 

With an abundance of trident maple seedlings available I’ve produced many group plantings and developed a number of techniques and helpful hints for producing better groups. Groups are one of the quickest ways to produce a presentable bonsai with younger trees.

 

Each winter Shibui Bonsai supplies ‘forest packs’ of trident maple seedlings. The packs contain around 20 selected seedlings of different thickness suitable to start off trident maple group plantings as an economic way for new growers to get into group bonsai.
 

Root over Rock bonsai is another firm favourite and I’ve developed Ficus, Japanese maples, pines and many, many trident maple root over rock bonsai and pre bonsai. Frustration when the accepted methods for developing root over rock frequently failed with the strong root systems of trident maple led to the development of the Shibui Foil Wrap method to grow consistently better root over rock tridents.
 

Over the past 15 years I’ve been concentrating on developing smaller, more manageable sized bonsai and now have an expanding collection of Shohin and Mame sized bonsai and have sought out and refined techniques specific to developing and maintaining these tiny trees.
 

Aussie natives have also been of interest as bonsai, tagging on from my longer term interest in the natural environment and natives for landscaping.