Commercial break for unseemly gloating

'Scuse the lack of self-restraint a moment, peeps.

This is one of the added bonuses of driving all the way to the EBA convention in Arco, Italy in a Land Rover.

This vigorous climbing rose was growing in practically every garden that we saw in Arco. So what better souvenir to bring back from our first trip to Italy?

The best bit is that it only cost A FIVER.

Yes, a fiver and 4 years in the ground. It now covers most of the wall, frames the window together with the pyracantha, and comes down on the other side of the window near the front door. Oh, the blue flowers below it are aquilegias.

One of the uppermost shoots has found its way into the loft and will have to be pruned. But that will have to wait until later in the year when the blackbirds have stopped using the nest that is somewhere in the pyracantha. So after the yellow roses are gone, we have the white pyracantha blooms together with the white & blue clematis in mid-summer. Then come the red berries at the end of the season, which the birds feed on all throughout the winter. Not that they leave the moss on my trees alone for all the good things I do for them, ungrateful little porkers.

So was it a success?

Thinking about the EBA conventions that I've attended from 2005 till March 2009, I can't help but compare what I thought were 'successful' vs 'unsuccessful' shows. But with my marketing hat on, what does define a successful show? Well, in reality it's whatever the show organisers say it should be.

Bear with my analogy here. If the guys who 'own' a show say, 'well we don't care about revenue or profit, all we care about is getting bums on seats and we set our baseline at 300 visitors' - and they count the tickets sold at the door and they hit 350 tickets sold, then it would almost be fair to say that they had a successful show.

Now the display may have been crap, the food abysmal and the customers completely dissatisfied - but if they weren't measuring any of that, how would anyone know? All the stats that would be released would be around the 350 tickets sold, right?

Like I said earlier, this is an analogy. I read in the local paper that the Spanish Bonsai Association had 500 registered convention attendees for EBA, but whether any further success indicators will be released, I don't know. The tickets were being sold by the trade organiser Expoflor, so I imagine you wouldn't be able to numerically separate the people who came purely for bonsai as opposed to the bloke down the street who came to see some cut flowers because he had nothing better to do with his 3 Euros on the day.

And if I asked myself, was it a success - well, I caught up with European bonsai buddies who I only get to see perhaps twice a year at most. The cafe con leche was fantastic, the lunches at 12 Euros were way beyond decent, but the breakfasts (included in the convention package) were average at best - unless you like toast, which I don't. Demonstrations by the big names are of minimal interest to me, although I do like checking out the finished product. The suiseki display is always superb at an EBA show. The smaller demos/presentations were a welcome change. The lack of Spanish potters was a keen disappointment to me, and the prices of trees were higher that what I expected - although the locals thought it was all a fair deal. The display infrastructure was the best I have seen to date, but I will admit that the gamut of the bonsai displays did run from the ridiculous to the sublime. However, 238 individual bonsai displays is really not bad at all. Most clubs would struggle to find enough space to show the half of that. So on the whole I would say, yes it was a success.

A bonsai aficionado who walks into a display hall will inevitably think of the cost involved in setting up the show. Whether it's a 'wow how did they manage to do that' vs a 'WTF did I really give them money to see this'. The display infrastructure of the Lorca show was probably the single biggest contributor to the success of the show - i.e. if the trees are good but the display structure is bad, then the trees will suffer for it. If the trees are mediocre but the display structure is stonking, then the trees are enhanced by it. And at Lorca, the carpets, lighting and backdrops were WAY stonking. That infrastructure was underwritten by local government and the trade council, but a lot of the manpower behind the show was still provided by the local clubs.

Still, every bonsai person wishes show organisers well. We rejoice in their achievements, we commiserate in their disappointments. We feel for club members and the effort they put in to making their show a success. Whatever that success may be. Even if they have outdone the show we put up previously, we have room in our hearts to wish them well. At one time or another, we have all been in the same boat.

All that said, I would like to know (even as a mere convention visitor) that the organisers were cognisant of their expectations, that their objectives were clearly laid out and quantifiably tracked, and that some measure of customer satisfaction was taken into consideration. After all, how else would you be able to ensure the show next year would improve on this one, right?

Because you'll be wanting to take my money at the next show, and I definitely wouldn't want to spend my heard-earned dosh on something that's below my expectations, would I?

Best Original Composition EBA 2009

This was the sole entry from Portugal, I believe, and the picture does not do it a lot of justice. And this will be one of those 'you either love it or you hate it' things.

