The Steinhardt Conservatory in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, located at 1000 Washington Avenue in Brooklyn, New York, is a complex of display and support greenhouses that holds the garden's collection of more than 8,000 indoor plants from an array of plant habitats.
I have already blogged about the Brooklyn Botanic Garden's Japanese Hill and Pond Garden, the beautiful Magnolia trees and Cherry trees, and today I'd like to show some of the garden's fascinating specimens of bonsai in the C.V. Starr Bonsai Museum. (all photos can be enlarged by clicking on them)
The Brooklyn Botanic Garden's extensive bonsai collection has long been considered one of the finest in the world. The collection's approximately 350 trees comprise the second oldest collection in the country and one of the largest on public display outside Japan, with as many as 30 specimens displayed in the exhibit on a rotating basis.
Bonsai is the Japanese art of growing trees, or woody plants shaped as trees, in containers. BBG’s bonsai collection began in 1925 with 32 dwarf potted trees.
This Acer Palmatum is 115 years old! One Japanese white pine bonsai in the Brooklyn Botanic's collection is over 300 years old, and is generally on display during the winter
A successful bonsai is designed so that visitors not only see the tree form or architecture, but also get a sense of the surrounding environment in which the tree might be found in nature
The bonsai are displayed in a Japanese-style architectural setting. Text panels introduce the history of bonsai and explain the plants' culture and care.
This Wisteria Floribunda is 75 years old and was in bloom the day I visited the garden. Viewing the bonsai collection was another peaceful way to enjoy nature, and since this is the centennial year of the founding of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden I hope to visit it many more times for special events this summer!
I'm joining Mary at The Little Red House blog today for Mosaic Monday. Please visit her blog to see links to many blogs participating today with their photo mosaic masterpieces!
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44 comments:
Those bonsai trees are so interesting. Those little trees are always so amazing to me! I love your tour of NY each week. You are a wonderful tour guide. I especially loved the cherry blossoms!! Have a great week. Love & blessings from NC!
It must be the coolest to live in NY...certainly never a dull moment! What beautiful bonsai trees those are....we have lots of cherry blossoms here that I too love!~
These are just amazing and, you're right, peaceful as well. It requires so much patience to be a bonsai gardener/artist but the end result is such beauty.
I am moving to NY - Oh, just the thought of going to see those beautiful bonsai ... amazing!
Fascinating Pat. Another incredible post- can't wait to get back up to NY
xoxo Pattie
Those bonsai are the coolest! Pretty neat! Love your posts and they take me back, haven't been to the Gardens in years! Many years!
Great mosaics...thanks for sharing them! Hope you have a lovely new week!
Hugs...
Bobbi
Pat, The time and effort that go into the pruning and the upkeep of these pieces of nature/artwork just amazes me. They are beautiful and interesting. Thanks, once again, for another fascinating tour. hugs, Sue
That is totally amazing, Pat, to see those LARGE trees in pots... Awesome!!!! What a great exhibit. Thank You for sharing this... I want to see it ALL.... ha
Hugs,
Betsy
Oh! The Bonzai trees you shared with us are beautiful! It is fun to imagine being itty bitty sitting under them! They are such perfect minitatures!
Blessings & Aloha!
(thank you so much for stopping by! I appreciate your sweet comment and following! I'm following you now too :o)
I love your name as well... Mille Fiori..Italian for "thousand flowers" right? We had given some beautiful little glass pendants made in Italy that were called Millefiori.)
What a treat to see so many bonsai trees in one place! The wisteria is incredible!
How serendipitous that your post on bonsai trees comes up the same day that CBS did a segment on them on their Sunday Morning show! Fascinating hobby!
Great mosaics, too. :)
You always find such interesting things to blog about. I guess that is one advantage of big city living! Thanks,
JoAnn
Bonsai trees are truly amazing. I didn't know too much about them until the fall, when we sat at dinner on a cruise with a lady who volunteered in the Bonsai section of a garden in Chicago. Fascinating!
Well...it seems you never run out of interesting things to show us! The bonsai are most beautiful.
I have always loved bonsai and this is one exhibit I will have to see if I'm ever in New York. At one time, I had quite a collection of bonsai, my favorite of which was a Japanese maple which turned brilliant red in the autumn before shedding its leaves.
