Bonsai Donors & Their Trees: Haruo “Papa” Kaneshiro

Kaneshiro works on a juniper group planting on a volcanic slab in Seattle, July 1984. Photo: ABS Bonsai Journal

When Jane Nakama reflects on the momentous legacy her father Haruo “Papa” Kaneshiro left behind, she most fondly remembers the people she met during his impressive life as a bonsai master.

Whether she traveled alongside her father to another part of the world or helped her parents entertain fellow bonsai lovers, including those who started as strangers, Nakama met wonderful artists from Europe, Australia and Asia and beyond.

“The bonsai community is filled with just above-and-beyond good people, and I totally appreciate that connection with people even today, 25, 30 years after dad’s passing,” she said. “It’s mind boggling to think all that connecting happened by word of mouth. It’s just amazing what bonsai brought to their lives.”

Christened “Papa” by the bonsai community for his father-like persona, Kaneshiro is touted for his unselfish and inclusive teaching and lifestyle. Kaneshiro was one of the founding members of the North American Bonsai Federation, a branch of the World Bonsai Friendship Federation.

But Nakama said her father didn’t truly develop his bonsai artistry until his mid-40s. In fact, Kaneshiro spent much of his early life working in restaurants and retired in his early 50s.

He met his wife, Masako, while working for her older brother who ran a fine dining and dancing restaurant. Nakama said her father had been waiting tables at elegant hotels in Hawaii, but he decided to open his own restaurant where his wife ran the front and waited tables as he baked pies and made soups from scratch with a wood-burning stove. 

“He’d purchase these logs, place them in the back of the restaurant and his friends would come over and chop them to fit the oven,” she said. 

Nakama said Kaneshiro’s interest in bonsai first sprouted when he was younger and traveled every so often to visit a friend who had bonsai in their backyard. But he really explored his passion for the art after he retired from being a restaurant owner and started subbing as a manager at an upscale restaurant when the current manager would go on vacation.

The six Kaneshiro siblings and their mother Masako at dinner to celebrate the dedication of the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum’s Haruo Kaneshiro Tropical Conservatory in 1993. Photo from Jane Nakama.

Kaneshiro’s Teaching Style

Nakama noted that there was an absence of organized classes or demonstrations when Kaneshiro was learning and first teaching the art of bonsai, so he had to order textbooks from Japan. 

“He was really self taught through experience,” she said. 

But her father’s influence as a master did not hinge on rigid teaching plans of bonsai rituals and traditions as an exact science with strict styling rules. Papa Kaneshiro believed that, just as every person is different, every plant is different; therefore bonsai should be each person’s own expression of how they think a tree should look in nature. 

“He shared a lot of this philosophy, too, so I think that’s why bonsai flourished in Hawaii,” Nakama said. “He tried to emulate nature in its most natural forms. He always said, ‘The plant will tell you how it wants to grow – you just guide it.’” 

After Kaneshiro passed, his widow Masako donated many plants to the National Bonsai Foundation, and an auction on the family’s property raised more than $10,000 to fund the creation of the Haruo Kaneshiro Tropical Conservancy at the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum. 

“I’m very grateful that Mom and Dad were into bonsai as much as they were,” she said. “It was more than a shared hobby – the people we met were just incredible and changed their lives forever.”

One of Papa’s trees at our Museum: a Chinese Banyan. Read more about the bonsai in our Historical Tree Spotlight.

Working Under Papa Kaneshiro

David Fukumoto, the owner of Fuku-Bonsai Cultural Center in Hawaii, said he was lucky to have Papa Kaneshiro as both a friend and a mentor who defended his amateur bonsai efforts. 

Fukumoto said Kaneshiro understood the differences between the horticultural and ethnic cultural principles that dominate "traditional Japanese bonsai" as well as the greater Hawaiian multi-cultural values and tropical trees.

“He was a gentle non-conformist who politely praised everyone's bonsai efforts and did not try to impose his values on anyone,” Fukumoto said. “Because of him, Hawaii bonsai is family oriented and the friendships are probably more significant.”

Many bonsai teachers who came to Hawaii taught training techniques like cutting off aerial roots, creating  single trunk and training flat branch tiers to adhere to bonsai “rules” codified in the 1950s. Papa Kaneshiro trained his black pines in this manner, but he trained his other bonsai with “natural style,” Fukumoto said.  

When Japanese bonsai artists were given opportunities to teach bonsai in Hawaii, they tended to train ficus banyan bonsai by cutting off aerial roots, creating only a single trunk, and training flatten tiers of branches.  

