Quang Tran is a Vietnamese Australian who is passionate about bonsai. He first became interested in the idea of creating miniature trees and landscapes when he went to a bonsai show, liked what he saw and thought “I could do that”. Ten years later Quang is going to another bonsai show, and he and Don looked at some of the plants he is preparing to exhibit.
Quang didn’t want to bother with the painstaking process of starting with seedlings, then patiently training, twisting and pruning them over decades until they reach perfection. He began collecting huge trees from building sites, cutting them down to the root base, potting them up, pruning them, and using wire to train them into shape. In a year or two, this technique results in almost instant, ancient, gnarled-looking bonsai.
Quang’s bonsai specimens include a black pine (Pinus nigra) which has been treated with lime sulphur to turn the wood white and give it a rugged, aged appearance. There is a privet (Ligustrum lucidum) sculpture, a juniper (Juniperus squamata) trained in an informal upright style, various large figs (Ficus sps.) and a rare five-needle pine (Microstrobos fitzgeraldii). He has also created a realistic Vietnamese farming landscape as a backdrop for his plants. One of Quang’s largest bonsai is a purple-flowering bougainvillea acquired as a mature plant about eight years ago, then layered and tied into shape. It is around 1.5m (5′) tall and almost 1m (3′) wide, and has been pruned and wrapped in plastic to encourage new growth in time for the show.
The Journey of Bonsai exhibition is on this weekend at Ryde College of TAFE, Level 5, Catering College. Enter from Park Street, Ryde, Sydney. Hours: Saturday 11-6; Sunday 9-6. Admission: $5. Phone: (02) 9634 2410.