Final day of preparations... I have only one tree that I feel comfortable displaying at such a prestigious event. You will know this tree as my feature tree, it is my trusted Celtis Africana I wrote a blog about it's progression https://bonsaiwithromano.wordpress.com/2018/02/06/celtis-africana-from-ugly-duckling-to-most-showed-tree-in-my-collection/ I have trimmed the tree and applied Oleum to the foliage to help protect it from pests. Seeing that the tree will be displayed with trees from other bonsai artist in an open air style setting with trees above our exhibition. I added new ground cover as the ground cover gets washed away during my regular watering routine.
As always my nerves are getting the better of me. Overthink everything and wondering what the outcome will be. Knowing who the other competitors are does not make it any easier. Every five minutes I check my list to see that everything I need is pack and ready to be loaded. I planned everything, checked all the lists twice and just like that I realize that I ran out of raffia. Where will I be able to get raffia at this hour? Now I'm stress out. I keep on telling myself that the trees we will be working on during the competition will not be needing raffia as they might have good trunk lines. Let's just say the more I tell myself that the universe might just get the hint and it will be done.
This is all just noise, it's normal and by tomorrow morning 08:00 I will be ready for the the challenge ahead. I will be in tune and focused.
I have packed all the necessary tools and my turn table very important.
I will not be going any deeper into the discussion of how to prep for a bonsai competition. I wrote a detailed blog on preparing for a bonsai competition. Here is the link to that blog:
https://bonsaiwithromano.wordpress.com/2017/09/18/competitive-bonsai-styling/
Our journey to Japan Day 2018 has almost come to an end. It feels like there is so much more that I should be covering or that needs to be said but all good things must come to an end.I will be taking photos and videos during the event tomorrow and will be sharing that with you as soon as I have edited all the footage. Be on the look out for updates on this as it's going to be awesome.