Event

Bonsai School

Bonsai master Ted Matson will lead an intensive, four-session class for beginners in the art of bonsai, including the history of this ancient art form, basic tree botany, design concepts, horticultural techniques, training methods, and display. All supplies and tools are provided. $40. (Additional lab fee of $60 will be collected in class.)

Location: Head House and Teaching Greenhouse (in Botanical Complex)

Requirements: notebook, pen

Course Description: This course is intended to give students a foundation for understanding, growing, training and maintaining bonsai trees, and to prepare them for further study in a general bonsai workshop/study group setting. Rather than the typical approach of styling a tree from "beginner" bonsai stock, trees from the bonsai collections and nurseries at The Huntington will be used for discussion and for learning/practicing hands-on training techniques. Supplies and equipment will be provided, along with handouts and examples/sources of tools and other items that students will need to pursue the hobby successfully, and on a more serious level. The class concludes with a visit to a bonsai exhibition where students will participate in a critique of a bonsai display.

Session 1: Introduction & History of Bonsai, Introduction to Bonsai Horticulture

Session 2: Bonsai Horticulture continues, Bonsai Design, including introduction of basic styles

Session 3: Bonsai Training, including wiring practice and repotting

Session 4: Bonsai Display, Visiting a Bonsai Exhibition for Critique