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It was nice meeting you, formally, John. Your club put on a very well-thought display. I really appreciated the thought and preparation, even before we discussed the fact that y'all tried specifically NOT to clutter your display with too many trees.

I think that there were some really good trees and I was particularly taken by the tree that won Best Tree. I was using a fixed-length lens for pictures and the size of this one made it interesting to get it all in the frame front-on (without people in the picture even.)

I wasn't really taken by the overall quality of the show though. Just as your club made an effort to reduce clutter, others ...didn't. I thought there were a lot less REALLY impressive trees as well. The ones that were there were exquisite but there seemed to be fewer of them. The converse is true as well, in that there seemed to be a lot more trees that I could easily take a pass on.

Since I'm not involved in a club that was displaying I have no opinion of the politics involved.

The arboretum's collection was simply stellar. This was the first year I'd seen some of the trees on display and the ones I'd seen before had only improved. No slight intended for the clubs that exhibited, but the arboretum's collection is reason enough to attend the expo.

I was pleased with the vendor's area. It was a drastic improvement from years past at least in space and layout. This year I wasn't in the market for material, but I did see some excellent stock for sale. I'm used to seeing it a little less expensive at the show, but I don't usually attend early-midday on Saturday either. I guess I needed to wait til Sunday afternoon for the deals though theres always less selection then.

I regret not taking the opportunity to speak with Dale Cochoy, but he seemed to be covered up with customers every time I found myself in his direction. Hopefully that meant good things for him. The quality of his pots is immediately evident seeing them in person/in hand.

I don't mean to give the impression that I didn't enjoy the show, or was somehow letdown. The bar has been set really high and in my opinion was a little out of reach overall this year. I enjoyed seeing all these trees and was reassured that bonsai folks are the best there are.

ps. I also learned a lot of things about my camera, and most importantly, that when viewing bonsai it helps not to be looking through the lens of a camera. Next year I'll take a tour of the trees FIRST, /THEN/ worry about getting pictures.