It has been a month since we completed the Bonsai Show at Morton Arboretum during the Destination Asia Festival. Most of the bills have been finalized, awards prepared and presented, and so it seems a good time to reflect on the show, what went right and what can be improved for 2025.
The Show
We had 22 members bring a total of 58 trees to the show. Thirty-six trees were included in the judging and twenty-two were categorized as Trees in Training. I always enjoy talking to the people viewing the show, particularly as they cast their ballot for the People’s Choice Award. Those people were all quite complimentary about the displays and many told me that they had real difficulty in deciding upon a single tree as their favorite. We hosted 962 people who voted on Saturday (compared to 927 in 2023 and 653 in 2022). On Sunday we had 1086 people voting (compared to 947 in 2023 and 332 in the rained-out Sunday show in 2022). There was a small drop-off of total people passing through the show this year because the Arboretum decided to scrap the Friday portion of the Destination Asia Show, but the increase in our Saturday and Sunday numbers came close to making up for the reduction on Friday. Our attendance figures are based upon the votes for the People’s Choice award and there are always a few curmudgeons who refuse to vote, so we know there were a few more people passing through the show than we have votes.
Our judges and commentators this year were Chris Baker, the curator of the bonsai collection at the Chicago Botanic Garden, and our own Jennifer Price, who continues to build her international reputation as a bonsai artist and teacher. Saturday night we recorded their comments about the 36 trees in the show and we will present that recording at the February 2025 General Membership meeting. I believe we will all learn much from that commentary.
Chris, as judge, awarded the Best in Show to Larry Magee’s Colorado Blue Spruce. We also instituted seven new ribbons this year which were awarded to Phil Mahliot (both 2nd and 3rd place), and five Honorable Mention awards to Doug Bradbury, Dennis Talag, Dan Kosta, Larry Magee, and Phil Mahliot. The People’s Choice award was a runaway, with Linda Camp’s flowering Crepe Myrtle receiving over 11% of all votes cast. A complete listing of all the People’s Choice votes and other awards is attached here.
Demonstrations
We had a full schedule of demonstrations for the public under our canopy in the Courtyard. Thanks to Jennifer Price for her demonstration styling a White Spruce. We also thank Chris Baker, who prepared a Dawn Redwood; Larry Magee, who styled a Pinus Contorta; and Matt Mazza, who presented a Crabapple. The White Pine was raffled off at the September meeting and the other three trees will be raffled in coming months.
Workshops
We also presented eight separate workshops at the Thorndale Center located on the West side of the Arboretum. Two workshops were advertised as “Introduction to Bonsai” with Chinese Elm and Procumbens Nana trees. Both Intro classes sold out with 12 registrations and both were taught by two club member/teachers. We had a total of 43 registrations, and we are emailing the participants in an attempt to recruit new PSBS members. Only four PSBS members signed up for workshops, mostly in the “Bring Your Own Tree” workshop with Jennifer. Classes were taught by Jennifer Price, Linda Camp, Badar Zulqarni, Phil Mahliot, Jim Beck, Dan Kosta, and Larry Magee.
Finances
The workshop registration fees and other proceeds came very close to paying for the expenses of the show. We expect to take a loss of under $350 on a budget for the entire show of over $4000. That includes some capital expenditures for new equipment we will be using for many years into the future.
2025
The Arboretum has already invited us to participate in the 2025 Festival, scheduled for August 2nd and 3rd, 2025. Start looking at your trees and planning which ones you will want to show next year. We are planning new scheduled workshops for the 2025 Festival and will include more “Intro” workshops which clearly appeal to our Arboretum customers. If you have any suggestions for workshops to attract PSBS members to enroll, please let us know.
Thank you
Finally, thank you to all the members who displayed trees, helped set up and dismantle the show, and the many who staffed the show. This is our largest project of the year and it is always an “all hands on deck” project. Our sincere thanks to our judges, Chris and Jennifer, for their helpful advice and suggestions to improve our trees. We also thank the members who gave demonstrations and taught workshops.
A special shout out to Steve Fluett who provided the truck to move our equipment from the storage unit to the Arb. The show would have never have gone as smoothly if not for the efforts of Susan Andrese, who recruited and coordinated the volunteers for the show. And finally, my personal thanks to Nick DiBattista. Nick was the chairman of the show for several years. This was my first year, and Nick was always generous with his time to advise me on things which needed to be done, contacts to be made, or other operational aspects that no one would know unless they had handled the project. This was my first year chairing the project and Nick’s help was critical to the success of the project.
Thanks to all,
Craig Cronquist
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