Bonsai By Night in Black and White

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If you've visited the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum at the U.S. National Arboretum, or if you've browsed through the photos on our website, you know how photogenic the bonsai collections can be. There is a special majesty to the trees on display, and the more time you spend with them, the more each one expresses its own unique artistic vision.

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At night, an essence of mystery descends on the stone paths and serene gardens of the Arboretum and the Museum. Since the grounds are open during daytime hours, visitors don’t usually have a chance to see bonsai under the moon. When its dark, and especially in black and white photographs, a glamorous mix of shadows and light emerges among the trees.

These black and white photos of bonsai by night are uniquely alluring. The nocturnal setting and the stark style converge to showcase beguiling details of texture and form.

Which is your favorite photo? Let us know your reactions in the comments.

Click on any of the photos to view fullscreen. You can use the arrow keys or click on the left or right of each image to scroll through the gallery in the lightbox slideshow.

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Thanks for Voting Us The Best (Again)!

We are so grateful to all of you who voted for the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum in this year's Washington City Paper Best of DC Reader's Poll! Thanks to you, we are proud to announce that the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum placed in 4 categories.

Best Place to Meditate
WINNER

Best Place to Take an Out of Towner
WINNER

Best Tour for Out of Towners
FINALIST

Best City Escape in the City
FINALIST

Thank you for helping us be recognized as “The Best of DC” since 2018! Because of these public honors, more people discover the beauty and serenity of the art of bonsai.

And, a big congrats to The U.S. National Arboretum who placed in 3 categories as well!

The U.S. National Bonsai Exhibition

Biannually, in September, there is a gathering in Rochester, New York, marking one of the most important events in the North American bonsai calendar. Some of the finest trees in the country will be on display as well as one of the largest concentrations of quality vendors. Highlights of the weekend include a series of lectures and demonstrations, an auction and awards banquet, the exhibition and vendor halls, a series of display critiques and much more.

The exhibition itself is massive. Around one half of the 50,000 ft2 facility is dedicated to a juried selection of over 200 displays, with areas dedicated to large and medium-sized bonsai, shohin, suiseki, kusamono, and much more. Most of the other half of the facility is distributed among the nearly 50 vendors on hand over the weekend. In addition to the display of trees from private collections, there are special exhibits from the U.S. National Bonsai & Penjing Museum, the Montreal Botanic Garden, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and other important public and private collections across North America. It will take numerous circuits of the display area to appreciate all that is on offer.

Over the course of the weekend, a panel of noteworthy artists will lead tours through the exhibit hall, offering a detailed analysis and assessment of all that is on offer. A separate international panel of distinguished and experienced judges, including Koji Hiramatsu (Japan), Gerald Rainville (Canada), Corin Tomlinson (UK), and Sean Smith (U.S.), will carefully evaluate each of the many displays throughout the exhibit hall. Drawing on the breadth of their experience and their knowledge of bonsai aesthetics, they will distribute the National Award, as well as awards for best evergreen, best tropical, best North American native, finest classical bonsai and many more. These awards will be presented at the banquet and auction on Saturday night.

The dynamic spark of creative energy behind this exhibition is William Valavanis, an institution in American bonsai. For over half a century, Bill has been a tireless promoter and educator of bonsai in the United States. Between 1970 and 1972, he studied bonsai in Japan at the gardens of Kyuzo Murata, Kakutaro Komuro, and Tameji Nakajima. He also studied saikei with Toshio Kawamoto and ikebana at the Shofu School of Ikebana. Bill then enrolled at Cornell, majoring in Floriculture and Ornamental Horticulture and began a decades-long relationship, first as a mentee and then as a collaborator, with Yuji Yoshimura in Upstate New York. Thus began Bill’s lifelong dedication to promoting bonsai and sharing his passion for the art.

Bill Valavanis (left) and Yuji Yoshimura. Photo courtesy of William Valavanis.

