The trees in our bonsai collection are full of charm, intrigue, and beauty. They are also full of stories. Some came to our collection with stories attached. Over the years, members of the bonsai community have entrusted their trees to our collection to ensure their sustained care. They come to us with a history of the original caretaker, maintaining a legacy that can transcend the lives of their first stewards. And once the tree reaches us, it continues to gather stories, as more hands shape its artful growth. MBGNA’s bonsai specialist, Carmen Leskoviansky, recalls stories from just a few of the trees in our collection. 

Local Legends 

Two trees in our collection come from Jack Wikle, a local bonsai tender. Stationed overseas in Japan, he brought back a love for bonsai and took it straight out to his local woods."He just went out in the woods and collected a bunch of American hornbeams,” Carmen shares.  Jack will be 93 this year. These American hornbeams are now quite old and rare because they grew up in a pot. They are also special because American hornbeams aren’t very common in bonsai.  “He grew these from saplings to where they are now. It's really special to have some of his very first trees. He became so well known within the community as one of our local founding fathers of bonsai in Ann Arbor, and Michigan in general,” Carmen explains. 
  

A Happy Accident 

Before the days of our Bonsai Storage Facility, the bonsai trees overwintered underground in earthen pits with screen lids to protect the bonsai from the cold.  One spring, a larch had a screen dropped on it by accident as it was brought out of hibernation. Carmen was unfazed. “I didn't really care, because I was like, oh, we'll just restyle it.” David DeGroot, former curator of the Pacific Bonsai Museum, visited the next summer and helped to transform the bonsai into a tree that looked like it had been struck by lightning. The tree has even more character now, and a story to boot.“A lot of times, when something really bad happens to a tree, it's often an opportunity for a restyle. As long as it's still alive, you can do a lot with it.”

Cavity Nesting in the Cork Bark Elm: A Tiny Home for the Birds 

To the human eye, Bonsai are set apart from other trees by their artfully crafted smallness.  But to some birds? These works of art just look like the perfect place to call home. Carmen recalls a time when chickadees took up residence in the cavity of our cork bark elm bonsai, “They just thought this was a great place. And so they hatched a whole brood out of there.” The bonsai garden is usually a nest-free zone to protect the delicate trees. But for a time, these birds beat the system, with what Carmen calls “ a very creative workaround.

A Perfect Pot 

The art of bonsai doesn’t end at the tips of the tree branches. All elements of the display are considered with great care, including the stand and the pot the tree grows in. The pots are chosen with intention, considering how a tree changes through a season. Carmen recalls an especially satisfying story of finding the perfect pot to hold our ginkgo bonsai. A mostly blue pot, it also contains a subtle streak of yellow in its glaze. “When the ginkgo turns yellow in the fall, it picks up on the form, it picks up on the yellow in the pot, but it also really contrasts nicely with the blue in the pot. So it's just a really creative match for that tree. It just happens to be this perfect fit. And so when you can find that perfect fit, it makes it really, really special,” Carmen shares.