SPRING SHOW 2025
Spring Show at Aberglasney 8th and 9th March
Dragon Spring Bonsai Show 8th and 9th March, Aberglasney Mansion House, Llangathen, Carmarthenshire.
Over a lovely sunny and warm weekend, we held our annual Spring show. This year we had an extra special exhibit on display – which was over 7 years in the making. One of the club members ( Delyth ) had re-created the famous Yew Arch at Aberglasney. This amazing Bonsai work was on display on a table outside the Mansion house.
After a couple of weeks of final preparation - getting the trees ready for display, we began setting up the show on Friday afternoon. Almost all of the exhibits were on the tables by 4.30pm.
On the Saturday morning the Aberglasney team were kind enough to open the gates and Mansion house early – and over an hour or later so we completed the show set up – with well over 120 exhibits of trees, with 2 Shohin Display tables , moss on rock sculptures, smaller accent displays & Kusamono planting.
Doors officially opened at 10:30am, and we had a steady stream of visitors – although the afternoon was a little quiet compared to earlier shows. We welcomed two guest Judges to the show on the Saturday, Peter Vincent and Bob Abbot - and we extend our sincere thanks to them for taking the time to travel to the show and give expert feedback on many of the trees on show.
We opened up the Mansion House again on Sunday morning, which was the busiest time of the day – the afternoon was down on visitors, however the live demonstration of styling a tree from scratch generated plenty of interest along with the sales table.
Our resident Ceramic Artist Dan Butler brough a wide range of beautiful hand made Bonsai Pots that were on sale – I think all of the Club ended up with “ just one more pot “ by the Sunday afternoon.
As with every show, we had voting sips for visitors to choose their favorite tree / display. This year, we had a new addition to the show – which was a competition for Children to name the Dragon that was part of a stunning Kusamono from Carly. The winner will receive a Bonsai Tree.
Show awards
Guest Judges Peter Vincent and Bob Abbot
Kusamono Carly
Lena's Choice Delyth - for the Yew Tunnel Tree display
Best Evergreen Bernard - Juniper
People’s Choice Gary ( Kojo Cherry )
Best Accent Delyth Best Tree / Pot Delyth
Shohin Gary ( Berberis )
Deciduous Chris ( Hawthorn )
Best in Show Chris ( Hawthorn )
As with every show – it’s a huge team effort, and I am grateful to everyone that was able to be with us for the weekend. Many of our members are some 90 minutes away from the venue – and had to make 3 round trips over the weekend.
I must also thank the brilliant Aberglasney Trust Team for their continued support – without their dedication and time, we couldn’t keep these events going. Our next show will be in October over the weekend of 11th & 12th. So once again – a huge thank you to everyone involved with another great show – It’s no easy task but the commitment and dedication of our Club members made it a success !
Simon Evans Chairman, Dragon Bonsai.