Page 18 - BSAM 2015 Q1

Top;
Evergreen Bonsai Award Finest Evergreen Bonsai Wild Olive
Olea Oleaster
Frank Cuchiara
Bottom;
Deciduous Bonsai Award
Finest Deciduous Bonsai Sharps Pygmy Maple
Acer palmatum ‘Sharps Pygmy’ Sergio Cuan
Exhibitors spent decades training their best bonsai for the exhibition and a lot of time refining and pre- paring for their formal display. This was quite evident in the 175 display areas. In total there were 320 indi- vidual bonsai, including 40 shohin bonsai composi- tions with 120 small size bonsai. Over 125 species and plant cultivars were displayed which is representative of the trees trained for bonsai in our country.
Photos of over 260 bonsai were submitted for the se- lection process and 180 were accepted. A few dropped out at the last minute because of weather damage or transportation difficulties. Since bonsai are alive and subject to weather this is to be expected. We still needed to add nine more tables at the end of set up. It’s a good thing we have extra backgrounds, skirting as well as ta- ble covering. But, we still needed to purchase additional table coverings of a different color during the set up.
Equally important and of the same size as the Ex- hibition, the vendor area had more than 100 tables full of everything you could ever want to create and appreciate bonsai. There were seedlings to develop masterpiece bonsai, tools, wire, soil, containers, dis- play tables, suiseki, scrolls, books, magazines, jewelry, clothing, other art and more. There was something for everyone. Vendors from California, Florida, Vermont, Minnesota, Tennessee, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Missouri, Ohio, Indiana, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Virginia, New York as well as Canada, came to offer their finest for sale.
The lecture/demonstration on creating a bonsai, bonsai refinement, ikebana, Chinese brush painting and suiseki were well received and there was standing room only. After setting up the demonstration area on Thursday, I called and ordered another 100 chairs for
16 | BCI | April/May/June 2015