“He encouraged each of us to follow natural tree structure, to be creative and create beautiful potted plants,” Fukumoto said. “Although bonsai was a large part of their lives, the Kaneshiro’s generous and thoughtful hospitality was legendary.”

The Kaneshiro family and bonsai community after the auction of Papa’s trees, the proceeds of which went to the U.S. National Arboretum. Photo from Jane Nakama.

Bonsai Around the World: The National Bonsai & Penjing Collection in Canberra, Australia

The national collection on display in Canberra, Australia. Photos courtesy of Leigh Taafe.

For our next Bonsai Around the World blog, we’re taking you to the land down under. 

The National Bonsai & Penjing Collection of Australia is home to 120 bonsai, an amalgamation of donations and loans that have been trained and grown 100 percent by Australian artists. We spoke with Curator Leigh Taafe about his personal connection with bonsai and the development of the bonsai collection in Australia’s capital, Canberra. 

Taafe said his journey from a bonsai hobbyist to the top position at the collection kicked off after he watched the original Karate Kid film, which uses bonsai as an archetype for the inner peace and symbol of what karate should be. He opened a commercial bonsai nursery in 2000, running classes and workshops and renting out bonsai to local offices and restaurants for about 13 years. 

The main influence on Taafe’s bonsai styling comes from Harry Tomlinson’s Complete Book of Bonsai, which was his sole source of inspiration and information before the internet became a prevalent bonsai resource.

“Once I became a professional I learned to just focus on what I was doing rather than anyone else,” he said. “I am a gatherer of information, but outside of maintenance and techniques, I tried to create my own style.”

Taafe, right, working with Assistant Curator Sam Thompson, left.

In 2010, Taafe officially joined as an assistant curator for three years then rose to the curator position. While the collection technically opened to the public in September 2008, the trees were located on a premise separate from its current location, which was established in 2013 at the National Arboretum in Canberra. 

“We started from the ground up,” Taafe said. “We started collecting trees in 2007 for the purpose of a national collection – it wasn’t a collection to begin with.” 

The arboretum, which was constructed as a monument to the people and homes lost in brush fires that decimated miles of land in the early 2000s, contains approximately 100 forests as well as gardens, playgrounds and a visitor center. The bonsai display area features about 70 trees ready for show but also a small area for trees undergoing various maintenance stages. 

Trees that need to keep warm in the winter, like bougainvillea, are stored in glass with heaters to prevent subzero temperatures at night. Taafe said Canberra temperatures can reach minus 8 degrees Celsius (or about 17 degrees Fahrenheit).

LEFT: A smooth-barked apple (gum tree) native to Australia and nearby islands that dates back to 1959.

RIGHT: The box leaf privet, dating back to 1880.

The displays in the National Bonsai & Penjing Collection are arranged simply in an aesthetic and appealing manner, not limiting trees to areas for specific artists or regions. Every tree has been styled and grown by Australian artists, as Australia imposes strict quarantine requirements for imported goods. 

“From the outset we decided the collection was going to be a representation of the art of bonsai in Australia,” Taafe said. 

A loans program, through which the collection harbors trees from artists around the country for periods of up to two years at a time, keeps the wider Australian bonsai community involved and provides for “a dynamic, ever-changing arrangement of bonsai and penjing,” he said. Occasionally, artists from different countries will stop by for demonstrations and events, but the collection doesn’t contain any trees that artists visiting Australia have styled from raw materials. 

The oldest tree in the collection, which dates back to 1880, spent approximately 100 years growing in a hedge, and the youngest tree is only about 18 years old. The oldest non-living display at the collection is a petrified wood stump that is 165 million years old. 

Assistant Curator Sam Thompson extensively trained in Japan. Taafe said he performs great work on older trees.

Taafe said Australian bonsai artists tend to be influenced by their surrounding landscape, particularly when styling native species. But their techniques are also molded by Japanese and European artists. 

“Some of our early learnings date back to the 70s, when the likes of John Naka came for workshops and such, so we do have that Japanese influence,” Taafe said. “But when I look at my collection, it’s not overly stylized. It’s quite a natural appearance.”

He added that the collection is a partnership between the Australian bonsai community and the ACT government. Approximately 60 volunteers put in about 140 hours of work each week to ensure the collection is up to par for the 175,000 visitors the collection receives each year. 

