Creating Forest Bonsai: A Relatively Easy & Inexpensive Way to a Lifetime of Bonsai Enjoyment
Our Co-President, Felix Laughlin, gave this presentation on November 10, 2019 at the Blue Ridge Bonsai Society in Asheville, NC, as part of their regular education program for club members. We wanted to share it with you.
Laughlin created this presentation in order to do two things:
1.) To show how easy and relatively quick it is to create a forest bonsai using young seedlings.
2.) To raise awareness around the late Saburo Kato, a Japanese bonsai master who made possible the 1976 Bicentennial bonsai gift that lead to the birth of the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum. Throughout the presentation, Laughlin cites Kato’s classic book on forest bonsai plantings, Forest, Rock Planting & Ezo Spruce (Translated into English and published by NBF - Available for purchase here).
The seedlings Laughlin used were Stewartia seedlings grown and donated for the demonstration by Sage Smith. As you will see from the photographs, his fellow club members were a big help with every stage of the process, from preparing the young trees to tying them down in their proper place in the container.
Enjoy!
A 2001 Photo of Saburo Kato at Mansei-en
Saburo Kato with Forest Bonsai at Mansei-en