Brooklyn Botanic Garden is marking a century of miniature magic with its biggest bonsai exhibition ever. The C.V. Starr Bonsai Museum collection features over 400 trees, including a 500-year-old Rocky Mountain juniper and an 800-year-old Sargent juniper from Japan, alongside three original trees still growing in their 1925 vases. Visitors can explore bonsai displays set against full-sized trees, watch live pruning demonstrations, and catch screenings of a restored 1971 film about the museum’s first curator. Special weekend events include candlelit sake dinners and a pop-up bonsai supply store, ensuring there’s something for both seasoned enthusiasts and curious newcomers.
Seasonal rotations showcase autumn foliage, blooms, and even fruit on tiny branches—traits impossible to miniaturize yet essential to the art’s living beauty. Museum gardener David Castro curates fresh displays that highlight flowering and fragrant species, keeping each visit unique. The collection’s roots trace back to 1911 imports by landscape designer Ernest F. Coe, and the museum flourished under Frank Masao Okamura’s stewardship from 1947 to 1981, sparking America’s bonsai boom. Today, nearly 200 U.S. bonsai clubs continue that legacy, testifying to Brooklyn’s role in growing this ancient art form on modern soil.