Photographing Bonsai with Stephen Voss: Fall Foliage at the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum

A trident maple in its full fall splendor

By the end of October in D.C., the trees have begun to lose their summertime greenery. The colors that have long dominated the spring and summer here are in flux. The chlorophyll that defined the color palette of nature is waning, and brilliant yellows, oranges and reds emerge. I visited the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum on the grounds of the U.S. National Arboretum one afternoon to see these fall colors in the fading light of an unseasonably warm day.

Photographing at this time of year feels like a gift, an exuberant offering of beauty and color that crescendos here in November then quickly fades as we settle in for the browns and grays of winter. The shortness of the days gives us golden hours in the late afternoon, bringing warm light from a setting sun. 

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LEFT: This photo was taken with the camera more or less on an even exposure. RIGHT: For this photo, I underexposed by a couple of stops (switching shutter speed from 1/125 to 1/500) and increased the contrast of the image in Photoshop.

As the sun sinks lower in the sky, I like to look for little pockets of light that have filtered through the trees, illuminating just a spot of a branch or particularly colorful leaf. If you’re able to adjust your camera’s exposure, you can deliberately underexpose the image a bit to deepen the colors and darken the background, as I’ve done above. 

Photographing into the sunlight gives the opportunity to see the colors of fall backlit and illuminated.

The vibrance of the colors is magnified with morning dew or a bit of rain. On the gloomiest, rainiest days, there are great images to be made. As the old photographer’s saying goes, “Bad weather makes for good photos.”  

At dusk, the light softens and we get these beautiful, subtle tones on a ginkgo tree that has just begun to turn yellow.

While I love golden light, I think dawn and dusk are the most interesting times to photograph. The light has cooled to a bluish tone, and the warm colors of the leaves stand out even more against their environment. In the gloaming, the hard shadows from direct light are gone and for just a brief time the drama of the sunlight fades and there are beautiful, subtle photos to be made. 

I placed a beautiful maple tree to serve as a splash of color to balance the wonderful stark white wall that shows off the tree in the background. Fall color can be part of your photographic palette and a compositional tool, it doesn’t always have to be the center of attention.

The trees changing colors at different times can be a great opportunity to show contrast and play with color. A particularly vibrant tree might make for an interesting macro (close-up) image, but you might also consider placing it in context. Sometimes we appreciate colors in nature more richly when they are photographed in comparison to their less vibrant surroundings. 

I was fascinated by these beech leaves, which showed the entirety of fall's transformation, from verdant green to the brown of winter with a pale yellow in between.

A macro lens allows you to use depth of field as a visual tool to sort out what you want to emphasize and not emphasize. I loved the distant silhouette of the cedar elm’s trunks that subtlety frame its foreground leaves.

With the setting sun, a quiet comes to the Arboretum. While the museum remains closed, the dedicated caretakers of these trees continue their work each day. These days, they are preparing the space for winter and for the time when they can reopen the doors for visitors to enjoy these special trees in person once again. Whether you have a bonsai collection of your own, or can simply see fall colors out your window, it’s a great time to pack a bag and walk through nature to interpret its splendor.

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As a photographer who now makes a living snapping pictures of some of the world’s most influential figures, Stephen Voss didn’t always know that photography could be more than a hobby.  Once a bonsai novice, he certainly didn’t think he would publish a photography book of bonsai.

Now that he’s an accomplished photographer, Voss wants to share his “tricks of the bonsai photography trade.” This entry is part of his regular guest blog series, “Photographing Bonsai with Stephen Voss", published on NBF’s blog, covering everything from lighting, angles and mindset needed when photographing the trees. This has been a special entry in this series given the times.

Sign up for our newsletter and follow us on Facebook and Instagram to never miss one of his entries! Read his last entry here.

A Holiday Gift Guide: What to Get the Bonsai Lover in Your Life

Looking for the perfect gift for the bonsai lover in your life? Or maybe loved ones are asking what you want for the holidays?

Read on for some shopping inspiration from National Bonsai Foundation board members and National Bonsai & Penjing Museum volunteers. If you make any purchases on Amazon, please use our Amazon Smile link to help support NBF with each dollar you spend!

A NEW TOOL

For the budding bonsai master 

For newbies, grab this eight-piece beginner’s tool set from Bonsai Outlet. A battery-operated toothbrush is a great tool to rid tree trunks and branches of algae. If you’re looking to splurge, we’re coveting this electric carver from Smoky Mountain Woodcarvers.

A GOOD READ

For the bonsai bookworm

NBF published many books about the trees of the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum in the last few years, including: 

• Bonsai & Penjing: Ambassadors of Peace and Beauty (Ann McClellan)

• In Training: A Bonsai Photo Book (Stephen Voss)

• The Peace Tree from Hiroshima (Sandra Moore)

• Forest, Rock Planting & Ezo Spruce Bonsai (Saburo Kato) 

• John Naka’s Sketchbook 

Find them in the NBF bookstore.