Taafe said his relationship with bonsai has changed over the years, from a fascination with the art of creating miniature trees to the commercial route, which was a means to provide for his family. He’s the only one in his family that really got involved with bonsai – the interest was not passed down throughout generations.

But when he became curator of the Australian national collection, his focus shifted to making the art readily available to everyone. 

“I just wanted to share bonsai, not only what we have here on display but also the knowledge,” he said. “Hopefully I’m sparking an interest in other people who might get involved in bonsai.” 

LEFT: A penjing styled the Lingnan way starting in 1994, representing a mythical dragon.

RIGHT: Petrified wood stump more than 165 million years old.

Influential Bonsai Masters: Yuji Yoshimura

All photo credit: Bill Valavanis

Summer 2020 is officially the summer of the bonsai blog series! We’re launching another string of blogs to highlight the fascinating history and teachings of some of the most influential bonsai masters. For our first edition, we spoke with Bill Valavanis, a National Bonsai Foundation director and bonsai artist, about his time training under Yuji Yoshimura.

Valavanis dubs Yoshimura his “Japanese father” from whom he learned on the weekends while studying horticulture during college in the 1960s. He said Yoshimura felt like a god to him when they first met, as Yoshimura’s book The Japanese Art of Miniature Trees and Landscapes – later reprinted as The Art of Bonsai: Creation, Care and Enjoyment – is considered a “bonsai bible.” The book is the first authoritative source for bonsai artists written in English.

Yoshimura began his bonsai work under his father’s tutelage. He and Alfred Koehn, a notable authority on Japanese art, organized and produced the first beginner’s bonsai course at Yoshimura’s family nursery in Tokyo in 1952. 

The first bonsai instructional class in 1952.

Yoshimura’s father, who rekindled the craft of classical bonsai, was the most influential person in his bonsai career. Valavanis said Yoshimura’s family remained anchored in Japan, but he wanted to spread the art of bonsai around the world. He traveled to Australia, Hong Kong, England and across the United States, where he and his family lived for many years.

But Yoshimura sacrificed the stability of his relationships when he left home. One of his younger brothers took over his garden after he left, Yoshimura’s wife and one daughter eventually moved back to Tokyo and Yuji was highly criticized in Japan for teaching the “Yanks” in America – but Yoshimura loved the United States. 

“He found Americans very friendly,” he said. “He went through a lot of students but he would take care of them, tell them extra things, treat them nicely and encourage them.” 

Yoshimura’s daughters and granddaughter with the U.S. National Arboretum director.

Yoshimura took Valavanis to Japan to meet other influential bonsai figures. Upon returning to the United States, Valavanis lived with him for almost a year to study the classical Japanese style of bonsai. He said Yoshimura would personally demonstrate wiring or care techniques, unlike many current apprentices learning bonsai in Japan, who are often left to grasp concepts by themselves. 

“He taught me the basics and introduced me to the Japanese fine quality classic bonsai,” Valavanis said. “He showed me where I can improve, get more information and how to study.”

Former U.S. National Arboretum director John Creech and Yoshimura in 1973.

Yoshimura relied on old, historic books – some of which he took from his father in Japan – for bonsai knowledge and left Valavanis his library when he retired. He is known for his strict teaching style, adhering to traditional Japanese designs – his father’s influence – and curt lessons. 

“Once when I was cleaning the kitchen floor, I put back our two chairs and went out to do something, but my chair was missing when I came back,” Valavanis said. “I put it back two or three times, but finally I got the hint time for me to leave.”

Yoshimura attending a bonsai convention.

Even after the two parted as roommates, Yoshimura routinely visited Valavanis’ garden, helped him establish a bonsai magazine and remained a teacher and friend until he died in 1997. 

Valavanis said the most important takeaway from Yoshimura’s teachings is to do what he thinks is right and avoid too much influence from other artists. He took that advice with him to start the first American bonsai exhibition, the highest level show in the United States, which is now in its seventh year. 

“He told me to stand on his head or shoulders to take the art higher,” Valavanis said. “He wanted me to use what he had and go improve.”

For more on Yuji Yoshimura, you can head to Valavanis’ blog posts here and here. If you have any personal stories or memories with Yoshimura, tag us in them on social media: Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

Historical Tree Spotlight: The Mixed Forest

The forest planting as it stands in the Museum today.

Uncertain times provide many reasons to look toward nature for calm and healing. Myriad research has pointed to how natural environments, especially trees, can benefit our health and overall well-being. 

