Best of British - set up day

A busy day was in store for everyone involved with the set up of the show today. We were issued car passes that got the cars and vans right to the door that was adjacent to the bonsai event and all I had to do was collect an access all areas pass and the tree id tags - the trolley arrived at my car and bingo the trees are parked right next to the show bench a few moments later.

Walking into the main building the first thing that hits you is the size - it is massive, and yesterday was a hive of activity in every direction. A few familiar faces were tending trees, helping others and on hand to assist where needed which was really good and the general buzz of excitement and pride was easy to pick up - BBC Gardeners World Live, The BBC Good Food show and the Best of British Bonsai 2013 all under one roof - 40,000 people due to attend and Saturday tickets were sold out early last week. I can't think of a UK event that has introduced this number of show quality bonsai to so many people before, and usually there is a knock on of raised interest  following high profile events which is the true reason to do them.

I'm not going to upload individual pictures of every tree as it seems a shame to do a spoiler before the event - others will document all the trees and accents once the show opens I'm sure but here are some over view shots and my trees. I think there are about 60 trees and shohin displays  - 4 long runs, large trees on each end and a 5th run was being built as I left.

The hinoki has been substancially thinned since winter and it looks even more like an convincing old tree and less like young bush foliage on an old trunk now. Special thanks to friends for having a suitable stand very much at the last minute !

The RHS run this event and the entire stand is being judged as one single display. Everyone involved has lent their trees in effect to the Federation to make a collective general entry - just like putting together a show garden. This was also apparent in the way people were all pulling together to get the whole stand looking perfect -on Tuesday the judges are not singling out individual trees in the same way they would if each person was entering their own trees in the RHS bonsai category - that is a totally different thing all together. It was very refreshing to see the collective friendly side of our hobby yesterday - the BOB stands wins or loses as one and we all felt it was certainly GOLD standard.

My accents were all in Gordon Hunt pots - oops only took 2 pictures - iris and something out of the garden with little flowers !

Home now, busy 3 days here then back to the NEC for Friday, Saturday, Sunday............