We also recommend John Naka’s Bonsai Techniques, Volumes 1 and 2, which many consider the “bible of bonsai,” and Michael Hagedorn’s latest book Bonsai Heresy.

UNLIMITED ACCESS

For the one who can’t get enough of bonsai

A subscription to International BONSAI magazine is a gift that keeps giving throughout the year. Each issue of this educational, professional publication is like a mini lesson on specialized bonsai topics.

A subscription to Ryan Neil’s Bonsai Mirai Live will provide weekly web presentations on all aspects of bonsai and access to an incredible archive of the last year’s presentations.

BONSAI PRIDE

For the fashionista

New this year, we are offering National Bonsai Foundation branded merchandise. A portion of proceeds from every sale is given to the National Bonsai Foundation to support the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum so your bonsai-lover can wear their pride and know they are supporting their passion as well. Shop sweatshirts, t-shirts, tote bags and even mugs.

A GIFT THAT CAN’T GO WRONG

For the one who’s impossible to buy for

A gift certificate to a bonsai vendor. The American Bonsai Tool Company, Dallas Bonsai and Brussel’s Bonsai are some of our favorites. 

A GIFT OF PRESERVATION

For anyone who loves bonsai, history or nature

A donation in their name to the National Bonsai Foundation to preserve the art of bonsai and penjing for future generations. Click HERE for more on how your donation supports NBF and the Museum. Happy Holidays!

Bonsai Around the World: The James J. Smith Bonsai Gallery in Fort Pierce, Florida

The entrance to the James J. Smith Bonsai Gallery at Heathcote Botanical Gardens in Florida. The architect-designed theme is “Asia meets Florida Cracker,” Kehoe said. Photo credit: @heathcotebg on Instagram.

The world of bonsai is fortunate to encounter so many legendary artists, many of whom are immortalized in displays, buildings or collections at bonsai museums and gardens. For this installation of Bonsai Around the World, we highlight the bonsai collection of an eminent and accomplished icon in the Floridian bonsai community: James Smith. 

We spoke with Tom Kehoe, a close friend and student of the late bonsai master who is now the curator of the James J. Smith Bonsai Collection at Heathcote Botanical Gardens in Fort Pierce, Florida. 

Kehoe was drawn to martial arts classes at an early age, which blossomed into an interest in Asian languages, history and art. After receiving a book about bonsai at 16 years old, Kehoe tried to start training bonsai, but he wasn’t very successful in keeping his trees alive. Fifteen years later, a knowledgeable bonsai stylist gave him some tips for bonsai care and, after a few months of successfully raising a few bonsai, Kehoe sought out a bonsai master named Jim Smith for a more expert point of view. 

Tom Kehoe, the curator at the bonsai gallery. Photos courtesy of Tom Kehoe.

Kehoe and his wife began attending Smith’s free monthly lessons, forging a 20-year friendship. Kehoe eventually began assisting Smith with his nursery, helping to run bonsai seminars and eventually taking over the care of Smith’s private tree collection as Smith’s health began to falter. 

“Jim must have had five or six thousand little trees,” Kehoe said. “He had tables and tables of little trees that could grow up to be bonsai.”

To ensure his private collection of bonsai would remain in loving and skilled hands, Smith decided to donate his 100 trees to Heathcote Botanical Gardens, to whom he had previously gifted a few trees. Heathcote leveled off an area of their grounds, designed a display section and constructed a pavilion for the incoming collection. Meanwhile, Kehoe and Smith spent about two and a half years preparing Smith’s bonsai for transfer to their new home. 

“We’d take trees out of the pots, trim the roots way back, reshape the canopy and put them back into the pots,” Kehoe said. “I’d even take one or two home with me, work on them and bring them back the next week. I developed a personal relationship with those trees.”

When the trees first arrived at the Heathcote gardens, Kehoe’s full-time job precluded him from working with the collection. But years later, after Heathcote staff asked him and his wife to work on the trees in preparation for a fundraiser at the gardens, he accepted the curator position. 

“I now commute down there a few times a week, but we have a whole cadre of volunteers that help us out,” Kehoe said. 

A popular attraction at the gallery, a bougainvillea. Its pot is 4 feet long, and the tree can only be moved by forklift!

Getting to know the collection and its owner

Heathcote Botanical Gardens consists of six separate gardens, including areas like the bonsai gallery, a rainforest garden and even a children’s garden. Once a month, staff will host events during which they’ll work on visitors’ bonsai or advise them on how to train and style your tree.

The James J. Smith Bonsai Gallery features about 110 trees of 35 species, almost all of which are tropical and subtropicals and continuously displayed. Their oldest tree is thought to be about 200 years old, a buttonwood with a massive driftwood trunk collected from the Florida Keys that has been in training since 2004. 

