By Randy Clark Charlotte, NC How To Prepare A Bonsai For Exhibition deserve to be seen by others. Indeed, to create and grow bonsai and not take them to shows is a little like becoming a gourmet cook and never having anybody over for dinner. The argument often made is that “My bonsai are not good enough for a show.” It is a hollow argument and indicates a bonsaist with little self confidence. Judging and prize awards at bonsai shows are almost always sepa- rated into categories such as novice, intermediate and advanced. If you are a rank beginner, no one expects you to enter trees in competition against practiced veterans of the art. What they do expect is that you have enough pride in what you are doing to share a little of your art with friends. Over and above this fact is the knowledge that club shows are not easily put together. They require fellow club mem- bers to put forth a lot of time and hard work in the planning and staging the show. Such effort can seem pointless if you, as a club member, do not make an effort to exhibit a tree or two when the opportunity presents itself. Remember that the bonsai you show reflects upon you as an individual. As we said before, nobody expects you to exhibit world class bonsai (you may if you wish), but you should make certain that any tree entered in a show is well groomed, manicured and in a “showable” condition. Here are a few tips which might help in preparing a bonsai for public exhibition. 1. Make certain the tree is in a healthy condition and free from disease or insect infestation. Try spraying the tree with insecticide a week or so before the show just to make sure. Don’t do it the day before. The stink of the insecticide will be offensive in the exhibit room. Remember that most show committee chairmen reserve the right to reject diseased or unhealthy trees from entry in the com- petition. 2. Make sure the tree is well groomed and trimmed properly. If you’re taking your prized baby to the ball, you need to make sure she is all spiffed up. Remove dead branches, brown needles, damaged or bug eaten leaves. Trim excess growth. Clean and scrub the bark to remove dirt and algae. A poorly groomed tree reflects poorly on the owner and the club. 3. Trees with excessive amounts of wire are not normally exhibited in shows. They are considered “in train- ing” and therefore not yet ready for exhibition. That doesn’t mean you can’t do so, but it probably means that the show judge will subtract a few points from your score. A little wire here and there is OK since the truth of the matter is that all bonsai are “in training” all of their lives. 4. If your bonsai creation contains areas of dead wood (jin and shari) then you need to treat those areas with lime sulphur to whiten them up. It’s a good idea to One of the best parts about becoming involved in bonsai is having the opportunity to show our trees to oth- ers. Indeed, growing bonsai might not be nearly as fulfilling if we did not have the opportunity to see how others react and respond to our creations. Exhibiting a tree in a club or federation show is a per- fect opportunity to do that. Not only do such shows allow us to see how others react to our horticultural creations, but they also give us the opportunity to observe what our fellow artists are up to and, by comparison, gauge our progress in the art. Almost all club sponsored shows or exhibitions involve some type of judging or prize award system. Although the argument can be made that each bonsai is an individual artistic creation and therefore cannot fairly be judge against other works of art... the practice of judging bonsai at shows persists. In a large sense this is a good thing, because it en- courages excellence in the art. No matter whether you are a rank beginner or an accomplished expert, your bonsai