COMPETITIONS & EXHIBITIONS

The Iowa Bonsai Association currently has three shows annually.  The Spring Bonsai Show is held at
the Des Moines Botanical Center.  The Fall Bonsai Show is held the first weekend of October free of a home football game at Iowa State University Reiman Gardens in Ames.  The summer event is the judged show at the Iowa State Fair in August.  It is properly a State Fair event open to entry by any Iowa citizen; the IBA manages the event and the entries have almost always been members of the IBA, so the membership has come to view it as their annual judged show.

The biggest bonsai event in the Midwest is held in Chicago annually shortly after the Iowa State Fair, the 
Mid-America Bonsai Show sponsored by the Midwest Bonsai Society and held at the Chicago Botanic 
Garden.  Members of the IBA occasionally enter bonsai in that competition.

Best of Show and First Place, Shohin Class
2009 Iowa State Fair, Trident maple, Helene Magruder

 
IOWA STATE FAIR BONSAI COMPETITION WINNERS   2009

Judge:  Tom Kedrock,
              Prior Lake, Minnesota

Best of Show:  Helene Magruder
                         Indianola, Iowa

Novice/Intermediate
1) Roger Hershey, Newton
2) Roger Hershey, Newton
3) Angi Allison, Earlham
4) Angi Allison, Earlham
5) Angi Allison, Earlham

Deciduous Trees
1) Max Miller, Farragut
2) Helene Magruder, Indianola
3) Ron Heinen, Ames
4) Ron Heinen, Ames
5) Roger Hershey, Newton

Needled Evergreen Trees
1) Ron Heinen, Ames
2) Helene Magruder, Indianola
3) Ron Heinen, Ames
4) Roger Hershey, Newton
5) Fred Truck, West Des Moines

Broadleaf Evergreen Trees
1) Helene Magruder, Indianola       
2) Ron Heinen, Ames                      
3) Roger Hershey, Newton                          
4) Fred Truck, West Des Moines
5) Fred Truck, West Des Moines                                                        
                                                   
Tropical Trees                                                    
1) Ivan Hanthorn, Ames
2) Ron Heinen, Ames
3) Roger Hershey, Newton
4) Ivan Hanthorn, Ames
5) Ivan Hanthorn, Ames

Forest, Landscapes & Rock Plantings
1) Ron Heinen, Ames
2) Roger Hershey, Newton
3) Helene Magruder, Indianola

Shohin Trees
1) Helene Magruder, Indianola
2) Helene Magruder, Indianola
3) Ron Heinen, Ames
4) Ivan Hanthorn, Ames
5) Ivan Hanthorn, Ames

                                     2008 Mid-America Bonsai Show Winners
 



Become a Member