Jury Process and Judging
Updated: 7/28/22
The Jury Process
Trees displayed at the Pacific Bonsai Expo will be selected by Bjorn Bjorholm, Ryan Neil, and William N. Valavanis.
The jurors will be selecting the best bonsai among submitted entries. They will not know the names of the trees' owners.
Here are our instructions for the jury:
Our goals for the exhibition are to showcase high quality bonsai in a diversity of species, styles, and sizes. We encourage you to make your selections based on your personal criteria for quality.
This may include the selection of trees that possess inherent characteristics of quality like fantastic bark or deadwood. Alternatively, you may wish to recognize trees that demonstrate characteristics that have accrued over time such as dense, twiggy branch ramification.
In short, we want you to select the trees that you believe will make for the best exhibition.
We encourage you to make your selections without regard to whether the trees are currently wired to show standards. As the show chairs, we will be responsible for following up with exhibitors to ensure their trees are well-prepared for display.
- Identify a slate of 90 trees you would like to nominate for the exhibition (75 show trees and 15 alternates)
- Sort trees into three tiers of roughly 30 trees each
The Judging Process
Judging will take place on Friday, November 10, 2022 (the day before the Expo opens). Exhibitors in the show will be the sole members of the judging panel. Every exhibitor is eligible to participate and will receive a scorecard listing all trees in the exhibition. Exhibitors will adjudicate the exhibition by entering a score for every tree in the exhibition; incomplete scorecards will not be accepted. The judging sheets will be collected and tallied by the organizers.
(Instructions for the judging panel will be posted at a later date.)
Exhibition Awards- Best in Show - Recognition
- Best Large Conifer - $2000
- Best Large Deciduous Bonsai - $2000
- Best Large Broadleaf Evergreen - $2000
- Best Medium - $2000
- Best Shohin - $2000
Sponsorships are available for all awards. Up to 3 sponsors can contribute to each award. To sponsor an award, contact the organizers using the links at the bottom of the page.
The Best in Show award will be awarded to the highest scoring display among the five category winners.
For the Best Large Conifer, Deciduous, and Broadleaf Evergreen awards, all display elements will be considered for judging.
To qualify for the Medium category, no tree in the display will be taller than 18". All display elements will be considered for judging.
To qualify for the Shohin category, no tree in the display will be taller than 8". All display elements will be considered for judging.