NABF Newsletter #2

Feature #3

About the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens
(gallery below)

If you want to see a great bonsai exhibit, second to none within a thousand mile radius, you must visit the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens. The exhibit, displaying over 50 excellent bonsai, was started by Bonsai Societies of Florida (BSF) in 1978. Not one bonsai has been bought by the Museum, although they own over 75 of them. The exhibit and the bonsai are the result of sweat, hard work and donations by members of BSF. Increasingly, the public has been adding to the exhibit by donating bonsai in honor of someone, donations from estates of people who included the Museum in their wills or who were doing bonsai before the job became too much for them.

John Naka was one of the most influential experts in the development and growth of bonsai in Florida. His Australian Pine, Casuarina equisetifolia, multi-tree planting on a six foot rock slab graced the center of the exhibit for years. Although I was not there and no records have been found, the construction of the Naka display is a legend in this part of the State. After the stand was constructed, the slab to hold the planting was brought into the exhibit compound – with John Naka lying on the rock (like a litter), and it was called “Naka-On-The-Rocks”. What a picture that must have been! The trees have survived – if only they could talk! Most of those who did the work on that original exhibit have also survived and efforts are being made to document the beginnings of the first bonsai exhibit in the southeast United States.

The good news: the Morikami bonsai exhibit has a splendid new location, prominently located with lots of space, the result of the development of five theme Japanese style gardens. The bad news: the old exhibit, built by the members of BSF, was removed during construction and the concrete base that held the Naka display went with it. The years of neglect left the planting in sorry condition, however, all of the largest trees have been saved and replanted for display in the new exhibit created in 2000.

The entire Museum property, 200 acres, was donated to Palm Beach County by George Morikami in 1975 after failing to have it accepted twice previously. George, a Japanese immigrant who came to the U.S. in 1906 at the age of 19, became a citizen in 1967. During all those years he farmed the land, first with a group of Japanese immigrants, but after many tough years he alone remained and worked the land until his death one year after ground was broken to create the Museum. The Museum opened June 25, 1977, and the original bonsai exhibit opened October 13, 1978. The new/present bonsai exhibit opened January 23, 2000.

The bonsai exhibit is maintained and developed by volunteers. Moral support and bonsai are supplied by BSF members. Likewise, BSF provides the services of Ben Oki every January for a public demonstration in bonsai design. There, before an open mouthed audience, Ben “scissorhands” turns a substantial “bush” into a world-class bonsai for exhibit. You can find three such creations now on display.

The museum has a remarkable display of subtropical bonsai but includes a few from far away places like Colorado-a Rocky Mountain Juniper. On January 18, 2003 the Museum will dedicate its first international contribution, an Escambron, Machaeriim lunatum, donated by Jose Rivera of San Juan, Puerto Rico.

The Museum claims a collection of a unique species of trees having 12 outstanding buttonwoods, Conocarpus erectus, from 25 to 400 plus years old and having various sizes and styles. Having very hard resilient wood and with few insects or diseases affecting them, these hardy tropical trees attain remarkable configurations. It is common to have large areas of the tree cut bare to the wood with trunks and branches having twisted and dramatic shapes.
The characteristics of the many sub-tropical trees displayed in a beautiful open exhibit all year round are too many to describe. It cannot go unnoticed, however, that the various bougainvillea, Bougainvillea (sp), red, pink, violet, and yellow, in the exhibit are show-stoppers resulting from rapid generous growth. When they are in bloom visitors are overwhelmed at the spectacle.

The only true way to appreciate this exhibit is to see it. To do so you have to go to Delray Beach FL, west of Jog Road, south of Linton Blvd. All that is about 45 minutes north of Ft. Lauderdale or 30 minutes south of West Palm Beach. The Museum is open and the bonsai are beautiful all year long. Open six days a week, closed on Mondays, the Museum opens at 10:00 am and closes at 5:00 pm. For information call 561/495-0233.

Submitted by Richard Miller
BSF Liaison to the Morikami