UK Bonsai Association

For anyone who is not aware, the UK Bonsai Association was established on the 21st of October 2018 as an umbrella association bringing together all aspects of UK Bonsai. As a non-profit association, its purpose is to promote knowledge and interest in all aspects of bonsai and to connect the whole UK bonsai community. They publish the UKBA monthly bulletin, which enables them to fulfil their main criteria of communicating all information about UK bonsai events directly to all bonsai enthusiasts. The administrators and helpers of the UKBA are volunteers who are dedicated to spreading the word about all aspects of bonsai within the UK and also promoting UK bonsai abroad. For more information, to join and sign up for their monthly bulletin visit the UKBA website.

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If you wanted to buy anything and everything bonsai then this was the event for you, there were so many excellent traders with so much to offer it was a shopping delight with something for everyone. The full list of the traders at the event are listed below the photos.

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This year was another great EXPO bonsai show held at K2 in Crawley for the EXPO team supported by UKBA and the bonsai community, what an event. With so many exceptional and high quality bonsai trees on display in addition to half the hall dedicated to the bonsai traders, it was a superb event. There will be a few posts about the event as there was so much to enjoy and share with everyone so keep scrolling. Congratulations to everyone who was involved from the start to the finish, a well-deserved thank you for all your work and time making this show happen. A big shout out especially to Steve Hale, Mark and MingChen Moreland as well as all the volunteers, exhibitors and traders, superb event and long may it continue to grow.

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Great to be going along tomorrow to the ExpoBonsai 2023 bonsai show again at K2 Crawley, Pease Pottage Hill, Crawley, RH11 9BQ.

One of our club members, Sally May has had one of her bonsai trees approved for the show so it will be great to support her and see the other trees on display too as well as see the extensive set of Bonsai traders who attend the event as you can see from last years lead photo.

The event is organised by the team that has brought you both the well-known Heathrow Bonsai Show along with ExpoBonsai and is fully supported by the UK Bonsai Association. It will be a not to be missed exhibition of individually owned high-quality bonsai trees.

As with 2022, this event is aimed at the individual enthusiast, whether a club member or not. Each exhibitor will have a space of 6ft to display each of their trees in an appropriate manner. The intention of the show is to place an emphasis on display, whether traditional or contemporary and follow the successful formula of the previous events. Here is a link to the post from 2022.

So hope to see you there.


Tonight we had a talk on Japanese Black Pine by Andy, our new Vice Chairman and everyone who attended found it really interesting and useful. Andy started by explaining the different types of pines and how his talk was to focus on the two needles predominately which Japanese Black Pines are within.

He went on to explain what a Japanese Black Pine is ie in Latin Pinus thunbergii which is a native tree of Japan from low-lying regions, that lives in damp conditions within a warm temperate climate which is why they do well in the UK. Their needles are in pairs and they are revered for their black rugged bark and overall character particularly when old. They have a 2 flush growth habit and a large needle growth but can be reduced with pruning techniques.

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Lee Verhorevoort Bonsai is the biggest bonsai tree nursery in Kent and his new bonsai imports have arrived and are now available for purchase for anyone wanted to start a bonsai collection or add to their existing one. If you want to visit contact Lee on 07976 709613 or via e-mail at info@lvbonsai.co.uk to book an appointment and check out his website for further pictures of some of the new stock he has available.

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Elaeagnus AKA Silverberry

There was no tree of the month competition in our March meeting. We had an annual general meeting. That didn’t stop our members from bringing in and displaying some trees anyway. Here are the pictures. This truly is my favourite time of year for looking at bonsai.

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