Kehoe said many of the bonsai are several feet tall and require six people or more to move them. He said Smith, a bonsai master and the collection’s namesake, is remembered as the “grandfather” of bonsai in Florida, which is home to myriad bonsai displays, nurseries and societies – including a state organization. 

Heathcote hosts a “Garden of Lights” event each year, bringing in 10,000 people to the bonsai gallery in a matter of weeks.

Kehoe said one of the collection’s most notable and prettiest trees is a twin trunk Jaboticaba John Naka styled in the 1970s. The gallery also houses a saikei, or “living landscape,” that bonsai master Yuji Yoshimura arranged in the 1970s. 

Smith is credited with bringing a number of species onto the bonsai scene, particularly Portulacaria Afra – a steadily growing succulent that plays a vital role in the South African ecosystem and is one of the most effective plants in climate mitigation processes. Smith’s first bonsai was a Portulacaria that has been in a pot since 1957.

Another atypical bonsai is an informal upright Bo tree, or Ficus religiosa, the storied species credited with starting the Buddha on his path to enlightenment. The Bo tree’s large heart-shaped leaves are said to represent the great heart of the Buddha.

“Jim would always find unusual species, like bo trees or baobabs, and see how to work with them to make bonsai,” Kehoe said. 

The late James Smith working on a 5-foot, formal upright Portulacaria Afra – the logo tree for the gallery.

Heathcote staff have to store their Baobab in a dark closet without water for part of the year to simulate its natural drought-ridden growth environment in Africa. The gallery also features a gumbo limbo tree, native to South Florida and the Caribbean. Their distinctive thin and shaggy bark is likened to the appearance of skin peeling away. 

“The local nickname for the gumbo limbo is ‘tourist tree’ because, like the tourists, it’s red and peeling!” Kehoe joked. 

You can find more information about the Heathcote and the James J. Smith Bonsai Gallery here. Have you been? Share your pictures and stories with us: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter. 

This magnificent Ficus exotica is 4 feet wide, has been in training since 1972 and was displayed at Epcot’s Flower and Garden Show in 2019.

Historical Tree Spotlight: The Logo Tree

The Sargent juniper, photographed by Stephen Voss for the National Bonsai Foundation Annual Report in 2019

Have you ever wondered how the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum logo came to be? 

In this month’s Historical Tree Spotlight, you’ll get to know the story behind one of our Sargent junipers, Juniperus chinensis var. sargentii, known as the shimpaku juniper in Japan. While the tree is notable for its place among the first 53 bonsai that established the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum collection in 1976, it’s also the inspiration for the Museum’s logo!

History of the Sargent juniper

The juniper is a yamadori, meaning it was collected from the wild. The tree came from Itoigawa, in Japan’s Niigata prefecture. Donor Kenichi Oguchi, who ran a bonsai nursery known for its beautifully trained junipers in the neighboring city of Okaya, started training the tree in 1905. Oguchi’s employees visited the Museum in 1977 to demonstrate how to use wiring to maintain the shape of the juniper. 

Museum Curator Michael James said bonsai often outgrow or might not match the style of their original containers, but the Sargent juniper has lived in the same antique Chinese pot since it was donated. He said the styling of this juniper is an excellent representation of the natural growth junipers experience in the wild, specifically in the land around Itoigawa, home to some of the most prized juniper yamadori material in Japan. 

Bob Drechsler, the Museum’s first curator, wiring the juniper with two of Kenichi Oguchi’s staff members in 1977

Trees in the Niigata region grow along cliffs and mountainous areas and are exposed to heavy snows and winds. The harsh weather conditions force junipers to fold back on themselves, which is reflected in the way Museum staff have trained this Sargent juniper’s branches to harmonize with the “shari,” or deadwood on the trunk, James said. 

“When training a juniper or bonsai, if you go by the guidelines, the branches often radiate out from the trunk,” he said. “But in nature, their branches fold like ribbons on top of each other. Sargent junipers also have a mounding habit in its foliage that is often cloud like.”

A story of resurrection

In the 1980s and 90s, the Sargent juniper mysteriously started to experience die-back. Finally, a curator determined the cause: a pest called the juniper twig girdler – the larvae of a small moth – had been eating away at the bonsai’s branches each year, slowly killing off parts of the tree until the apex completely died in 1998. 

“In the wild, twig girdlers don't harm junipers too much because the trees only lose a few branches but are perfectly adept and still survive,” James said. “But when it’s a little bonsai, the twig girdler is devastating.”

The larvae bury themselves in tiny holes under the bark, out of reach from treatment like insecticides, he said. Curators tried protecting the tree with measures like screened cages, but the most effective method was using a magnifying glass to find the holes and using a dental pick to scrape out the larvae. 

Left: The juniper in 1998 after losing its apex to the girdlers | Right: The juniper in 2019 with healthy foliage and branches

Once Museum staff discovered how to stave off the girdlers, former Museum Curator and recently retired National Bonsai Foundation Co-President Jack Sustic restyled the tree to create a new apex, and the tree is healthier than ever. 

