When Pat asked me to write a personal profile my immediate thoughts were, where should I start. I, of course consider that it should be written with Bonsai firmly in mind - so here goes.

I first became aware of Bonsai before I fell head long in love with it, and “have I experienced that feeling before” some 45 years ago. In those days bonsai was not very well known in our culture, so obtaining books and information let alone pots to plant them in was almost impossible but none the less I was fascinated by these trees in pots. I was in my early twenties and would go and collect anything and plant it in a seed tray or whatever, simply out of curiosity and experimentations. I remember coming home from work one day circa 1967/68 when my wife Sue mentioned that she had bought a tin if ‘Min’ spray polish which advertised a promotion for a bonsai tree which you could send away for. Needless to say she was sent back to the supermarket the following day for the necessary other label and I sent off for my first “real bonsai”. Some weeks passed and then one day a box 6” x 3” x 3” arrived in the post. There to my joy was one if my first “proper” bonsai trees. The tree was an Acer Palmatum. I still have that tree to this day, and those of you who have seen my large acer group can now be told that they were all grown from cuttings from this very first Palmatum. So that was my beginning into Bonsai

In 1978 my wife’s uncle, the late Ray Filsell, who was also interested in Bonsai suggested that we should form a local society and so one summers day we travelled to Curdridge to meet Peter Waddington, who by our standards had some very good bonsai. Peter at once was interested in forming a local society and our first meeting took place around a small table in the Bugle Hotel, Fareham - yes all three of us. Following some local advertising we were soon joined by Mac Penson and Jock Campbell and we have not looked back since.

As our numbers increased we moved to a very small hall adjacent to the Bugle Hotel and then to the nearby Foresters Hall, where our very first exhibition of bonsai trees was held in 1980.

Following the closure of the Foresters Hall, which now incidentally is part of the Nat. West. Bank, we moved to the Trinity Church Hall, Fareham for a few years which also involved regular exhibitions. Our latest venue for meetings namely the Wallington Village Community Hall is I suppose the best but not ideal for exhibitions as it is so far removed from Fareham Town centre, hence the South of England Exhibitions held at the Ferneham Hall. So there you have it, a personal profile of my Life with Bonsai.

I am still as fascinated by it as I was all those years ago. So lets make it an Exhibition to remember for our 30th anniversary in 2008.

Happy Bonsai - Trevor Arm