The Best of British Bonsai 2009
11th &12th April 2009

The Best of British is a major event to be held at Easter 2009 at the National Collection
which is housed in the Birmingham Botanic Gardens.

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Gerwyn Reynolds Best of British Bonsai Show report.

        For us at Dragon Bonsai there is more to a Bonsai Show than just the trees and we are in no way attempting to ‘ Do Down ‘ the art of Bonsai or the quality of trees at this or any other show.

Amongst many other things we enjoy a whole host of events and activities that revolve around them, that intertwine with Bonsai but also make the whole experience of being part of the art form enjoyable.

So we have a date for the event that we at the society have been eagerly anticipating so the planning and organising can begin. From the moment that the date and venue for the event is announced there is not a week that goes by where someone or a group of us do not enter into some sort of conversation about it. The subjects are endless and the speculation priceless. Everything from the number and quality of trees, selection, judging, presentation, space and so it goes on and on and around and around, but nobody seems to tire of the fascination of each discussion point.

Chris is the focal point of communication on behalf of Dragon in terms of keeping us abreast of the the progress the organisers are making as the Show draws near, and before we know it we are only a couple a months away from the actual show date and we are down to the business of trees being nominated and selected for this prestigious show. News arrives that 4 of our members, namely John Harris, Jerry Wheeler, Bob Hill and Chris Thomas have been in my opinion honoured with the privilege of each having a tree selected worthy to stand alongside the Best Bonsai in Britain . When eventually all of the members are gathered and we offer our congratulations to the boys we are met as is typical of them with nothing but modesty. So it is us that have to voice our sentiments. We are extremely proud of the fact that not only do we consider it an honour that they belong to our society but proud that someone else has recognised their passion, knowledge and experience and how fortunate are we that these guys impart this knowledge and passion onto us mere mortals week after week and think nothing of it.

Anyway, so we are delighted for them and now are looking forward to supporting them at the show. And that comes around really quickly. John, Jerry, Bob and Chris are busy preparing their trees, the rest of us are busy organising the logistics of travelling to and from the show and before you now it the Saturday morning has arrived. The one saving grace of this show some might say is its start time. It's not an early start so it's not up at the crack of dawn to travel as we are only a couple of hours away. So the unfortunate drivers set of first doing their impression of a bus driver for the day. Route 1, first stop Andy, second stop Dan, third stop Chris etc etc. Route 2 first stop Brian, second stop Ian, third stop Colin etc etc and so on and so on.

By 9.00am I guess, the cars are full and we are all well on route to Birmingham and all planning to rendezvous at the services on the M5. It must have been the same in all the cars but our car conversation was full of Bonsai and expectation and before you know it we are pulling into the services. Miraculously we all arrive within ten minutes of each other, grab some coffee and then head off in convoy to the venue. Another miracle, nobody gets lost and we navigate to the show without one wrong turn. Maybe that has something to do with the fact that nobody used their sat-nav ????????

Parking is tight but we are there in plenty of time to find some space close to the entrance, what a bit of luck that was, and then it's into the show.

Our first priority was to find the lads and congratulate them once more on such a great achievement. Their trees looked absolutely superb on display ( I cannot think of a greater understatement so that one will have to do )

Second priority was to make sure everyone knew what the travel arrangements back looked like as we all knew any minute now we would scatter like the four winds.

That all done off we all went. As I said at the beginning, there cannot possibly be enough superlatives to describe the trees in this show so I will not attempt any. Just have a look at some of the pictures.

Before I knew it I had changed the batteries in my camera, used up and replaced its memory stick and still hadn't seen everything and there was only an hour left before the show closed on the Saturday. Which brings me to another aspect of going to shows, other societies and associated events which I alluded to earlier. I hadn't spent all this time photographing trees and ogling them. A fair proportion of time was spent doing other things such as meeting old friends, making new acquaintances, having great discussions around Bonsai, sharing ideas and knowledge as well as just catching up on gossip. I guess if we were in business they would call it networking eh !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We have as a society traditionally walked a show together and collectively critiqued each tree, with an objective that each of us should select one tree we would liked to have taken home from the show and why. On this occasion that would have been an impossible task or mission impossible as someone put it.

Anyway the day did eventually come to a close. We said our farewells, wished our friends good luck and headed back to the cars. I don't need to describe the subject of conversation but we were unanimous in our opinions that it was the Best Show we had ever been to. The Organisers and everyone associated with the Best Of British Bonsai Show should be congratulated on a job well done. We are all looking forward to the next one.

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