But as this month's Historical Tree Spotlight shows, nature also provides the inarguable fact that diversity is not just important but fundamentally essential to life. This month’s focus is an unorthodox forest planting, often referred to as “The Mixed Forest,” located in the Japanese Pavilion. 

Donated by Nobusuke Kishi, a former prime minister of Japan, this planting has been in training since 1935 and is part of the group of trees that established the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum’s collection in 1976.

The planting consists of various tree species – including hornbeams, Japanese white pines and Japanese beeches – collected as seedlings from Mount Fuji and Mount Ishizuchi in Japan. Museum Curator Michael James said plantings of multiple species are rare because the grower has to incorporate all of the individual care needed for each species, instead of providing the same care to the whole pot. 

But James said mixed plantings are actually a better representation of the natural world – forests aren’t monocultures but complex systems home to copious varieties of plants and organisms.

He added that even though the planting is home to different species, each tree has the same needs: air, water and nutrients. 

“We care for these forests in a way that accommodates the different needs of each species and allow them to all be healthy in the same environment,” James said. 

The planting featured in a 1975 publication.

Helping a Mixed Forest Thrive 

Tending to each tree’s growing requirements is somewhat of a balancing act. James said the pot contains two soil types in separate areas to cater to the different species’ watering needs. 

The middle of the pot, where the pines are planted, is filled with a mixture high in pumice, which helps the soil dry out faster as pines tend to thrive in drier soils. The pines are situated on the top of a small slope, which allows the soil to drain more easily, James said.

But the beeches and hornbeams – deciduous trees – require a bit more water than pines, so the trees are planted in a wetter mixture. James said Museum staff mainly water around the edges of the pot, where the deciduous roots are concentrated, to help control the wet and dry areas.

 Learn more about different soil and fertilization techniques in our Bonsai Basics blog. 

James added that pruning care also differs among species. The white pines are single-flush trees and require branch shortening without losing any candles, or new growths. 

“We also pluck needles to balance the strength of the pines,” James said. 

But the apices and higher branches of deciduous trees have to be pinched and frequently pruned to allow sunlight to filter through to lower branches. 

“They’re all competing for a limited amount of resources like sun, nutrients and water,” James said. “Without that thinning process, the lower branches end up getting weak and less dominant trees will die.”

A picture of the forest planting taken in 1977.

Benefits of Mixed Plantings

James said this planting is exemplary of the many benefits to diversity, both in naturally occurring forests and in human society, as each part of the small ecosystem contains instances of mutualistic relationships.

“This forest has a lot of symbolic meaning right now and is a good metaphor for the importance of diversity not only in plants but in people,” he said. 

 Mycorrhizal fungi, found in the root systems of plants, facilitate plants’ water and nutrient absorption. Plants in return funnel down carbohydrates formed during photosynthesis. 

James said the fungal web also serves as a method of chemical communication between plants, creating a bond throughout plantings or forests. 

“If one plant is attacked by an insect, plants on the other side of a forest through that fungal connection can tell that the plant’s being attacked and can produce chemicals to protect against the attack before the insect gets to it,” he said. 

James added that upper canopy trees also use the mycorrhizal network to provide carbs and nutrients to trees below that are deprived from sunlight and sugars. Additionally, the pines stretch toward the sun, giving needed shade to the deciduous trees – analogous to a natural forest. 

“The different species, fungal organisms and animals all benefit from diversity,” James said. 

Bonsai Teaches Us Respect for All Life

Dear Friends of the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum,

In this time of global pandemic and awakening to end racial injustice, we look forward to the reopening of the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum so again we all can walk among the majestic and inspiring bonsai and penjing waiting for us there.

Our hearts are heavy for those hurting around the nation and the world, and we hope that you and your family are safe and healthy. We give thanks for those bonsai masters like John Naka, Yuji Yoshimura and Saburo Kato who were instrumental in creating the Museum and taught us the true meaning of bonsai. As Saburo Kato once said:

“From bonsai we receive peace of mind, health, and a life’s pursuit. We can also learn generosity, patience and even philosophy about life. We have also had the good fortune to make friends of all nationalities and races with whom we share a mutual trust and respect. This is all thanks to bonsai.”

The core values of bonsai, which we strive to uphold at the National Bonsai Foundation, are rooted in promoting and fostering world peace and respect for all life. Together we can take comfort in the art of bonsai to encourage inclusivity, empathy and peace throughout the world.

