The focus of this year’s Bay Island Bonsai exhibit was on smaller trees – shohin, kifu and chuhin, or medium-sized bonsai. This meant a couple of things for members: there would be no lifting of heavy trees (easy), but we’d need far more trees than normal to fill the exhibit hall (tricky). Altogether, BIB members displayed 114 trees in 51 displays.

Much to my surprise, the set-up went very smoothly. Even with more complex displays, the exhibit came together quickly – enough so that we had time to relax a bit before calling it a night.

I’ll share highlights from each of the three size groups, beginning, today, with the shohin bonsai – trees that are up to 8″ tall.