Harry from Holland, my Dutch Bonsai Reporter, came through for me again with this batch of photographs taken this weekend at the Dutch Bonsai Association 40th Anniversary Show. More info can be read HERE
Category Bonsai Events
Flower Show Extras
I took a few more shots at the Autumn Flower Show on Sunday, as the last set seems to be of interest to many of you, here are some more.
A general shot of the main marquee
Bonsai
Not much point trying to photograph all the trees as the clutter backdrop ruins the tree.
Plenty of cacti at the show, sadly some kid ran her nail down a prize winning one ruining it forever as far as competitive showing goes. Sometimes I wonder why we bother going to all this hassle to display here.
Almost tree like
Sunlight was catching these blooms just right through the window.
Mega veg
Floral arrangements
Even wine, everything was at this show.
This will be my entry for the Belfast Parks Photographic Competition next year 🙂
And in the grounds, the Rose Garden
An old Yew. I was admiring the nebari and took a photo, I think the Mum in the background thought I was taking photos of her kids climbing the tree!! I thought she was going to call the police.
They were just around the corner 🙂
Scot’s Pine
Bonsai Group Enfield Autumn Show
Sharing this as part of the greater bonsai Community in the UK.
It’s the Enfield Group’s Autumn Show on 14th October. Looks like a great day out with some great traders and the Final of the UK New Talent Competition to boot. A bit far for me but I know many of you live close enough travel.
Fright Night?
Or should it be Friday night? I think the former looking at this photo 😀
Had a few mates around to play with trees on Friday night. Not a big turn out as I only gave a few days notice. You would think that it would be quiet then but that’s not possible with Michael and Phil in attendance!!
Phil showing his speed trimming technique.
Far too much laughing going on here, you’d think they were actually enjoying themselves!
Bertie’s little berberis got a major haircut. This is the before image.
Some pruning, what a hoot 🙂 Get it?
Ian B’s juniper got a thinning out and is now ready for a refinement wiring.
Michael brought this Japanese White Pine for advice. There was several options. He could keep it full size and just rewire in an attempt to hide some of the faults. He could reduce the height and make a shohin sized tree or even take it back further as Phil was showing below to create a mame/Shohin tree. Not was the right time to do such a drastic chop so Michael has some time to think about it.
Phil brought 3 trees along for me to photograph. He saw I was selling a few on here and asked if I’d add his as well. What are friends for. I’ll add these to the For Sale page. Keep an eye there if you are interested.
Shohin UK Exhibition 2013
Thought I’d share this here for all those UK based enthusiasts. In fact, that’s rather restrictive, feel free to attend from wherever you are!
I have cut and pasted the below info from the Facebook page recently set up. I have clicked the ‘Maybe’ button for attendance but I’ll have to wait until closer to the time before I know if I can attend. Seeing who is doing the organising, I can assure you that this will be a quality event.
On behalf of the organising team, I am pleased to announce that an exciting national UK Shohin Bonsai show dedicated to smaller bonsai, will be held on Sunday, March 24th 2013. This exciting national event is being organised by Mark & Ritta Cooper and Bob Bailey, with the support of the Bristol Bonsai Society, the British Shohin Association, and the Federation of British Bonsai Societies.
This will be the only UK national exhibition dedicated to Shohin bonsai in 2013 and will be a “must visit event” for all Shohin Bonsai enthusiasts.
The venue is the recently refurbished Failand Village Hall, near Bristol, UK, which is located just a few miles from Junction 19 on the M5. The postcode is BS8 3TS. The nearby historic and culturally vibrant town of Bristol has a wealth of tourist attractions for those who may wish to make an extended vacation. Bristol airport is only 15minutes away from the venue.
This national show is open to everyone and is specifically for Mame, Shohin and Chuhin size bonsai only. It is our ambition to set high standards, both for exhibits and for the standard of display. We would be very happy to welcome visitors and exhibitors from continental Europe.
