Toulouse: Bonsai Exhibition at the Labit Museum
This weekend, the Bonsai Toulouse club is exhibiting around fifty miniature trees in the gardens of the Georges Labit museum. don’t hesitate to take the detour, it’s free.
This weekend, the Bonsai Toulouse association invites you to its exhibition of miniature trees, in the garden of the Georges Labit museum. On the occasion of this third edition, the public will be able to admire around fifty bonsai. All tested members of the association. “We will have pines, oaks, maples, junipers, olive trees, elms and azaleas…”, explains Philippe Jacob, the association’s treasurer. He – himself will come with his cotoneaster, two elms and an olive tree, from his own collection which includes around fifty plants. “We are here to exhibit the work of club members, it is not a beauty contest,” says the treasurer.
The smallest of the exposed trees does not exceed five centimeters. “He is 3 years old. If it doesn’t grow more, it’s because it’s in a small pot and we prune it,” explains Philippe Jacob.
Indeed, bonsai is by definition a tree that grows in a pot. There are no bonsai seeds, you can make a tree in a pot with all the essences available in nature. All you have to do is slow down its growth by selectively pruning its roots. This requires patience and technique. “But we’re not hurting the tree by raising it like this. It has all the nutrients it needs and regularly receives small amounts of fertiliser,” reassures Philippe Jacob.
Indeed, this is the whole secret of this art which was born in China, 2,000 years earlier, to then reach Japan. It would have appeared in France in the 19th century, on the occasion of universal exhibitions, but experienced a real boom in the 1970s. The Bonsaï Toulouse club was born in 2014 and brings together around twenty members who come to acquire the basics of this art.
Note that at 2 p.m., the professional Olivier Barreau will give a demonstration, during which he will explain how to go from a raw tree to a bonsai. And at 3:30 p.m., club members will take a guided tour of the bonsai exhibit.