Midland and Redditch bonsai societies reschedule meeting, focus on show prep

A funeral-tea booking at Moseley Cricket Club forced Midland and Redditch to move their May meeting plans just as both societies were leaning into show season. The joint newsletter, published May 15, said the cricket club discovered that the afternoon funeral tea on May 7 had grown to involve far more people than expected, making the original arrangement impossible to keep.

The change mattered because Midland normally meets at 7:30 p.m. on the first Thursday of every month at Moseley Cricket Club in Solihull, so the disruption hit a fixed club rhythm rather than a one-off date. Midland says it was founded in 1975 and describes itself as one of the longest-established bonsai societies in the UK and Great Britain. Its history page also says the club once had more than 100 members in earlier decades before it later moved its headquarters to Moseley Cricket Club.

Redditch’s May 21 meeting was built around the work that matters most at this point in the calendar: checking progress, tightening trees up for display, and judging what still needed development. The meeting focused on reviewing and updating trees members brought in for development in January, giving members a chance to show progress, receive constructive feedback and fine-tune their bonsai for upcoming shows. David Cheshire assisted the evening, which the club framed as a practical working session rather than a lecture.

That schedule sat alongside Midland’s broader 2026 show build-up. January’s joint newsletter said the show at the Botanicals was due in early June, while Midland’s 2026 programme listed May 7 as final show prep and June 7 as show day. The January AGM also marked a leadership change, with Judith Davison stepping down as chair and David Attwood elected unopposed, while treasurer Wes Pinfield reported a satisfactory financial position and subscriptions stayed unchanged. Midland raised £45.50 for Midlands Air Ambulance Charity at the AGM, and Redditch raised £43.40.

For two clubs that share notices, venues and the same spring pressure point, the message was clear: one booking clash could shift the calendar, but it did not slow the move from development benches to show tables.