Few art collections breathe and grow autonomously; Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s bonsai collection has for 100 years. To highlight this milestone anniversary, the institution and its C.V. Starr Bonsai Museum have launched an expanded offering, added accessible signage, and arranged commemorative activations.
“New Yorkers can gain so much from understanding bonsai. I suppose it’s a bit like taking time to smell the roses,” says the Garden’s Horticulture Director, Shauna Moore, who sees the peculiar trees as an invitation to slow down in the midst of the city’s never-ending bustle. “This patience and quiet contemplation can feel elusive in our metropolis, making bonsai a gateway to a kind of peace.”
When bonsai first landed in the U.S.—as a postwar keepsake from returning GIs—there were few resources for American gardeners. So, they “came to BBG for guidance, community, or even to donate their specimens,” Moore explains. While most Americans still didn’t know what a bonsai tree was, Brooklyn Botanic Garden launched some of the first classes that taught growers how to keep the small plants alive and thriving.
BBG flourished during this period under the stewardship of Frank Okamura, who arrived in New York at 13, lost his gardening business during the wartime period of Japanese internment, and relocated to New York post-war, where he saw opportunity for this emerging craft. Over the next four decades, he became one of the most important bonsai masters in the country.
Today, BBG houses one of the oldest and largest collections of bonsai outside of Japan. How big exactly? There are over 400 trees, which need to be meticulously pruned, pinched, wired, and watered, sometimes twice a day. Every other year, the physically-demanding task of repotting the garden’s entire bonsai collection rears its head. Gardener David Castro works on-site solely with the trees, alongside a rotating cast of volunteers. More than a horticultural feat, the collection stands as an archive of resilience and cross-cultural connection—proof that even in the most frenetic places, quiet beauty can endure for a century and more.
To commemorate 100 years of bonsai, visit the Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s website and learn more about the collection and upcoming events.
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