Establishing the U.S. National Bonsai Exhibition is just one of Bill’s many accomplishments as an author, artist and teacher. We who share Bill’s passion for the art of bonsai, owe him a debt of gratitude for his efforts to raise the standards of North American bonsai and for having provided this forum for all of us to gather and mark our collective progress.

In recognition of his many accomplishments and his lifetime of contributions, the American Bonsai Society presented Bill with a richly- deserved Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003. In 2017, Bill was the third inductee to the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum’s Bonsai Hall of Fame, following John Naka and his friend and mentor, Yuji Yoshimura.

William Valavanis in 2017 at the Hall of Fame ceremony. Photo courtesy of Young Choe.

The first U.S. National Exhibition that I attended was in 2014. Having visited a number of public and private collections as well as many state and regional conventions, I was fully aware that quality bonsai existed in America. I was, however, and continue to be, astonished at the quality and quantity of excellent bonsai developed and maintained by private collectors across the country. It is these trees that are showcased at the U.S. National Bonsai Exhibition. As I walked the hall filled with stunningly beautiful trees, I was disappointed that I had missed the first three of these gatherings.

I committed right then and there to eventually showing my own trees at this event. I recall the many hours of work and planning it took to bring that about and remember my pride in seeing my own work displayed among such an excellent collection of bonsai. I now mark the event on my calendar two years in advance and am constantly asking of my best trees when they might be ready for a future U.S. National Bonsai Exhibition.

The 8th U.S. National Bonsai Exhibition is scheduled for September 9-10th, 2023 in
Rochester, NY. The National Bonsai Foundation and the American Bonsai Society stand together in support of this special event. As a showcase for the best in American bonsai, this is an opportunity to measure the quality and progress of your own collection and to reimagine how far your own artistic efforts can take you. As an educational experience, this is an opportunity to engage with some of the best American artists on how you may improve the quality of your collection and, thus, contribute to the progress of bonsai in North America. As one of the largest gatherings of artists and vendors in the U.S.,
this is an opportunity to connect with a community of people having a shared and common interest.
This is an event not to be missed. I’ll be there and I am already blocking my weekends in September 2025 for the next one.

To register for the event, visit this website.

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This article was originally written by Dr. Soctt Barboza and published in the August American Bonsai Society Newsletter. Dr. Scott Barboza was introduced to bonsai by a friend while studying geology at UC Davis in the early 1990’s. Bonsai resonated with his passions for hiking, the outdoors, and gardening. He took classes in Sacramento and while in graduate school at the University of Washington. After moving to Houston in the late 1990s, Scott became a member of the Houston Bonsai Society and began studying with Boonyarat Manakitivipart with whom he has worked for many years. Scott’s trees have won awards at local, state, and regional competitions and he has exhibited trees at several national shows. He has lectured, taught, and helped to organize several conventions and exhibitions.

8th U.S. National Bonsai Exhibition Comes to Rochester, NY

NBF is proud to help promote the upcoming 8th U.S. National Bonsai Exhibition which will be held in East Rochester, NY September 9-10. Join people from around the world for this special event where over 200 of the finest Bonsai in the country will be on display.

The video below is a fly through of the exhibit from 2 years ago.

The U.S. National Exhibitions feature one of the largest and most diverse collections of vendors offered at any bonsai event in the nation.

In addition to over 200 museum quality bonsai, suiseki and kusamono, there will be an indoor soccer field packed full of vendors from throughout the United States. Over 40 select vendors offer visitors an extensive selection of bonsai, pre-bonsai, collected trees, containers, tools, suiseki as well as other items to add to your bonsai collection and to enhance your appreciation of the art.

Commemorative Benches - A New Opportunity

If you love the beauty and brilliance of bonsai, you will appreciate this new opportunity to support the legacy of this great art form.

We invite you to recognize a special occasion or memorialize a loved one by dedicating a commemorative bench on the grounds of the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum at the U.S. National Arboretum. Every generous donation helps ensure that the legacy of bonsai will be protected, preserved, and passed on for future generations.

