how stressful are shows on our trees

I've got a tree folks like to see, so in july,and august it went to shows. i was just asked to show it in another venue in september. I declined. because i have 10 times the knowledge on koi as bonsai, my fish go to one show a year and that's that! Would appreciate your thoughts...

I agree, two shows in one season are enough. It depends a great deal on the species & time of year, and length of show. Lavender star flower will defoliate if the show is more than a day & a half. Most healthy trees will withstand a two day show once or twice a year.
I put on a one or two day display for Jewish Arbor Day in January or February. I have to transport the tropicals carefully or they get nipped, but it won't kill them. I have had no trouble displaying dormant trees for that length of time.
I have killed my share of trees the last 22 years, but I don't think I have lost more than one from taking it to too many shows, possibly my Kyoto serissa.
Iris

You show your Koi?
Wow! theres a world for everything isn't there..I think thats pretty cool, exhibition Koi.

Picture a tent covering about 1/2 a football field with kiddie pools full of fish.

Billy M. Rhodes wrote:Picture a tent covering about 1/2 a football field with kiddie pools full of fish.

Thats great!

For your bonsai, it would depend on the specie , and the venue of the show. there are trees that need full sun and gets considerably week if placed indoors for two or three days and there are those that can tolerate an indoor environment for a longer period. So if your tree needs full sun and the venue is in an open area, you can exhibit it several times a year. , just give it a few days of rest then go.

For koi, it needs a much longer time to recover from stress, perhaps once a year will be the most.

Regards
ka pabling

I think showing trees certainly stresses and weakens them, and not just the actual couple of days of the show, but the entire process of getting the tree ready, transport etc.

To get ready for the show we prune or pinch the foliage back to its 'perfect' image, remove some leaves etc and take the tree to the display. I think this process is ok for any tree but the problems start when you book a tree into 2 or more shows in the same year - then the tree is kept constantly 'show ready' and not allowed to grow freely to recover from the first outing. This certainly weakens the tree and gets worse when the owner plans to do the same the following year - last winter some quite famous show trees died in the UK, i think they were over shown and weakened for several years, then 2 bad winters were enough to kill the trees.

I think to be safe owners should totally rest their trees from showing at least one year in three, it makes the displays more interesting too - who wants to keep seeing the same old trees wheeled out time and time again. I know many bonsai artists are trying to pull away from japanese methods but they have a far better approach - a tree entered cant be used again for 3 years, and some of the great trees are made ready to be shown once every 6-10 years, then after the show they are taken out of the antique pots and put back in growing pots again.