Page 7 - BSAM 2016 Q2

The BCI 2016 convention was held in Ma- nila, Philippines and aptly named, Beyond Borders. It was a big event attended by 16 countries including India, Puerto Rico, France and USA. e opening was grand,
starting with dancing boys and girls from several Asian countries welcoming all the guests entering Ayala Triangle Garden, a nice garden in the middle of Makati Central Business District. e garden was large and clean with many tall trees providing shade to the people attending the exhibition.
Around 300 bonsai and 60 stones exhibited in the garden. Granite-topped tables were used to present all the beautiful bonsai. ere was enough distance be- tween the tables to make each bonsai easily observed, although without a backdrop to provide contrast, pho- tographs of the trees blended into the background.
ere are two groups of exhibits. One is the Ban- tigue or Pemphis acidula that has become the pride of Philippine bonsai. In the tropics, pemphis mostly grow on islands with lime stone and sand beaches. is makes Philippine and Indonesian archipelagoes are the ideal habitat for this species. Pemphis has very hard wood so when trees are debarked in nature by wind, sand and waves the deadwood endures for a long time. is feature makes bonsai pemphis suit- able for styles with jin and shari. ey can be styled like Juniper in the sub-tropical countries. Most bonsai people in Philippines love the pemphis. at is why there are so many pemphis exhibited and many of them are exceptional. No wonder that pemphis com- prises the majority of the trees on exhibit. If all trees were included into one category, most of the winners would be pemphis. erefore to encourage other spe- cies to be used for bonsai, the judging is divided into pemphis and non pemphis.
e non pemphis category consists of many spe- cies like, Juniperus chinensis, Ficus, Premna, Blue bell or Desmodium, Tugas or Vitex trifolia, Lime berry or Triphasia trifolia, Streblus asper, Murraya paniculata, Maba buxifolia, Tamarindus indica, Ixora coccinea,
April/May/June 2016 | BCI | 5