In Solidarity,

Felix Laughlin and Jack Sustic
NBF Co-Presidents

Bonsai Around the World: The Japanese Friendship Garden in San Diego, California

The Inamori Pavilion at The Japanese Friendship Garden in San Diego. Photo credit: Dominic Nepomuceno

Museums might be closed and traveling restrictions are still in effect, but that won’t keep us from sharing the art of bonsai. Welcome to our new blog series, “Bonsai Around the World,” where we highlight different collections around the globe. 

For our first in this new series, we talked with Neil Auwarter, the bonsai curator at the Japanese Friendship Garden since 2018, about the collection he oversees in San Diego.

A lawyer by profession, Auwarter’s love for bonsai began in about 2008 after he helped his daughter take care of a bonsai he gave her as a birthday present. He said he relied on online instructionals from bonsai artists like Graham Potter and Bjorn Bjorholm until he discovered local bonsai outlets and organizations, like the San Diego Bonsai Club.

Auwarter took a volunteer position at the bonsai pavilion in what used to be known as the San Diego Wild Animal Park (aka Safari Park), which houses one of the club’s bonsai collections. He was soon promoted to oversee the club’s collection at the Japanese Friendship Garden in Balboa Park. 

A stream at The Japanese Friendship Garden. Photo credit: Dominic Nepomuceno

First opened in 1991, the Japanese Friendship Garden is a nonprofit that participates in the same Sister City program as the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum. Its sister city is Yokohama, Japan. 

Auwarter said the garden originally just put a few bonsai out for show on an indoor tokonoma and maintained a separate growing area for the trees they were grooming for the display. But about 15 years ago the growing area became its own attraction, and staff began crafting a traditional three-scene Japanese garden to show off the bonsai. 

Auwarter said the garden and bonsai collection now receive about 200,000 visitors a year. 

A pomegranate in the collection at The Japanese Friendship Garden. Photo credit: Dominic Nepomuceno

A few standout trees

The Japanese Friendship Garden scenes reflect the features of and species grown in San Diego’s Mediterannean-like climate, including a stream, two koi ponds, a water feature and a new pavilion.

“It’s a very elaborate and beautiful Japanese garden,” Auwarter said. 

The most recent bonsai donation is an old, twisted pomegranate from Bruce and Yaeko Hisayasu, very active members in the bonsai community. One of Auwarter’s favorite trees in the collection is a 200-year-old California juniper donated by Sherwin Amimoto. 

“I love the fact that it’s a California native,” Auwarter said. 

Auwarter working on a California juniper donated by Sherwin Animoto at home.

The garden also boasts a femina juniper forest bonsai composition, similar to the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum’s famous Goshin. Auwarter said Larry Ragle, who studied under Goshin’s creator, John Naka, worked on the arrangement at a two-day festival at Disneyland, then donated the display to the garden.  

“It’s a beautiful composition,” he said. “It’s massive, very well done and so reminiscent of Goshin. The influence of John Naka makes the display special to me.”

While the Japanese Friendship Garden is not currently open to the public because of the COVID-19 pandemic, staff members are evaluating how to safely return to operations. Keep an eye out on their website for announcements, and if you’re ever in Southern California, be sure to stop by!

A Special Message From Our Partners at the U.S. National Arboretum

I’m very pleased to be able to tell you that Andy Bello will begin his permanent position as Assistant Curator of the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum on June 21, 2020.  Andy finished his internship as our most recent First Curator Apprentice in March. Since that time, he has served as a temporary technician and will continue to do so until June 21.

Andy has a deep commitment and true passion for bonsai and penjing. He is very engaging and is always ready and willing to share that passion with visitors and volunteers alike. We are very fortunate to have him in this permanent position. Andy hails from Illinois and has spent time in Arizona and Oregon. He’s worked with koi in a previous job, so he knows his fish, too.

Because the bonsai and penjing require daily care, Andy will work a Sunday through Thursday schedule, but this schedule has been somewhat disrupted by the current coronavirus situation. He and Michael have been working overtime to tend the plants with help from Pat Lynch and Brad Evans to make up for all the lost volunteer help while that program is on a pause for safety reasons.

Please join me in congratulating Andy on his new appointment. He is a great asset to our bonsai team.

Scott Aker

Head of Horticulture and Education

U.S. National Arboretum

Thank You Essential Workers!

Dear Community,

In these unprecedented times, the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum and U.S. National Arboretum are unfortunately closed to the public. We wish we could be sharing our blooming trees, luscious greenery and bonsai history with you all right now! 

