Bonsai
Bonsai
Japanese Garden
Olive tree
Pyracantha
Bald Cypress
Crabapple
- Bonsai (pronounced “BONE-sigh”) is a horticultural art form that started in China and then became popular in Japan.
- The Japanese word bonsai translates as “tree in a pot.” Bonsai are living plants, typically a tree, shrub, or woody herb grown in a pot and trained to develop characteristics found in a very old tree.
- The Huntington has more than 400 bonsai trees in its collection.
- There are two ways to measure bonsai age: real age (how long the tree has been alive) and the age of training (how long it has been worked on by a bonsai designer).
- Some of the bonsai at The Huntington were grown using plant material that was more than 1,000 years old!
Activity
Write a four-line poem about one of the bonsai trees. Think about color, shape, line, and texture.