Bonsai Central, Collinsville, IL (near St. Louis) USA, May 3-5, 2024

[NaoTK]

Come for the headliners, stay for the BBQ and botanical garden. That's my plan anyway. And sell pots.

Marija Hajdic's American debut as I understand

 

[Carol 83]

This is great news!! There hasn't been a show anywhere near me since 2017. The Botanical Garden is also great as is St. Louis BBQ.

 

[Kanorin]

Indeed! I can help organize some kind of Bnut meetup if people are interested!

 

[Kanorin]

I should also add that I’m helping to organize this convention. So I can post some updates to this thread and do my best to answer or find out answers if anyone has questions.

Hope to see you there!

 

[Kaleb]

Awesome, I will be there. Really excited

 

[Kanorin]

I've been working on the program...it's still a work in progress, but we are getting close.
We should have registration up and running by August 1. Tree submissions are open!

Some summary stats and highlights of our program

• Number of workshops by our headliners: 13
• Workshops by vendors/other: 1-3
• Number of lectures w/ Q&A sessions by headliners: 9
• Number of informal "pop-up" demonstrations by headliners: 12
• Number of "professional roundtables": 3
  • North-American Natives for bonsai
  • Transitioning raw (collected or field-grown) material to bonsai
  • Potter's roundtable
• First night = 5 simultaneous demonstrations by our headliners happening on stage
• Second night = Speed-styling demo challenge (Each professional spends 10-15 minutes with material, then passes it to next professional)
• Exhibition walkthroughs with headliners
• Tree Critiques with headliners
• Between 3 and 7 educational bonsai events happening simultaneously at all times!!!

 

[yenling83]

Dang! Some decent cash prizes for Bonsai, and a great lineup of Bonsai pros and at least 1 legit vendor

 

[Kaleb]

Really excited about north American natives roundtable

 

[Shogun610]

Come for the headliners, stay for the BBQ and botanical garden. That's my plan anyway. And sell pots.

Marija Hajdic's American debut as I understand

View attachment 497223View attachment 497225

wow I wish they had cool things like this …besides Natl show … east east coast only has MABS and with all due respect … MABS needs a shot in the arm.

 

[Abhishek Dasgupta]

Ok I definitely need to travel for this one . Andrew Robson and Marija Hadjic - 2 of my favorite artists coming together

 

[Kanorin]

Ok I definitely need to travel for this one . Andrew Robson and Marija Hadjic - 2 of my favorite artists coming together

Going to try and get them to do a lecture + Q&A session on hornbeams together.

 

[pandacular]

I haven't been to St Louis since I was young. I might try to get there.

Also, I love the name. very tasteful pun.

 

[Abhishek Dasgupta]

Going to try and get them to do a lecture + Q&A session on hornbeams together.

That’s awesome ! Coreana vs Orientalis as they work on different species and also approach to taking a field grown one into bonsai

 

[Kanorin]

That’s awesome ! Coreana vs Orientalis as they work on different species and also approach to taking a field grown one into bonsai

Good ideas.
We also have the field grown tree -> bonsai transition covered in another roundtable + Q&A session (Transitioning raw collected or field-grown material to bonsai).

 

[Kanorin]

You can see some examples of our workshop material in the gallery at the bottom of this page.

 

[HardBall]

This is great news! Please keep us updated.

 

[Wood]

Friday
North American Native Kusamono w/ Young Choe
Saturday
Seasonal Kusamono w/ Young Choe
Sunday
2 Shitakusa accents for Bonsai Pairings w/ Young Choe
Beech w/ Andrew

 

[Kanorin]

The Bonsai Central Planning committee is happy to announce that the website for the convention is now live, and we have recently started to accept registrations. This event is shaping up to be a wonderful opportunity for bonsai practitioners to exhibit their trees at a world class exhibition, shop supplies from highly coveted vendors across the country, and learn new skills via workshops, lectures, professional roundtables, formal demonstrations, critiques, exhibit walkthroughs, and informal pop-up demonstrations with our robust lineup of professional artists.

Bonsai Central will Feature:

• 6 Professional guest artists: Marija Hajdic, Mauro Stemberger, Bjorn Bjorholm, Young Choe, Andrew Robson, and Tyler Sherrod.
• 14+ Workshops
• Bonsai, Kusamono and suiseki exhibits
• $7500 in prize money
• 12 Informal “pop-up” demonstrations
• 2 formal demos with 5+ artist taking place Friday and Saturday night
• Dinner is included in the price of admission on Friday and Saturday
• 9+ Bonsai and Kusamono lectures + Q&A sessions
• 3+ Professional roundtables (North American natives for bonsai, Transitioning nursery/yamadori/field-grown trees to bonsai, pot-making and bonsai ceramics)
• Opportunities for exhibition walkthroughs and critiques/Q&A with each of our guest artists
• 15+ Vendors confirmed to date
• Between three to seven simultaneous bonsai-related events happening at all times!

Please spread the word to any that you think may be interested.
We hope to see you there!

Sneak peak of our programming for Friday (work in progress and subject to change)

 

[yenling83]

The Bonsai Central Planning committee is happy to announce that the website for the convention is now live, and we have recently started to accept registrations. This event is shaping up to be a wonderful opportunity for bonsai practitioners to exhibit their trees at a world class exhibition, shop supplies from highly coveted vendors across the country, and learn new skills via workshops, lectures, professional roundtables, formal demonstrations, critiques, exhibit walkthroughs, and informal pop-up demonstrations with our robust lineup of professional artists.

Bonsai Central will Feature:

• 6 Professional guest artists: Marija Hajdic, Mauro Stemberger, Bjorn Bjorholm, Young Choe, Andrew Robson, and Tyler Sherrod.
• 14+ Workshops
• Bonsai, Kusamono and suiseki exhibits
• $7500 in prize money
• 12 Informal “pop-up” demonstrations
• 2 formal demos with 5+ artist taking place Friday and Saturday night
• Dinner is included in the price of admission on Friday and Saturday
• 9+ Bonsai and Kusamono lectures + Q&A sessions
• 3+ Professional roundtables (North American natives for bonsai, Transitioning nursery/yamadori/field-grown trees to bonsai, pot-making and bonsai ceramics)
• Opportunities for exhibition walkthroughs and critiques/Q&A with each of our guest artists
• 15+ Vendors confirmed to date
• Between three to seven simultaneous bonsai-related events happening at all times!

Please spread the word to any that you think may be interested.
We hope to see you there!

Sneak peak of our programming for Friday (work in progress and subject to change)
View attachment 502067

EPIC!!!

 

[Wood]

Just registered and I'm stoked for next May! Had a legit hard time picking which workshops to sign up for, and didn't even know about the popup demos or lectures.

Any chance that those will be recorded for later viewing for anyone who was busy during a different workshop?