Initial impressions on the show (though Thursday is an early day)...
(1) It felt small, though that is not always bad. I was expecting more vendors and a larger exhibition hall. On the good side, it felt like everyone there knew at least one other person at the show.
(2) The exhibition was limited to perhaps 20 trees, and they were all large. All trees were excellent, but I would have liked to have seen more trees and perhaps different categories of trees. Half the trees were California Junipers - again, excellent trees - but very few (if any) white pines, red pines, japanese maples, etc. The displays were (in my opinion) much too low. They are supposed to be high enough that eye level is the middle of the height of the tree. For some of the trees I had to get down on my knees to view them from the front.
(3) I think it was focused entirely on the hard-core bonsai enthusiast. I saw very few members of the general public. This is a shame, because I used to feel at the Midwest Bonsai Society show we would always end the show with at least 5 or 6 new bonsai enthusiasts who were interested in joining the club.
(4) Holding the workshops outside was excellent. Weather couldn't have been nicer.
I will definitely be there and look forward to seeing many of you there as well!
).
That would be great, I need to get some local bonsai buddies. I'm starting to miss the guys back east (well all except Tom anyway
).