“Even to this day, that moth returns to this tree annually and often just to this tree” James said. “But when the girdlers are found early enough, with vigilant checking, the branches are not lost.”

The birth of the logo

The Museum’s logo, created for the U.S. National Arboretum and adopted by NBF, came to fruition thanks to a collaborative effort. Former Arboretum Director John Creech initiated the development of the logo to create a “visual identity” for the Museum’s collection, in imitation of Japanese family crests.  

Beverly Hoge in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s communications department and local graphic designer Ann Masters, who had traveled in Japan, partnered to create the symbol. Masters visited the original Japanese bonsai collection – quarantined in Glenn Dale, Maryland in 1975 before the Museum was built – and was inspired by this Sargent juniper.

The evolution of the NBF and Museum logo.

John Creech noted in his book, The Bonsai Saga, that the logo depicts the Sargent juniper in a double circle to reflect the “sturdiness” of the bonsai and its abundant foliage. The leftmost branch of the juniper breaks the bands of the circle, which symbolizes the “continued vigor of the trees in their new home” – the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum!

“You can see the cloud-like foliage, the twisted trunk, the ribbon-like branches and the line separating dead and live wood in the drawing,” James said. “Those aspects were the main focus when creating the final version of this logo.”

The next time you visit the Museum, be on the lookout for our logo and pass on your knowledge of the significant history of this Sargent juniper bonsai. 

The entrance gate to the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum bearing the logo. Photo credit: USDA

National Bonsai Foundation Introduces 2020-21 Board of Directors

National Bonsai Foundation Introduces 2020-21 Board of Directors

We are thrilled to announce the National Bonsai Foundation 2020-21 Board of Directors! James Hughes is our new Board Chair. Read about his curatorship at the Museum and his background in our August blog posts. Marybel Balendonck, one of the founding NBF directors, will retain her position as vice president. 

We also have some new faces in officer positions. Help us welcome Chair-Elect Daniel Angelucci and Secretary/Treasurer James Brant. 

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Daniel Angelucci, Chair-Elect

Daniel Angelucci will serve as the NBF chair-elect for two years, followed by a two-year term as the NBF board chair. Angelucci has been practicing bonsai for 36 years. 

He was first introduced to the art when he lived in Flint, Michigan, and came across a bonsai demonstration at a local mall. Angelucci was inspired to buy books about bonsai to learn more. 

In 2008, his interest in bonsai took off after he joined the Ann Arbor Bonsai Society and the Four Seasons Bonsai Club of Michigan. The clubs exposed him to nationally recognized groups, like the American Bonsai Society (ABS), and bonsai artists like Jack Wikle and former NBF Co-President and Museum Curator Jack Sustic. 

Angelucci first joined the NBF board as a member in 2018. He decided to apply for the chair-elect officer position to contribute a varying skill set to the operations in support of the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum.

“It seemed to me that about 90 percent of the people who were on the board of the Foundation were bonsai professionals in some form or another,” he said. “I’m mediocre in bonsai art at best, but I thought I might have something to offer with regard to the time and talent I accrued in my financial and business backgrounds.” 

Now fully retired, Angelucci brings to the NBF board an extensive background in wealth management and investment strategy, with educational certificates from Duke, Harvard, Yale, Wharton and University of California, Berkeley.

He is a longtime friend of the arts, serving on the Board of Directors of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and holding memberships in NBF, ABS, the Ann Arbor bonsai society and Pittsburgh Bonsai Society. 

As chair-elect, Angelucci will focus on forging relationships with U.S. bonsai professionals and broadening the awareness of the Museum to maintain its significance as a U.S. national treasure. 

“There’s so much history in the original gift that the Japanese gave to the United States and in trees like the Yamaki pine, which survived the Hiroshima bombing,” he said. “It would be a travesty if we were not able to maintain the health of trees like that.” 

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James Brant, Secretary/Treasurer

James Brant will serve as Secretary/Treasurer for two years, then step into the full position of Secretary/Treasurer for two more. 

Brant taught various levels of education, from elementary school to adult evening school, for 31 years in Pennsylvania, retiring in 1999. He became involved with bonsai in the 70s, starting classes at Rosade Bonsai Studio in 1978. 

Brant has served several positions in the Pennsylvania and MidAtlantic bonsai societies and is a member of the Bonsai Society of the Lehigh Valley, Second Sunday Study Group and Delaware Valley Bonsai Study Group. He has served as coordinator for the Delaware group and Bonsai Kaido Ken Shu Kai Study Group. 

Brant has also instructed children’s bonsai classes and presented programs on wintering and bonsai display. He received the 2002 Bonsai Clubs International Meritorious Service Award. 