The tree is a proper shohin-sized olive (around 7 in /18 cm) and the accent is a little alpine strawberry. The black box is around 3.5 x 2.5 ft /107 x 81 cm conservatively, and there are 2 little spot lights on the top which you can just discern in the photo. Think VERY small, VERY modern, VERY zen tokonoma.

This is what I call a whole load of funk, and I do applaud any effort to push against the norms. That said, I hope people realise that when they do something outside the norm, it will either go down swimmingly well, or it will tank like a Sherman in the Atlantic. I think this display went down very well with Joe Public, but how the more traditional bonsai aficionados thought is anyone's guess. Still, Japanese master Takeo Kawabe gave it a distinguished prize.

My view? That would be telling, wouldn't it?

What I do have a view / query on is that there wasn't better representation from Portugal, seeing that they're just down the road...

Rosemary accent

This is something a lot of Northerners would covet:


A neat little Rosemary in flower. This guy is only around 7 in / 18 cm from base of the pot. There were other Rosemary accent plants in similar styles, but I chose this one for your viewing as I thought it had the best balance of tree size in relation to the pot.

Another Spanish entry, this was an accent for a large Juniperus chinensis. The main tree was a good specimen too, but large Chinese junipers are not lacking over here. Small rosemary with pronounced shari? That's something that would have difficulty thriving in this corner of the globe. Not saying it can't be done, but I've not seen many of it either, especially in this size.

Talking about people...

If you're like me, you'd be one of those who are more interested in the trees than in the bonsai artists themselves. That said, our little bonsai club has been fortunate enough to have had many prominent speakers come through our doors in the past years.

But having a cohesive European bonsai scene is not just about the creative artists and the public as consumers, it's also about a whole load of people who give selflessly of their time and effort to promote the hobby, sometimes on top of a full-time day job.

So in this pic are a couple of Belgian 'greats', to the left is Marc Noelanders who most everyone will have heard of. To the right is René Vantilt who was Secretary of EBA for a long time and is a stalwart champion of the growth of bonsai in Europe. René's health has curtailed his appearance at recent shows, so his attendance at Lorca together with his wife Monique was good news to us all.


This pic was taken during refreshments just after the opening ceremonies, and despite appearances, we were all standing around having a good laugh and enjoying a very good Syrah from a local producer.

Not the best photo ever taken of either Marc or René (sorry guys!) but there is a time lag from the second you press the shutter on this phone's camera - it's not all operator incompetence, y'know (but it is a good part of it).

René has served European Bonsai long and faithfully; we hope to continue benefiting from his experience for many more years to come.

Papyrus accent

This accent was created using papyrus and a variety of the curly wurly / corkscrew rush. Although not the smallest accent planting (more a medium size IMO), it still has a delicate look and feel to it, as well as being harmonious with the size of the tree it accompanied.

Dutch shohin display

This is a difficult one to take a photo of, given that the entire composition is actually quite wide. The use of colour on the scroll was both discreet and effective. The accent plant to the left, under the juniper? That's a tiny spider plant.

Click on the photo to enlarge, you'll see the award that was presented to Bruno & Rob for this one, just to the left of the display table. It's a wire sculpture about 2 ft /61 cm high, and the 'wires' are thick - I'd place it at 0.8 mm thickness, not sure which metal was used. And that award is whopping heavy; the guys had talked of having to take their clothes as carry-on luggage and the heavy metal in the hold, that way hopefully they avoid overweight charges. I hope the award didn't go into a canvas bag / suitcase, otherwise it could tear the bag (or any cloth protecting it) to shreds.

Accent...uh...Chain?

You read me right - two large metal links, set in coloured sand. In accompaniment to a large tree. Certainly pushing the boat out... no pun intended.

Again, the photo is a bit dark but I'm unable to brighten it any more than what I have now.

1st Prize EBA

Olive - Olea europaea var. sylvestris - from Spain, about 3 feet / 91 cm tall, in what seems to be a brown Northern Chinese pot. Unfortunately details of the accoutrements were not included in the labels, so I'm making my best guess here.
Also, ignore the strip of light just above the lowest left branch - that's from all the flash going off around this tree at the time the photo was taken. Yes, it looks like a label or a price tag, I know...

Prize-winning Pomegranate

This is a Punica granatum negikan, which apparently will set orange/red fruit. The tree is a Spanish entry and was awarded first prize for the shohin display. It's about 20 in / 51 cm though, but a lovely tree it is nonetheless.