Each commemorative bench helps us care for the incredible collection of trees at the nation's first and finest bonsai museum. Your gift will be part of a historic tradition that spans continents and cultures, and it will support the art of bonsai for generations to come.

To learn more, visit bonsai-nbf.org/benches.

Vote for Us in Best of DC 2023!

In two minutes, you can help build our community.

Please vote for us and the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum in the Washington City Paper's Best of DC 2023!

Help more people discover the beauty and serenity of the art of bonsai. Voting is open until midnight ET on July 10. For more than five years, you've kept us among the top spots in the categories below. With your vote this year, we can stay there.

Will you take a moment to vote for us in the following categories?

Best Place to Take an Out-of-Towner
Vote for the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum

Best Place to Meditate
Vote for the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum

Best Museum Off the Mall
Vote for the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum

Best Arts & Culture Nonprofit
Vote for the National Bonsai Foundation

(Note that you will need to write in the nomination for each ballot.)

Please share this with your friends and family, too! Simply share this link: www.bonsai-nbf.org/wcp2023. We need everyone to vote for bonsai!

NBF strives each day to uphold and promote the beauty of the Museum’s trees and viewing stones – so more people can experience the resilience and tranquility found among bonsai and penjing.

Voting closes at midnight ET on July 10! Thank you for taking the time to honor and promote the Museum and the National Bonsai Foundation, an ever-evolving emblem of intercultural understanding and friendship.

The Artist Behind This Year's World Bonsai Day T-Shirt Design: Aaron Stratten

Aaron working on his bonsai.

The artwork featured on this year’s commemorative World Bonsai Day t-shirt was designed by Aaron Stratten. Aaron is a bonsai lover, multi-medium artist, art educator, and self-proclaimed “gardenbody.” He currently serves as Potomac Bonsai Association’s President and has taught art at Faifax County Public Schools for over a quarter century. We were lucky to sit down with him to learn more about his inspiration for this year’s shirt, what he loves most about bonsai, and why he thinks you should join a bonsai club. Read all about Aaron below…And, order your t-shirt for this year’s World Bonsai Day (WBD) on May 13th.

1.) Tell us a bit about your art form, your process, and your history.

To understand me as an artist, you have to first understand that I am an art educator.

I have served Fairfax County Public Schools for nearly 25 years as a high school and middle school art teacher, and as the K-12 art educational specialist in the fine arts office. I have also taught at the preschool and college levels. Art teachers in public schools teach a full range of media and skills. This educator lens reinforces a  widely-varied personal art practice which includes drawing, painting, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, digital art, and of course, bonsai. I believe deeply in teaching and practicing a variety of ideation and planning processes as the foundation for creating artwork, and for solving any other sort of problem, so my process involves many drafts, sketches, and iterations.

For my personal education in art, I went to Indiana University where I earned a BS in art education and a BA in fine arts with a focus on painting. I later got a Masters from Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) where I had a dual focus on painting and printmaking. The irony is not lost on me that I spent so many years training in two-dimensional media and now spend most of my creative energies in three dimensions, shaping living trees and pots to keep them in.

2.) Tell us about the design you created for WBD. What was your inspiration, your process, technique, etc.

Aaron’s design for the 2023 World Bonsai Day commemorative t-shirt.

The 2023 World Bonsai Day t-shirt design was intended from the start as a single color, graphic image that would capture the essence of bonsai and bonsai practice rather than the image of a particular bonsai tree. It is a combination of traditional ink drawing, cut paper, and digital manipulation. Progressively larger circles contain, first, a simplified ink drawing of a tree in a pot illustrating the most basic translation of the Japanese kanji, “bon” (a pot or tray) and “sai” (a tree or plant). The second ring shows ramified branches extending outward from the center of the design just as branches extend from the trunk of a tree, and the third ring represents the life-giving foliage of the tree represented with a simplified pattern of ink brush blots. The circles are not concentric, but are very intentionally arranged with asymmetry, an essential aspect of bonsai design, and imperfectly to give a nod to the wabi-sabi aesthetic which is deeply embedded in bonsai practice and is reinforced by the imperfection of the torn-edge of the outer shape. Order yours today!