He was honored and pleased to join the board after being asked to fill in for a departing member. Before the joint Secretary/Treasurer position was created this year, Brant served solely as the NBF treasurer and has been a board member since 2005. 

Brant said some of his most memorable moments from the last 15 years at NBF were the compilation and publishing of Bonsai Master John Naka’s sketchbook, which you can find on our website, and the renovation of the Japanese exhibit.

In his new position, Brant hopes to provide NBF with a continuity of service and contribute to the Board’s goals in as many ways possible. 

“My wife Linda and I have met some truly wonderful people, and traveled to some remarkable places to spread the fellowship of bonsai,” he said. “Bonsai – and, to a degree, NBF – is a hobby that has given my life meaning, serenity, fellowship, and learning all rolled into one.” 

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Here is our full 2020-21 Board of Directors. We can’t wait to see what this year will bring under the stewardship of these devoted individuals!

OFFICERS

• James Hughes (‘22) - University Park, MD, Chair of the Board

• Daniel Angelucci (‘22) - Harrison Township, MI, Chair-Elect of the Board

• James Brant (‘22) - Royersford, Pennsylvania, Secretary/Treasurer

• Marybel Balendonck (’23) - Fullerton, California, Vice President

DIRECTORS

• Ross Campbell (‘23) – Silver Spring, MD

• Milton Chang, PhD (‘23) – Los Altos Hill, CA

• Christopher Cochrane ('22) – Glen Allen, Virginia

• Julie Crudele ('22) – Annapolis, Maryland

• Edward Fabian, ('21) – Niceville, Florida

• Joseph Gutierrez, MD, FACS ('21) – McLean, Virginia

• Karen Harkaway, MD (‘21) – Mount Holly, New Jersey

• Richard Kahn, PhD (‘22) – Alexandria, VA

• Cheryl Manning ('21) – Los Angeles, California

• Ann McClellan ('21) – Washington, DC

• Carl Morimoto, PhD (‘21) – San Jose, CA

• Pauline Muth ('21) – West Charlton, NY

• Doug Paul (‘21) – Kennett Square, PA

• Glenn Reusch (’21) – Rochelle, Virginia

• Deborah Rose, PhD (’22) – Beltsville, Maryland

• Stephen Voss ('21) – Washington, DC

EX-OFFICIO

• Charles Croft – President, Potomac Bonsai Association

• Mark Fields – President, American Bonsai Society

ICYMI: We profiled our recently retired board members! Reflect on their legacies with us here. 

Special gratitude and appreciation for retiring board members

At the annual National Bonsai Foundation Board of Directors meeting in August, we had the pleasure of honoring three directors who have retired from the board: Larry Ragle, Bill Valavanis and Jane Yamashiroya. We are grateful for the directors’ dedication to fostering a worldwide appreciation of peace and friendship through the art of bonsai. Please join us in reflecting on their contributions to the bonsai community over the years.

We have opened up the comment board below should you like to share your messages.

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Larry Ragle (1982-2020)

Larry Ragle joined NBF so he could contribute to the mission of elevating and expanding the value of bonsai on a global scale. He was one of the original board members when NBF was founded, and both he and his wife Nina have been very involved in the bonsai community. Ragle felt his directorship was an important step to honor his sensei, bonsai masters John Naka and Harry Hirao.

He sees NBF as the soul of the National Bonsai Museum and thanks NBF Vice President Marybel Balendonck for her encouragement and guidance. Ragle appreciates the heartwarming support he and NBF received during fundraising events that honored bonsai masters like John Naka, Harry Hirao and George Yamaguchi. 

“It has been a delight to see the Museum become a reality and watch all the improvements with so many dedicated volunteers,” he says. “It has been an honor to have played a small part, along with the rest of the bonsai community and beyond, to help make NBF the quality organization it has become.”

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Bill Valavanis (1998-2020)

Bill Valavanis originally joined NBF to help promote the Museum and bonsai through his extensive connections in the bonsai community. Valavanis’ favorite memory as a director is when he served as National Chair of the selection committee to assemble the initial 56 trees that formed the Museum’s collection of North American Bonsai more than 30 years ago. 

Valavanis fondly remembers when he and bonsai master Yuji Yoshimura compiled a list of 16 recommendations to revitalize the Museum’s collections and facilities. Valavanis is the third and only living inductee into the U.S. National Arboretum National Bonsai & Penjing Museum’s National Bonsai Hall of Fame. 

“Although I am no longer a director, I will continue to support and assist NBF to sustain the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum,” he says. “I am honored I had the opportunity to share my experiences and knowledge gained during my 58 years of bonsai study with NBF for more than three decades.”

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Jane Yamashiroya (2010-2020)

Jane Yamashiroya and her husband Roy became hooked on bonsai after attending a class on bonsai basics. They joined a bonsai club and spent their spare time improving skills. Eventually Ted Tsukiyama invited them to join the Hawaii Bonsai Association and informed them about NBF. 

