Once agin this year (Sunday 6th April) we will be attending the BTA event at The Sports Connexion, Leamington Road, Ryton on Dunsmore, Coventry, CV8 3FL.
This event has run for decades now and was actually the first event Kaizen Bonsai ever attended in an official capacity. However over more recent years we have seen the events attendance declining, maybe in part due to our excellent delivery service 😉 Last year we barely covered our costs and so this year we have reduced our presentation by 40%. Therefore if there is anything you were particularly hoping to see or buy from us please either call or email in good time so we can bring what you need.
From where I sit bonsai in the UK is absolutely booming. We find lots of new customers every week and are certainly supplying literally hundreds of beginners out there. However it is a sad fact that both bonsai shows and bonsai clubs are seeing falling attendances. In my experience you will NEVER be able to learn great bonsai skills unless you travel. I have spent thousands of hours staring through a windscreen in my quest for bonsai knowledge. Forums and social media are ABSOLUTELY no substitute and just compound the confusion and disillusionment of many bonsai hobbyists by spreading the half baked ideas of some very inexperienced and ill opinionated folk. I can say that here because this is MY soap box. Bonsai should be learned by practical experience, out in the sun whilst enjoying the company of bonsai friends. Also your trees should be out there on display for all to see, trust me it’s a fantastic learning experience (but can be nasty medicine all at the same time).
I get SOOOO many emails from folk just desperate to learn how to create bonsai. So what do I advise? Get off your ass, get in your car and go seek out skilled folk, visit shows and nurseries, attend EVERY workshop you can, make some friends and be prepared for a long but rewarding slog. Computers and smart ass phones have never made one iota of difference to my own journey. All you need is two hands an imagination and some plants, how beautifully simple is that?
G.
Absolutely agree. I have learnt more from just a handful of lessons than years of 3rd hand knowledge and misinterpreted information from the East. Take a car full of trees and you will more than add the cost of a lesson to the value of them, make new friends and with your new knowledge get a brand new insight into everything else you have at home. Book a lesson now, you DEF wont regret it.
However much you rail against learning from the internet,I will still refer to your videos which I have found so helpful and interesting