NABF Newsletter #4

Feature #3

Des Moines Botanical Center Bonsai Collection

By Helene Magruder

The Hirsch/ Ladany/ Lydon bonsai collection at the Des Moines Botanical Center is one of the finest in the Midwest. The original collection was donated to the Botanical Center in 1979 by Ruth Ladany, mother of a past Botanical Center president, in memory of her husband Jules. They were charter members of the Midwest Bonsai Society.

In 1985 the Audrey Hirsch Memorial Bonsai Enclosure was built in memory of Mrs. Ladany’s daughter. The enclosure makes it possible for a majority of the bonsai collection to be on display year round. A climate-controlled system in the greenhouse-like structure makes it possible for the temperate specimens to experience a moderate form of the four seasons required for their continuous growth and prosperity. Tropical bonsai are displayed in the Botanical Center Dome or in the enclosure during warm weather.

In 1999 fifteen trees were donated to the Botanical Center by the family of Susan Miller Lydon. Mrs, Lydon , a Des Moines native, was a member of the Bonsai Society of Greater Kansas City. She worked with Ben Oki over a number of years.

The collection is maintained by members of the Iowa Bonsai Association.

Some highlights of the collection are an English boxwood which was part of the shrubbery at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, two Pomegranate trees styled in 1955 by John Naka, a stunning Bald Cypress which was a demonstration tree at the Asian Festival in 1992 and was styled by Ben Oki. The oldest tree in the collection is a Gingko Biloba which has been in training since 1865 and was brought to the United States by the Japanese government for the San Francisco World’s Fair in 1907.