Yamashiroya would come to serve as HBA’s president and as a bonsai instructor and international consultant for the World Bonsai Friendship Federation, all the while attending myriad bonsai conventions, getting to know bonsai senseis and joining the NBF board. The highlight of her tenure was traveling to Japan, China and South Korea to raise funds for the renovation of the Japanese Pavilion.

“It was an honor and a privilege to have served on the NBF Board,” Yamashiroya says. “When I began, there were only a few women in the beginner’s class but now it is equally divided. I hope to motivate the new members to carry the torch and go beyond Hawaii to study and expand their skills.”

We are grateful for all of the hard work and thoughtful consideration these three board members have contributed to the NBF governing body over the years. We hope our strong relationships with them will continue to blossom. 

At our annual meeting we also paid tribute to the work of Dr. Carl Morimoto, who has served as an NBF director since 2006 but stepped into the Vice President role in 2011. As of August 2020, Dr. Morimoto has retired as vice president, but we are pleased that he will remain on as a director. 

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Dr. Carl Morimoto, Vice President (2011-2020)

Bonsai master Harry Hirao encouraged Dr. Morimoto to join NBF so he could support the maintenance of the bicentennial bonsai gift from Japan. Being involved with NBF gave him opportunities to visit the Museum and see the bonsai close up. He is appreciative of working with the NBF executive committee and Museum staff, especially when supporting former NBF President Felix Laughlin in the communications and customs observed in Japan.

“The Museum’s Japanese white pine, or Yamaki pine, is known as the ‘Peace Tree’ because it survived the Hiroshima atomic bomb,” Dr. Morimoto says. “I also survived the bomb in Hiroshima, so I feel some destiny in being one of the NBF directors supporting the Museum.”

Museum Curators: Jack Sustic

Jack Sustic at NBF’s annual reception in 2018.

“It’s almost as if my life path was leading, from the very beginning, to become curator.”

— Jack Sustic

Sustic has just retired from his two-year stint as National Bonsai Foundation co-president and 19 years as a board member, leaving an extensive and inspiring legacy at the Museum – including 12 cumulative years as Museum curator. Therefore, it’s only fitting we pay homage to him in our next Museum Curators spotlight. 

His “path” to bonsai curator began indirectly during his youth. Sustic had heard references to bonsai in films like Karate Kid, but he first saw a real bonsai in the mid-1980s when he was serving in Korea as a U.S. Army soldier before college. He said the bonsai immediately captivated him, and upon returning to the U.S. at Fort McClellan, Alabama, Sustic joined the Alabama Bonsai Society.

The club jumpstarted his love for bonsai and plants in general, and Sustic soon graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in horticulture. He scored his first plant care job at the Riverbanks Zoo and Botanical Garden in South Carolina, during which he applied for the U.S. National Arboretum’s internship at the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum.

In 1996, Sustic served as the Museum intern for six months under Curators Bob Drechsler and Warren Hill. He returned to South Carolina after his internship wrapped up but was soon chosen for the Assistant Curator position, taking over as curator after Hill retired. Sustic served as curator from 2001 to 2005 and returned in 2008 to preside over the Museum for another eight years. 

“It was such an honor to be part of that collection, but with that honor comes responsibility,” Sustic said. 

Sustic and volunteer Dr. Joe Gutierrez repotting the Yamaki pine.

Accomplishments as Curator and Co-President

Sustic helped to establish many perennial programs and relationships at the Museum and NBF. He pioneered the formation of NBF’s National Bonsai Hall of Fame, which currently includes three members: John Naka, Yuji Yoshimura and Bill Valavanis.

“It was something I thought the Museum and the U.S. bonsai community needed in order to honor and recognize these bonsai masters’ valuable contributions to the art,” he said. 

Sustic is credited with planting the seeds to grow the Museum’s Sister Museum relationship with the Omiya Bonsai Art Museum after he visited their site in Saitama, Japan. Sustic also formed the Consortium of Public Bonsai Curators as a way for bonsai artists and leaders to share information about how they share, cultivate and protect their bonsai collections. 

“The consortium serves to help each other and each public collection. I’m very proud of that,” he said. 

From left to right: Former Curators Jim Hughes, Bob Drechsler, Jack Sustic and current Curator Michael James.

Sustic’s Bonsai Inspirations

Sustic met an array of friends and teachers throughout his nearly 20 years at the Museum. 

“Being curator has allowed me to get to know, work with and befriend people around the world who have been part of the Museum,” Sustic said. “The kindness that all these people share is wonderful.”

Among that company is Felix Laughlin, appointed as NBF’s third president as Sustic began his internship in 1996. Sustic eventually joined Laughlin as co-president from 2018 to 2020. 

“I was really lucky to have one NBF president the entire time I was at the Museum and really lucky it was Felix,” Sustic said. “He is such a wonderful guy, and we worked really well together.”