3.) How did you get involved with bonsai? What do you love about the practice and the art form?

I have practiced bonsai for over 25 years. It combines my love of art and a love of nature gained from spending so much time outside in my rural Indiana upbringing. Bonsai also aligns nicely with some of my artmaking habits. As a painter, I have often struggled with knowing when to stop. I would continue refining and adjusting a painting forever if I didn’t have a deadline. This tendency toward continuous refinement and iteration lent itself well to working with a medium that continues to grow and change over time. It also inspired the title of my bonsai blog, Bonsai Iterate.

I practiced solo for way too long and didn’t join a bonsai club until 2016 when I found the Northern Virginia Bonsai Society. My learning accelerated and before I knew it, I was president of the club, a role I held from 2018 through 2022. The best advice I can give anyone who loves bonsai is – join a bonsai club! The connections to other practitioners is invaluable, and your learning will take off leading to better, healthier trees.

4.) Do you have a favorite tree at the Museum? If so, which and why?

American Beech (Fagus grandifolia) donated by Fred H. Mies in 2003, in training since 1979

There are so many amazing trees at the bonsai museum but I am regularly drawn back to the American Beech (Fagus grandifolia) in the North American Collection. My time in the woods in the Midwest and in Virginia has fostered a love of the big, native deciduous trees of our temperate forests. While these species, like the American Beech, may not offer naturally small leaves ideal for miniature trees, they still speak to me as representations of the environments I know so well. Visiting the Beech at the museum is also inspiration for continuing to work on a few beech in my own collection.

5.) How will you be celebrating World Bonsai Day?

I am currently the president of the Potomac Bonsai Association (PBA) so I just might be spending World Bonsai Day – the weekend immediately following the annual PBA Bonsai Festival – recovering from all that we put into running that event. I’m a bit of a homebody… or maybe a garden-body (Can we make that a thing, please?) so I can’t think of anything better than spending time with my bonsai and in my garden at my home in Woodbridge, Virginia. The roses and Siberian irises will be blooming, as they always do just in time for Mother’s Day, and all the trees will be lush and green. What could be better?

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Purchase your commemorative
World Bonsai Day 2023 t-shirt today!

Welcome Angelica Ramirez, 2023 National Bonsai Apprentice!

Angelica Ramirez, 2023 National Bonsai Apprentice

The National Bonsai Foundation (NBF) is pleased to introduce this year’s National Bonsai Apprentice, Angelica Ramirez – a multi-talented artist. Ramirez steps in as we thank and wish Henry Basile, the 2022 Apprentice, much luck in his next step at the Denver Botanic Gardens as Assistant Curator of the Japanese Garden. Read his thank you note at this link.

The purpose of the National Bonsai Apprenticeship is to educate and train a new generation of American bonsai artists. You can learn more about the Apprenticeship at this link.

Originally from Florida, Angelica Ramirez came to bonsai after years of pursuing and excelling in many interests. She attended the University of Florida for Music Performance and has been a cellist for over fifteen years. She is an accomplished archer, having won multiple championships and breaking multiple state and international records. Angelica started painting as a form of expression, and has a Helicopter Private Pilot license.

These various pursuits in life have led her to the art of bonsai, as she began practicing the art form in 2019 as a way to relax from flight school. She has studied under several teachers including Feng Gu of Penjing Bonsai Garden, Peter Chan of Herons Bonsai, and David Cutchin of D&L Bonsai. She was the first bonsai intern at the Chicago Botanic Garden, where she worked under the Garden’s bonsai curator (and former National Bonsai & Penjing Museum national bonsai apprentice), Chris Baker.

