Preparing Your Bonsai for a Show
Hints for those bringing materials for display
Make sure all your items are marked for identification.
The usual method is to stick tape on the bottom of the pot or stand, with your initials or last name. Please make sure the “tag” is not visible from the viewing angle. You can use an indelible marker or pencil rather than tape.
Double check what items you bring to the show, and take a minute to make a list. This will help you remember what you have to look for when you pick up your things after the show closes on Sunday afternoon.
Please bring as many stands or other items that can probably be used under the plants. We are always short of stands, mats, finished wood slabs or cross-sections of trees, etc. Even some wood blocks or “box- shaped” things. One year we used a wire milk delivery basket, draped with burlap, for a base to support a large cascade. We may find a use for these things, as long as they can safely support the displayed item.
The usual maintenance always applies to your plants:
Clean the pots.
Clean the soil surface of debris.
Remove any insects, webs and/or disease. Spray them with your favourite fungicide/insecticide.
Remove dead or yellowed leaves.
Remove moss (but not lichen) from the trunks and surface roots.
If the tree is wired, make sure the wire is “tidy”, ... not loose, or ends sticking out past the branch end. Any wiring should be minimal.
Dust and/or buff the stands.
Wooden display stand: The committee is extremely careful not to scratch the stands while placing and removing the pots. If you are concerned with this happening, here’s a trick: go to your local hard- ware store and purchase some 1/16” or 1/32” Plexiglas sheeting. Cut it so it fit’s just inside the outer dimensions of the stand. Hardware folks may even cut it for you if you give them the measurements. You can also use felt or cork foot pads on the pot legs. These do have a tendency to fall off when they get wet, but are better than nothing. Even a small glob of hotmelt is fine for this
How your items are displayed.
Every year your annual show committee has quite a task to fulfill. They have to consider how to set up a great looking public display that will not only look nice for first-time viewers of bonsai, but also be as technically appropriate to the knowledgeable viewers. They have to do this with little advanced knowledge of exactly what trees, stands, accent plants, viewing stones, accessories (scrolls, figurines, etc.). Space is limited. They can only fit so many tables in the display area. The arrangement of the tables, especially for the number of trees displayed is also limited.
Your show committee does the best it can with what it has. Those who attended our last show will notice a difference in the way the display area will be set up. Because of the excellent support of you, club members, bringing quite a lot of trees and other material to be displayed, we endeavour to arrange the tables to allow a maximum number of bonsai on display. We are, of course, always considering improvements.
When you bring your bonsai on Friday afternoon our team will then place them on our display benches in a manner to highlight the bonsai’s beauty, style and balance with other bonsai.