Sustic learned the art of bonsai from many people, but he most prominently drew inspiration and learned from bonsai master John Naka, who visited the Museum every year to work on trees, especially his world-renowned “Goshin.” Sustic also visited Naka in California to work on trees in Naka’s backyard. 

“Looking back now, I wish I had paid more attention,” he said. “It went by too fast, but those were wonderful experiences. I learned a lot from John, so his influence was huge on me.”

Sustic also learned from Harry Hirao and traveled to Saburo Kato’s bonsai nursery in Japan called Mansei En, during which he received one-on-one training from Kato. With their help, he excelled as a leader and friend throughout his years of dedication to the Museum. 

“I distinctly remember telling Bob Drechsler, ‘I don’t know how you can be curator. I could never do it,’” Sustic said. “Fortunately, over time I learned the ropes, and eventually I took it over. I considered it a real honor and privilege to have been the steward of those trees, and I still feel that way.”

Sustic adds the final touches on a trident maple prior to an official state visit by the Japanese Prime Minister in 2012.

Photographing Bonsai With Stephen Voss: A Visit to the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum During Quarantine

On May 13, the sun was shining on a beautiful spring day in Washington, D.C. As I drove through Rock Creek Park, trees formed a vibrant cathedral of green over the road, which was nearly empty of cars as Washingtonians remained home to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. 

I’d been given the unusual privilege of going to the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum in the midst of the District-wide shutdown to take photographs for the National Bonsai Foundation’s 2019 Annual Report.

On the premises of the U.S. National Arboretum, the Museum has always been a quiet and peaceful place, ideal for reflection and for connecting with nature. Usually the parking lot is fairly full, and both visitors and staff can be seen walking the grounds.

But May 13 was different. Only essential staff were allowed on site, and work days were staggered to encourage social distancing. Walking toward the Museum, with the Capitol Columns in the distance, I didn’t see a single person. The grounds felt emptied out, reclaimed by the quiet.

At the Museum, staff had been doing the vital work of keeping the trees healthy. The lack of visitors meant more ambitious projects could be undertaken, like repotting the famous Yamaki pine and letting the foliage of other trees grow out because they wouldn’t be on display.

Walking through the Museum alone, I felt both enormous gratitude and a sense of sadness, that others could not currently experience this living monument to bonsai.

But in these trying times, under the watchful eye of Museum staff, the trees have thrived. Their tenacity is a sign of hope, a reminder that the trees have persevered through other trying times. Outside these walls, the world shifts, our country convulses – but the trees endure. 

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As a photographer who now makes a living snapping pictures of some of the world’s most influential figures, Stephen Voss didn’t always know that photography could be more than a hobby.  Once a bonsai novice, he certainly didn’t think he would publish a photography book of bonsai.

Now that he’s an accomplished photographer, Voss wants to share his “tricks of the bonsai photography trade.” This entry is part of his regular guest blog series, “Photographing Bonsai with Stephen Voss", published on NBF’s blog, covering everything from lighting, angles and mindset needed when photographing the trees. This has been a special entry in this series given the times.

Sign up for our newsletter and follow us on Facebook and Instagram to never miss one of his entries! Read his last entry here.

Museum Curators: Jim Hughes

Jim Hughes working on a Japanese white pine at the Shanghai Botanical Garden.

For some people, horticulture is in their DNA. This is the case for Jim Hughes, our newly elected National Bonsai Foundation Board Chair and fourth curator, who hails from a lineage of Minnesota farmers. 

In this installation of “Museum Curators,” we chronicle Hughes’ dedication to nature and eventually bonsai, which started with childhood visits to his family farm. 

“I remember getting the dry kernels of corn off of the corn cobs, putting them in clear mason jars filled with dirt and watching the roots grow,” he said. “The whole process of plants taking off and growing, the day-by-day changes really fascinated me, so my whole life I've been interested in growing things.”

But Hughes’ first taste of bonsai didn’t come until about 30 years later – the late 1980s – when he joined the Minnesota Bonsai Society. He took his first training class from Randy Clark, who ran The Bonsai Learning Center. 

Hughes befriended influential members of the bonsai world – like world-class potter Sarah Rayner Alms – and learned from teachers and visiting speakers who attended the monthly bonsai club meetings. 

Four of five Museum Curators, from left to right: Jim Hughes, Robert Drechsler, Michael James and Jack Sustic.

In 1995, he moved to the D.C. area with seven years of bonsai experience, ready to learn more at the U.S. National Arboretum. He quickly became a Museum volunteer under our first curator Robert Drechsler, working with the other Museum’s curators in the ensuing years. 

“It was a really special opportunity to learn from so many different people, all of whom brought their own talents to the art form,” Hughes said. “That exposure greatly benefited me.”

He loves how bonsai is a unique art form that provides a focused and extremely rewarding career that can stretch across decades. 