Angelica is the creator of Discover Potters, the global online database of bonsai potters which includes direct links to over 400 active potters in over 45 countries; and includes resources for finding and learning about bonsai pottery. Several of her accomplishments include earning second place at the Bonsai Societies of Florida’s styling competition, which earned her a scholarship to continue her bonsai studies and awarded the opportunity to be a guest artist for the 2022 48th Annual Bonsai Societies of Florida Convention. During that year, Angelica showcased her bonsai at the 2022 Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival and later, at the Chicago Botanic Garden.

Welcome, Angelica! We are thrilled to have you on the team and look forward to all that you will do for the Museum, trees and community!

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​​NBF is pleased to provide complete financial support for this apprenticeship, thanks to the Foundation’s generous donors. Without your help, this one-of-a-kind apprenticeship that helps to usher in the next generation of horticulturists wouldn’t be possible. Make a tax-deductible gift today to support the future of bonsai artistry. 

In Memoriam: Marybel Balendonck

The National Bonsai Foundation and greater bonsai community celebrates the life of brilliant bonsai artist Marybel Balendonck, who passed away at age 97 in California in February 2023. 

Balendonck was born and raised in Texas, working an assortment of odd jobs (even obtaining a pilot’s license!) before moving to California in the 1960s. Asian arts captivated her, and she began to teach herself bonsai through books, starting her formal training in 1965. She was one of John Naka’s principal students and dear friends but also studied under prominent artists like Melba Tucker and Harry Hirao.

Since her introduction to bonsai, her passion for the art only grew, and she became thoroughly involved in the bonsai community, once saying that "bonsai combines many of the best aspects of art and nature.”

Balendonck was one of the founding members of the NBF Board of Directors (serving until 2020) and an original member of Kofu Bonsai Kai, a Southern California-based bonsai club. She served in several bonsai club leadership positions, including the Santa Anita Bonsai Society, California Bonsai Society, Golden State Bonsai Federation and a founding member of California Aiseki Kai. She was also the first non-Japanese member of Nampu Kai Bonsai – John Naka’s exclusive bonsai club.

Naka (in overalls) and Nampu Kai members gather including Marybel (in yellow) around a tree during a 2003 meeting in California

“There was hardly any separation between John and Marybel, they were that close,” Former NBF President and Chair Emeritus Felix Laughlin said. “Her legacy will be the Museum’s John Y. Naka Pavilion and the iterations of it in future renovations. Marybel was the real deal and a great and tenacious fighter and promoter of NBF and the Museum.”

Left: John Naka and wife Alice Naka with Marybel

Right: Marybel (orange), John Naka, Nay Komai, Barbara Hall Marshall, Cheryl Manning and Alice Naka

Besides her support for the Naka Pavilion, which houses the North American collection, Balendonck was a key player in the fundraising efforts for several Museum structures and was known for her generous heart. The California Bonsai Society and other friends of Marybel helped to fund the Research Center of the Museum’s exhibits gallery, recognizing her contributions toward the Museum’s completion. 

“Legend has it that during a banquet at a bonsai convention in California she locked all the doors except one, where she put a table and chair in front of and no one could leave unless they gave to the North American Pavilion construction project,” former NBF Co-President Jack Sustic said. “Not sure if that's the exact truth, but knowing Marybel I wouldn't put it past her!”

Her trees were displayed in venues like the Huntington Library and Gardens, Los Angeles County Arboretum, the Japanese American Cultural Center Los Angeles and the Bowers Museum in Orange County, California. Her Chinese Elm, shown left and donated to the Museum in 1990, was once on display at the White House. She was awarded the 1994 Ben Oki Award by the American Bonsai Society.

Marybel also has several stones, including a dobutsu-seki, or animal-shaped stone, in collections all over the world. 

“I have so much respect and admiration for Marybel and consider myself fortunate to be able to call her friend,” Sustic said. “Never one to hide her opinions or waver in her views, one knew exactly where they stood in her eyes. We came to be close friends and her support of me, as a friend and as curator has meant the world to me and I'm eternally grateful for both.”  

Marybel, middle, at the groundbreaking ceremony for the Naka Pavilion in November 1988.