NABF Newsletter #6

Feature #1

Toronto

By Norman Haddrick

Bonsai interest in Toronto, Canada, can be traced from the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre, where interest in bonsai grew out of the Toronto Japanese Garden Club. In 1962, the President of the Toronto Japanese Garden Club, Mamoru Nishi, formed the Toronto Bonsai Society as a separate group, and he became the founding President.

Formal bonsai displays were combined with the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre seasonal exhibits of Chrysanthemums, Asagao, Ikebana, Origami, Bonkei, Sumi-e, and other Japanese cultural arts and crafts, in the spring and fall of each year. Soon however, the Toronto Bonsai Society meetings were moved to facilities in the Toronto Civic Garden Centre, to accommodate the growing membership.

While continuing to support the JCCC and TJGC shows, separate exhibits were then held by TBS, at the Civic Garden Centre, focused specifically on formal bonsai presentation.

Educational programs at TBS began to include bonsai lectures, demonstrations and workshops by invited bonsai teachers from U.S.A. One of the first was Frank Okamura, then curator of the largest bonsai collection outside of Japan, at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, in New York.

In the early 1970’s the renowned bonsai master, John Y. Naka from California, made a tremendous impression during his visits to TBS, with his dramatic styling, his techniques and artistic interpretations of our collected trees. This work left a lasting impression and greatly improved the artistic abilities of many of the TBS membership.

The artistic quality of bonsai in the annual spring and fall exhibits, has improved each year. The standard of the formal display, the layout, and design, and the refinement of the ancient, collected indigenous bonsai, as well as the more recent creations on exhibit, has continued to be of a very high standard.

Experienced TBS members are fortunate to have access to a wide range of naturally dwarfed trees in the wild areas of south and central Ontario. Among the most popular species for bonsai culture are the Tamarack or Eastern larch (Larix laricina); Arbor vitae or Eastern white cedar (Thuja occidentalis); Pitch pine (Pinus rigida); Jack pine (Pinus banksiana), among many others.

TBS has grown from a handful in 1962, to as many as 300 members, and from this, other bonsai clubs formed in neighboring Ontario communities, such as Etobicoke, Kitchener-Waterloo, Oshawa, St.Catherines and London. TBS educational programs continue to include local, U.S. and Japanese bonsai teachers, and in turn, TBS teachers travel on request, to other clubs, providing bonsai educational programs, lectures, demonstrations and workshops on all aspects of bonsai.

A major highlight for the Toronto Bonsai Society was to host the International Bonsai Convention in 1997. The hard working committee members, and supporting volunteers, produced an outstanding program. For over a three-year period, old trees had been collected and potted, in preparation for the workshops and demonstrations. Delegates had never seen better material. The IBC97 convention was successful in every way, and TBS reached a new pinnacle of creative artistry in the North American bonsai community.

Acer Rubrum

Common apple

Crab apple

Picea ssp.

Rhamnus frangula

Thuja Occidentalis

Pinus Banksiana