“Every year you’re dealing with that element of time and age, which makes bonsai so exciting for me,” he said. “You know that five or nine years from now the tree is going to have a different personality because of that age. It’s a really interesting process, and it takes a certain kind of mentality to really be drawn to the complexity of bonsai.”

Hughes with Aaron Packard – an assistant curator Hughes hired to train at the Museum – and Museum Specialist Kathleen Emerson-Dell working on a bonsai they brought to the White House’s Blue Room in 2006 for a visit from the Japanese Prime Minister.

Leading the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum 

Hughes worked as a Museum volunteer for seven years, an assistant curator for three years and presided over the collection as curator for an additional three years, from 2005 to 2008 – gaining enough memories and friendships for a lifetime.

One highlight was his five-week trip studying penjing at the Shanghai Botanical Garden in China – the country he deems “the source of bonsai.” He studied with masters every day and took trips to other historical Chinese sites on the weekends. Hughes also had the pleasure of frequently learning from bonsai master John Naka, who visited D.C. for NBF board meetings. 

One of Hughes’ most thrilling memories was working to repot the imperial pine, an extensive process because of the tree’s immense size and weight. 

“It was incredible to lift the pine up on a hoist, remove it from that huge container, lay under the root ball and break away the dirt to see the roots that have formed over hundreds of years,” he said. “Not many people get to do it, so I was really fortunate.”

Hughes added that he loved the people he met at the Museum, both while volunteering or presiding as curator. He worked extensively with former NBF Executive Director Johann Klodzen (who retired after 19 years in January) on a capital campaign to renovate the Japanese Pavilion.

“That gave me an opportunity to visit and really have a personal conversation with our major donors, which was an educational experience for me and a way to see how important the museum is to so many people,” Hughes said. 

Hughes repotting the Ponderosa pine, one of many repottings he was able to take part in.

Taking the helm of NBF

Hughes maintained that his visions for the Museum as the new NBF chair are heavily predicated on partnerships and increasing engagement with donors and guests.

He aims to broaden support for the Museum within local, regional and national communities and international partners. Hughes is looking forward to collaborating with U.S. National Arboretum staff, supporting the goals of Arboretum Director Dr. Richard Olsen and working closely with Friends of the National Arboretum to raise money for the arboretum grounds. 

He and the NBF Board are investigating fundraising efforts for upcoming Museum projects, like improvements to the pavilions and structures that house collections and exhibits. 

“I’m really excited about the designs that Reed Hilderbrand and Trahan Architects have presented for improvements to the Museum,” Hughes said. “They are just stunning, and I can’t wait to share them with the public.”

Assistant Curator Blog: “Inside the Museum During COVID-19”

Japanese white pine donated by Masaru Yamaki, in training since 1625. This photo was taken on August 6, 2020 to commemorate its survival of the atomic bombing in Hiroshima, Japan 75 years ago. Photos courtesy of U.S. National Arboretum.

In early spring, as COVID-19 cases increased, many businesses and public places implemented restrictions or completely shuttered their doors. As many of you know, this was the fate of the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum. We had to close to ensure the safety of our visitors, volunteers, and staff. It has been about six months since the closure, but within the walls of the Museum we have been hard at work building the strength of the trees and continuing to bring the intended designs forward.  

One positive aspect of closing to the public is that the trees had an opportunity to grow out of their constantly maintained forms and build more strength and vigor. By letting new growth elongate and allowing the leaves mature, the trees were able to photosynthesize to a greater extent and recover the energy they used to push growth in spring. What might look like a slightly overgrown small shrub in a beautiful container is just a bonsai gaining energy and being pampered until it is once again brought back into shape for the viewer to gaze upon and enjoy.

Bonsai in the Japanese Collection soaking up the summer sun after a morning watering.

Bonsai in the Japanese Collection soaking up the summer sun after a morning watering.

As spring slowly passed and we began to settle into summer here in D.C., we experienced an intense heat wave. At this point in the year most of the trees have been repotted and their spring growth has been pruned. As the heat increases, the focus turns to attentive watering. Watering, as many people who practice bonsai know, is the first thing you learn and the last thing you master. Local weather conditions can vary greatly, especially in the temperate areas of the continental United States. With this weather variability, we must also change how we water. We can’t let trees get too dry or keep them too wet, causing rot and encouraging the onset of diseases or pests. Watering is a delicate process that gives me the greatest personal connection with each tree. 

Closing the Museum to the public has also meant it is closed to our wonderful team of volunteers. Although we have been able to keep up with most of the work with our small staff, the skills, knowledge, and friendship that the volunteers provide to the Museum have been greatly missed.

As we approach summer’s end, we are looking forward to when we can once again open the gates of the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum and welcome our visitors and supporters to a safe space to enjoy the beauty, peace, and joy that bonsai provides to us all. 

Sincerely,

Andy Bello
Assistant Curator
National Bonsai & Penjing Museum
U.S. National Arboretum