Ficus carica

There are probably a lot of stylistic dissenters out there on this one and I'd be one of you. The point of interest for me was the lobed leaves - proper little fig leaves of the common fig. (Which by the way was also growing outdoors wild.)

I'm so totally not a fan of tall cascade pots, and this one seems too big and too distracting to my eye. But that size pot may also be due to the amount of rock beneath the soil line. I had also wondered if the composition wouldn't benefit from being turned around; looking at the line of the trunk, perhaps that isn't a possibility.

Still, those leaves are a whole load of funk.

Gardenia in fruit

Now this is something I haven't seen much of outside Japan. Check out the yellow fruits just peeking through the leaves.

Tree is a larger shohin, about 12 in from base of pot. Composition by Mario Komsta, who by the way, has been living in Spain for the past couple of months or so.

Mario Komsta presents...

A roomful of attendees comes to hear Polish expat Mario speak on preparing a bonsai for show.

This was one of the better bonsai talks I had attended for a while. The finished tree is immediately on Mario's right (a juniper with pronounced deadwood). The presentation followed the development of the tree over several years, with Mario answering ad hoc questions on the techniques he used for root arrangement and so on.

Mario is now living in Spain after having lived and worked on bonsai in Japan for years, so hopefully we will get to hear from /see more of him in future.

Before & After of a Big Lump

The yew, not Kevin Willson. An exquisite amount of detail is being crafted out of the deadwood.

Just watch out for that hand, Kev ;-)

Update: here is the final image of the yew at close of show - although the angle of the photo really doesn't do it justice. The detail of the carving on the right is something beautiful to behold.


I'm told Kevin has a pot all ready for this big boy; I'd love to see the tree when it's in its new home.

Arbutus unedo

Fruit has already set on this tree, giving it an added touch of interest. The deadwood hasn't been whitened, which makes a nice change. Tree stands about 3 feet tall from base of pot.

Here's what's outside

This photo was taken at the start of the day, just as the public was starting to come in.

The building at the right houses the floral trade section. The ginormous warehouse on the left is all the bonsai activity, with a tiny section for ornamental plant sales. Inside, this building was divided into 4 corridors for bonsai display, a large room for suiseki, the auditorium for New Talent / workshops, a cafeteria and a large section for bonsai traders. Plus a couple of break-out rooms for EBA meetings and smaller talks.

Looks like someone brokered a really, really good deal.

Talk about footfall...

And that's just at the entrance of the bonsai pavilion. 500 registered delegates. Add to that the walk-in numbers that came for the cut flowers and the ornamental plants. This is just Saturday morning 10:30.

Someone got good coverage

A full page spread in one of the local freebie papers. The interview with the head of the Expoflor cites 500 registered EBA delegates bringing in revenue to the local community.

Good to see someone knows how to leverage the marketing machine.

New Talent Contest Friday 06 March 2009

Remember that big empty auditorium space? Here it is with the New Talent Contest in full swing.

Raw material provided to the contestants is chinese juniper, much taller and chunkier trees than in previous years. The winner will be announced tomorrow evening.

The judges have already put in their scores, but no-one gets informed of the final results.

Each EBA member country has a representing judge. This year they weren't allowed into the contest area until after the contestants had finished their trees, and I think they weren't told which trees belonged to which country.

I think this is the same area where they will have the 'big names' doing demonstrations on the Saturday and Sunday. Notice the big screen feed in the background; this should give the audience a close-up of when someone cuts themself with a sharp object... no, of course things like that never happen....

Meditating Buddha stone

This suiseki is Chinese in origin, classified as a sugata-ishi. (Will find out more about that tomorrow.) It's not very big, standing about a total of 7 inches high from the base, and apparently weighs a ton (no, not literally).

The amount of suiseki in Spain is outstanding. Will post some more tomorrow. I suppose it's not surprising that these viewing stones don't travel very far out of their home countries, because of the weight and the hassle of moving them. This one is not very large, but others on display here are quite voluminous.

Mrs Benz told me that they have travelled to shows by air with a couple of stones, and the customs people have thought that a little daft. I can just imagine the conversations that went on...

Ever since the demise of the Suiseki association in the UK, there really hasn't been a platform for increasing the profile of this hobby, which is really our loss. This part of the EBA and other European shows makes it worth the journey for me.