Page 7 - Tạp chí bonsai cây cảnh BCI 2016Q2

he 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,
TFrance and USA. The 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. The 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. There 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.
There 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.
This 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. This feature makes bonsai pemphis suit-
able for styles with jin and shari. They can be styled
like Juniper in the sub-tropical countries. Most bonsai
people in Philippines love the pemphis. That 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. Therefore to encourage other spe-
cies to be used for bonsai, the judging is divided into
pemphis and non pemphis.
The 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