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!