Hi
Oh thanks for the link to CV Starr Bonsai Museum! What a lovely setting - big and airy and it does give a sense of peace and quiet contemplations. There are these wonderful sculptures too. And you can really get a sense of how tiny these trees are! My goodness.
That Acer is stunning - a beauty at 115 years old! Wow.
and I love how some of the trees are blooming! And I always find it incredible how these trees survive in such little soil!
Imagine the patience and skill of maintaining these little pots of perfect plants! They even fruit - there's a pic of a berry in the link - how amazing is that?
Oh I would love to see that pine that is over 300 years old. I looked at the pics of the museum of some of their bonsai collection and I hope it was one of them!
Beautiful as always! Thank you
take care
x
Gorgeous little trees, the acer & wisteria are my favourites. How wonderful that you have such a marvellous place to enjoy all year round.
Happy MM
Maggie
Thanks for sharing - I doubt I will ever get there to see that in person - but loved to see the photo's. Truly a beautiful art form!
Gosh they are so interesting. A beautiful display. We tried growing them once but found them difficult to look after. 300 hundred years old!!!!
Wow, so many beautiful bonsai trees. I had one once but promptly killed it. So nice to see more of Brooklyn Botanic Garden.
What a fantastic bonsai collection--I had no idea that was there! I used to try bonsai off & on...not much success, I confess...LOL! But I love the art of bonsai, it is fascinating! Happy Week, Pat :o) ((HUGS))
Growing bonsai is really an art - these examples you've shown are outstanding!
Amanda
Cool! Don't you wonder how they get such big trees from such little pots?
I'm just awestruck at the photo of the bonsai wisteria. I've never seen wisteria used in bonsai; it makes me want to give it a try!
I would love to see the Bonsai trees! I had 2 for many years and enjoyed them so much! Thanks for sharing the photos! Beautiful!
I think we have to meet up to go to the Botanical Garden together.
Your photos get more and more inspiring!
I don't know if I'd have the patience to grow a bonsai tree but I think they are beautiful.
Hi Pat
Wow! What great pics of the bonsai--I know people who have them are very serious about their care! Loved your mosaic!
Pat these are absolutely wonderful. Thanks so much for sharing these photos!
At The Huntington on Saturday, I walked thru the bonsai garden in the Japanese section of the garden. They're so interesting but I've never been tempted to have my own. My husband on the other hand... knows that the garden show we're going to this weekend will have bonsai for sale and really, really wants one. I may end up a bonsai owner after all.
The Botanical garden looks beautiful...I have never been but one of these trips I need to go...it was in consideration for daughter's wedding reception...I bet weddings there are beautiful...
How beautiful and incredible! I have never seen so many bonsai. It is a huge garden! I can imagine myself the last person to leave the Garden.
Love your post...it is so detailed.
What an interesting place. There was a bonsai shop here when we 1st moved in but it has closed. I can't get over just how properly tree like they are- shaped like they would be in the wild.
What a treasure trove can be foundat the botanic gardens. I love bonsai and while I just dabble, I know enough to see how gorgeous the trees you have shown us are. I hope you are having a wonderful day. Blessings...Mary
Bonsai are so beautiful and so architectural. Once I was in a really nice nursery and a salesperson tried to interest me in growing one! Me! I laughed so hard I almost cried.
That wisteria tree is to die for..
Fantastic and such an interesting post.
I had no idea they had so many different ones. Thanks for sharing..
yvonne
The bonsai trees are beautiful! I can't believe there is a wisteria one...amazing!
Great photos, Pat!
Thanks for sharing the bonsai trees - this was the first bonsai wisteria I've seen! I'm off to read your other posts about the Brooklyn Botanic Garden . . .
Wow, they are amazing! What a wonderful place to visit. You are so lucky, Pat, to live nearby. Thanks so much for sharing at MM. :)
My family has a friend that has been growing and "creating" in a sense bonsai trees for 30 years. Theyare indeed a wonder. We visit Como Park for our Bonsai fix - may not be the largest in the world but it is a beauty!
My oldest granddaughter would be fascinated by all of those Bonsai. She loves them.
Gorgeous pictures....BEAUTIFUL
Be sure and stop by main blog and read about a miracle.
http://teresa-grammygirlfriend.blogspot.com/2010/04/i-think-god-smiled.html
I've always wanted to have a bonsai but what restrains me is the huge amount of cure it will take to stay good....and I'm not the green-thum kind of person....
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