Trees are trees; there are good trees and not so good trees. If the goal of a show is to display the best bonsai in a particular region then go for it, for a show in Michigan you should not be able to bring a tree in from California or New York that is not representative of that area and does not reside in that area. However if you have a contest to find the best bonsai in the country it does not make much difference where the trees come from or whose work they are, unless they are imported for the show from some other country and will be returned when the show is over.
When one considers that usually, on a local level, a show is as much about the grower of the tree as it is about the tree itself. Trees brought in by a Check Book Artist and represented as their own creative work is what causes the controversy. There are those who say that this is stupid and self defeating, trees should be allowed despite ownership? That may be, as long as it is not your ox that is being gored, or your efforts that are being marginalized. But; if you have put forward a lot of work to develop and prep a tree and some pendejo comes in with a tree that was designed and prepped by some professional grower and takes all of the marbles it tends to make those perennial non-winners to stop trying to improve their work. In the end; bonsai has not been forwarded at all, especially when one considers that the shelf life of one of these acquired masterpieces is usually not more than two years.