NB as a helpful guide for exhibitors:-
•Mame size guide is approximately 10cm from soil surface
•Shohin size guide is approximately 20cm from soil surface
•Chuhin size guide is approximately 45cm maximum from soil surface
•Mame size guide is approximately 10cm from soil surface
•Shohin size guide is approximately 20cm from soil surface
•Chuhin size guide is approximately 45cm maximum from soil surface
Facilities will be provided to display trees to a high standard. Exhibit tables will be covered in high quality black cloth. Background screens for exhibits will be provided, with the cloth being off white in colour with the facility to be able to use pin fixings to hang scrolls if required. Lighting at the venue is very good.
There will be a selection process for exhibits, so please do request details for an application to exhibit as soon as possible. The closing date for applications to exhibit is the 1st January 2013. There will be many awards and trophies presented and details of awards will be announced nearer the time.
Many Bonsai traders offering quality goods relevant to the theme of the event will be in attendance and further details will follow soon. Light refreshments will also be available.
Further information will be made available as plans for the event develop.
To request further details, or to express an interest in this event as a potential exhibitor, please contact Mark Cooper at shohin.uk@btinternet.com
To request further details, or to express an interest in this event as a potential exhibitor, please contact Mark Cooper at shohin.uk@btinternet.com
Garage Get Together
Friday night was one of my gather up’s of friends to play with trees. We had six on the night, a few no shows due to the sunny day it turned out to be. Who could blame them. The rest of us got on with it.
Stepehn brought this Jasmine. Still pretty much raw material that had struggled last year after a repot. This year was he first it had flowered after collection from a garden.
You can notice in the photo of it’s trunk below that there was some white fungus starting on the bark. This was a dead patch which was removed to create a shari. More on this in a later post, or maybe even on Stephen’s own blog, but I doubt it 😉
Stephen caught in one of those curious moments lol
Brian, new to bonsai, came along. He had a bad experience with a Chinese Elm and I was keen to get him playing with more suitable trees. I gave him this little yew to get him started.
Sharon was there along with a lovely little Black Pine that required some needle removal.
Phil got this Elm group out for a trim.
A great night, especially the last session were the die-hards did a bit of tree critiquing. Finish time 1am and I didn’t even have a single beer!
Rose Show
I had the pleasure of judging the bonsai entries at the Rose Show in Belfast yesterday. I small local flower show held as part of the bigger Rose Week event at Sir Thomas and Lady Dixon Park.
The bonsai aspect was small, our club supports the Rose Society by always getting a few entries in to fill the space and add interest for the public. As far as bonsai go, it’s not what we aspire too in our own displays with the usual low tables and cramped space. For that reason and the poor photos that resulted from inside a marquee, I’ll not bombard you with poor quality photos. I will however share some photos taken from within the park itself showing both the roses and some nice trees.
First, photos from inside the flower show marquee during judging. The rest from within the park Rose Gardens and Japanese Garden. When I show the Rose name it’s because is a highly perfumes variety that my wife is determined to add to our garden.
Garage Night
A few mates around at the weekend for a night of playing with trees. A good turn out with 12 on the night. It’s as well I have a big garage!!
Exhibition Gallery
I’m pretty sure I can’t be ar$ed putting all the photos from the Exhibition on here as well as the club site. So here is a link to the gallery, just click on the photo to visit.
Long Day
It’s been a long day at our club exhibition. Met some great people, caught up with some old friends and spent time with a great bunch of chaps, even those who give me abuse about blogging! 🙂
It was a wet day but by mid afternoon we had a pretty good crowd moving through the marquee. Some other other interesting events taking place too. This was my first time watching a Pig Race!
Some great looking Beagles
The pig race, Makin Bacon won!
The gardens
The gold star of the day goes to John who stood out in the rain under a tree passing out cards and getting folk to venture into the marquee to see the trees. A bit of a grim reaper 🙂
Brendan posing
and I have absolutely no idea what these two plonkers are doing!!
Bonsai Eejit 