Exhibition at the New Zealand National Convention

[melbrackstone]

Tony Bebb is in Auckland for this convention. His words "The biggest Exhibition ever in NZ with 218 trees on display and some fantastic Suiseki. The first time also that 3 clubs have combined for Exhibition with the Hamilton Bonsai Club organising the event with Bay of Plenty Bonsai Society and Rotorua Bonsai Club. Also the biggest sales area with more traders than NZ has every seen. "

I obtained his permission to share these shots from fb

[Watto]

Thanks Mel.

[melbrackstone]

Cheers Watto.

I love that they have backboards that can alternate between medium and tall. I'm also very taken with that green tablecloth, although it's probably still a little too lairy and overwhelms the trees a tiny bit.

Providing useful display space has interested me quite a bit over the past couple of years, as I watch how each show is staged. Everything needs to be stored for 363 days, and has to work well for one or two. Sharing between clubs seems to be such a good idea!

[GavinG]

Thanks for posting. I'm wondering how many of these are NZ natives, and how they deal with them. Is it true that the trees of NZ aren't all that closely related to ours? Curious.

Gavin

[shibui]

Thanks for posting. I'm wondering how many of these are NZ natives, and how they deal with them. Is it true that the trees of NZ aren't all that closely related to ours? Curious.

85% of NZ plants are endemic which obviously means that those don't occur anywhere else. Some of those are members of genera that do occur elsewhere Podocarpus sp are in both NZ and Aus but not both. Plants like mosses and ferns have spores that can travel large distances in the air so we share a number of relatives from those families. Larger plants need a way to travel or previous land connection which I don't think NZ and Aus have had.
Occasionally a plant does manage to make the journey between disconnected countries. Manuka - Leptospermum scoparium occurs on both sides of the ditch. Not sure how many other species we actually share or how many genera where there are different species either.
I have seen that there are a number of NZ natives that are either shared or have close relatives through other pacific islands all the way to Hawaii.

That brings up the concept of 'native'. Would sweet potato be regarded as native to NZ? Probably brought there by the Maori, probably about 800 years ago.