Carolyn thought I was crazy to head off to South Africa three days after Bonsai Europa 2015, and in those three crazy days I was still tidying up some loose ends, paying suppliers and packing away all the staging etc.

But being away gave me time to myself to reflect on the event. Here are my thoughts on the weekend of 10/11 October and Bonsai Europa 2015.

For two years the event has been uppermost in my thoughts, how would I persuade enthusiasts from across Europe to make the trip? will the venue be suitable? Should we have demo artists and who should they be? What about the budget, am I prepared to loose money? Will traders be convinced that I could pull in the punters? Helpers… who could I rely on? So many things to consider before I started to ask for exhibition trees.

Very few exhibitions are…