Highlights from the 2025 Atlanta Bonsai Society Annual Show

Earlier this month I made a trip to Georgia to participate in the Atlanta Bonsai Society’s annual show. Held at the Atlanta Botanical Garden, the two-day event featured vendors, critiques, a workshop, (fantastic food), and an exhibit in which every member is encouraged to participate.

I’m a big supporter of the idea that everyone can show a tree in their club show. Although not everyone has a tree they feel is “show ready” at any given time, clubs can create special sections of their exhibits to show off trees that are in-process. The Atlanta Bonsai Society does a good job of this by allowing members the opportunity to prepare their trees for exhibit – cleaning pots, preparing top-dressings, refining the silhouettes – whether they’ve been in bonsai a few months or a few decades.

I also appreciate that the club takes advantage of opportunities that are unique to exhibits. While it’s common to host demonstrations at annual shows (they can provide good introductions to any new-to-bonsai visitors in the room), demos can just as easily be part of monthly club meetings. The ABS recognizes this and tries to schedule events that can only be performed during the exhibit.

A natural show activity is to provide critiques. This gives members opportunities to learn about improvements they might make to their trees, to the containers the trees are planted in, or to their displays, depending on the focus of the critique. I spent a lot of the weekend talking about the trees on display both in critiques and one-on-one with members who were curious how they could make improvements for future events.

We also had an opportunity to do an impromptu mini-shohin seminar. On Sunday morning, we disassembled the shohin displays in the exhibit and rearranged them (supplemented with additional trees brought in just for the exercise – thanks Kurt!) to see which combinations made for the most compelling displays. It was easy to do because the trees and stands were already there – it just took the creativity to give it a try.

Going forward, I’m going to offer to do a greater variety of critiques when I visit exhibits as I find them to be both fun and valuable. Whether the focus is on trees, containers, stands, accents, displays, or anything else, they’re a great way to learn from all of the hard work members put into the show.

Speaking of, here are some of the bonsai that were on display at the event.

Dwarf kumquat and white pine

Colorado blue spruce

Chinese elm

Hinoki cypress

Japanese beech

Kiyohime Japanese maple

Kokonoe Japanese white pine

Shohin display

Trident maple and dwarf flowering Japanese quince

Wisteria – always a crowd-pleaser in spring!

If you’d like to learn more about the Atlanta Bonsai Society’s annual show or check out their judging guidelines (club members judge the trees in the show), visit the ABS website.