Luckily, a handful of Museum employees are still hard at work – safely distanced and wearing masks – to ensure our trees are in healthy, thriving condition when we can welcome visitors again.  

Thank you so much to these five essential workers for your dedication to the preservation of our Museum’s trees! We wish for your safety and good health as you continue to take care of our fields, gardens and displays.

Sincerely,

Jack Sustic, Felix Laughlin and Bobbie Alexander, on behalf of the Board of Directors of the National Bonsai Foundation

Scott Aker, Head of Horticulture and Education, USNA

Michael James, Museum Curator

Andy Bello, Garden Technician, Museum

Patrick Lynch, Garden Technician, Asian Collections and Holly & Magnolia Collections

Brad Evans, Horticulturist, Introduction Garden

Museum Donors & Their Trees: The Buttonwood Queen

Mary Madison tends to a bonsai, courtesy of Orlando Bonsai.

What do you know about bonsai royalty?  

In our new blog series, “Museum Donors and Their Trees,” we sat down with Mary Madison, known throughout the bonsai community as “The Buttonwood Queen” for her fantastic work on the buttonwoods, or Conocarpus erectus, native to the United States. Madison said the nickname comes from one of her mentors, Ben Oki, who introduced her off the cuff as “The Buttonwood Queen” at a demonstration in California years ago, and the title stuck. 

She grew up helping her dad plant and work in the yard of their home south of Miami, where she first cultivated her love for growing plants. Madison also had a knack for drawing and other art forms, and she said a former boyfriend who served in Japan after World War II would send her pictures of bonsai. After looking at the pictures, she decided to try tree training for herself.  

“The first tree I started on was a buttonwood,” Madison said. “I just kept on at it and couldn’t stop. I still can’t, and I’m 90 years old.”

After attending a few demonstrations at the Bonsai Society of Miami, Madison ended up studying under Oki and John Naka up until the two passed away in 2018 and 2004, respectively. 

She had trained a group planting of cypresses to resemble the Everglades, and Naka had told her she had natural talent. From that day, a beautiful friendship of more than 40 years formed between Madison, her husband TJ, Naka and Oki.

She added that she was the first woman to join the private bonsai club Naka was a member of, and the group even named one of her trees – an honor in the bonsai community. Madison hosted a tea ceremony and open house to show off the tree, which the club named Sen Ryu, or “mystical dragon.”

Madison’s buttonwood – donated in 1990

The queen’s trees

Madison first donated a buttonwood to the Museum in 1990, a tree she dug up herself in South Florida. 

She worked on the buttonwood for about four or five years before receiving a call from the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum asking her to donate a tree. Madison said someone sprayed her tree with Malathion on the trip up to the Museum, which she said is almost “instant death” for buttonwoods, so the tree had no leaves when first on display. 

Luckily, Madison said, Museum workers took great care of the buttonwood. She said the tree is back to its full glory and maintains her original style but has grown quite a bit since she donated it.

Madison said she styled the tree keeping in mind the “odd” trunk shape, which she said likely formed because the buttonwood grew up through rocks. 

“I just started following basic rules, like keeping the bottom larger than the top, until i figured out exactly what I wanted,” she said. “Then I eliminated a few branches and went on from there.”

Madison’s second tree at the Museum traveled around the world before landing at the Museum. She originally sold the tree – a buttonwood, of course – years ago, and it changed hands a few times, ending up under the wing of the Central Intelligence Agency in 2019.

“When I saw that picture of it at the CIA it tickled me to death, I thought that was so funny. People might start thinking I'm a spy or something,” Madison said. “But the CIA was afraid they might kill it, so they donated it to the Museum.”

While the Museum is not currently open, you can read more about the buttonwood from the CIA in our October Historical Tree Spotlight and see her first donated buttonwood among other North American Collection in our virtual catalogue.

Madison still holds demonstrations for the Miami bonsai group and private clubs around Florida to this day.

“I'll probably die out there working on a tree,” she joked. “That would be what I want.”

World Bonsai Day’s Impact Around the World

World Bonsai Day was Saturday, May 9 this year and although we couldn’t celebrate in person, we certainly all celebrated together. If you missed the virtual celebration, click here. Check out the record-breaking numbers of engagement we saw on our website and social media on World Bonsai Day alone:

• 1,000+ website visits

• 16,000+ Facebook accounts reached

• 70+ posts used #WorldBonsaiDay or #WorldBonsaiDay2020

• 179,000 social media users that saw posts with #WorldBonsaiDay and #WorldBonsaiDay2020.