Club Competitions

Our monthly and annual competitions, are a constructive and highly beneficial way to increase the quality of our bonsai and skill by allowing members to compare their bonsai with peers.


Monthly bench competitions provide a frequent forum to see how you and your bonsai are progressing in a non pressure environment. All entries are anonymous and voting is conducted by peers in an open environment. In addition to receiving a score you see how your bonsai compares to adjacent peers with a similar skill level. Perhaps most importantly you get the opportunity to ask for advice how to improve the quality of your bonsai.


Whilst more formal the Annual Competition (run in conjunction with the Bonsai Open) allows club members to put forward their best trees, compete against peers and to show the general public what is possible to achieve in this phenomenal art form. The monthly and annual competitions can only be entered by club members with details as follows:

 

Monthly Competition

The various monthly competition categories are as follows:

Progressive: Platinum, Advanced, Intermediate & Novice categories.

Style of the Month: Bonsai conforming to a set style for that month.

Special Categories: In addition to the above methods to compare / compete with specialist skills in a series of specific competitions such as:

  • Mini,

  • Kindergarten

  • Style

  • Suiseki ***

  • Kusamono ***

  • 3 Point Display

[*** Note; Kusamono and Suiseki alternate competition months)

Monthly Competition guidelines can be found in the information section at the bottom of this page.

Bonsai Open 2019

Annual Competition and
Bonsai Open

The Central Coast Bonsai Club has an annual exhibition of members bonsai trees and is held concurrently  with the Bonsai Open, usually in March or April  The Annual Exhibition is a chance to share our passion and appreciation of bonsai with the community.

Members entering the Annual Exhibition compete at a level  appropriate to their skill and knowledge of styling and growing bonsai. The levels are :

  • Novice

  • Intermediate

  • Advanced

  • Platinum

There is also a category for shohin bonsai.

The Bonsai Open is a competition which any Australian bonsai enthusiast can enter and offers substantial prize money . It is the only such competition in Australia. The Club believed that Australia should have a major bonsai competition open to all Australian bonsai artists to promote and elevate bonsai as a hobby and as a profession.