This year marks the hundredth anniversary of Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s bonsai collection, which is displayed in the Steinhardt Conservatory’s C.V. Starr Bonsai Museum. From a small start, BBG would become known worldwide for its bonsai, as well as its early efforts to educate the public about this horticultural art form.
The practice of bonsai, meaning “planted in a tray,” originated in China and was adapted and developed in Japan. In this practice, trees are trained to grow in miniature and express different aesthetic visions and shapes. Careful pruning, wiring of branches, and daily watering go into the care of bonsai.
Bonsai Beginnings
The Garden’s collection started in 1925 when landscape designer and nursery owner Ernest F. Coe donated a selection of plants imported from Japan. Housed in beautiful pots, species included pines, junipers, cypress, oaks, and maples, as well as shrubs like aucubas, skimmia, palms, azaleas, wisteria, euonymus, bamboo, and ilex.
In the early years, the bonsai collection was displayed in the greenhouses on benches next to the Palm House. At the time, no one on staff was trained to care for these special trees.
In 1947, Frank Masao Okamura was hired by Dr. George Sherman Avery, then director of the Garden, to freshen up the Japanese Garden, which had been vandalized and closed during World War II. Soon after, Okamura was given the bonsai collection to oversee as well.
Okamura had owned a gardening business in California until 1942, when he and his family were forcibly relocated by the U.S. government and incarcerated in a detention camp. They were among more than 100,000 people of Japanese descent who were sent to wartime concentration camps in an order Congress later acknowledged as unconstitutional and racially motivated.
After the war, Okamura came to New York and soon found work at BBG, where he would spend the rest of his career and ultimately become known as one of the most influential bonsai teachers in the United States.
Growing and Teaching
When Okamura started at the Garden, the bonsai collection consisted of only 11 plants. It eventually grew to 1,000 during his tenure.
He grew bonsai from cuttings and even sourced plants from the wild. He understood that city dwellers could not grow traditional bonsai like pines and maples indoors, so he experimented with tropical and semitropical species. He created bonsai from ficus, serissa, natal plum, and even many types of citrus trees.
As little was known about the practice of bonsai within the U.S. horticultural community, in 1953 Dr. Avery commissioned a handbook on the bonsai of Japan from guest editor Kan Yashiroda. Yashiroda solicited articles from many bonsai experts and then translated them from Japanese to English, bringing knowledge of the form to American enthusiasts.
In 1954, Dr. Avery and Okamura cotaught a weekly bonsai class, allowing students to take their bonsai-in-training home at the end. They continued to collaborate on courses, ultimately teaching thousands of students from all around the U.S. who brought the practice of bonsai home with them.
Okamura gave lectures around the U.S. and represented BBG at many bonsai conventions. In 1981, he received the Order of the Sacred Treasure from Emperor Hirohito of Japan for his contribution to bonsai in America.
The Bonsai Museum
In 1988, the C.V. Starr Bonsai Museum opened in the newly built Steinhardt Conservatory, where the collection resides today.
Custom-built tables showcase 30 to 40 bonsai at a time, depending on the season. A tokonoma, or a small alcove featured in many Japanese homes, holds the remains of Fudo, a prized Sargent juniper from Japan thought to be over 800 years old.
After purchase from Kyuzo Murata’s famous bonsai nursery in Omiya, Japan in 1969, this tree underwent strict U.S. agricultural quarantine and sadly did not survive. But the spirit of Fudo lives on.
In the spring, trees with blooms such as wisteria, crabapples, and ornamental flowering cherries are on display. In the summer months, many tropical and semitropical plants appear, including ficus, citrus trees, and guava.
During the fall, trees showing off colorful foliage, such as Japanese maples and ginkgos, are displayed. In the winter, many conifers are featured, including Japanese black pines, junipers, and cedars.
Caring for the Collection
Gardener David Castro cares for the 400 trees in the collection today. A longtime hobbyist who eventually pursued a career in bonsai gardening, he studied and apprenticed with many bonsai artists, including previous BBG bonsai gardeners Robert Mahler and Julian Velasco.
As well as meticulously pinching and pruning the trees and wiring branches to guide the design, he makes sure all the bonsai are watered as needed (sometimes twice a day during hot and dry weather), and uses slow-release organic fertilizers to provide a steady supply of nutrients. Most of the trees have their roots pruned and new soil added every couple of years.
This daily care ensures the Garden’s bonsai will live long and healthy lives, and visitors can enjoy this unique collection for generations to come.
Bonsai Collection Centennial
Brooklyn Botanic Garden is celebrating 100 years of its incredible Bonsai Collection with an expanded display of bonsai specimens along with new interpretive signage plus special tours, exhibits, and workshops. Celebrate a century of tiny trees with us!
