The best way to sustain a Bonsai Garden is to have a strong team of dedicated and educated volunteers who care for the bonsai on a regular basis. To achieve this goal the Bonsai Garden at Lake Merritt is creating the Bonsai School at Lake Merritt. Initial funding was approved by the Golden State Bonsai Federation (GSBF) at its recent Board of Trustees meeting.

The goals of the School are threefold: 1) train students to develop and manage large public and private collections of bonsai such as the GSBF collections at Lake Merritt and Huntington; 2) raise the level of bonsai knowledge throughout the bonsai community; and 3) provide an advanced level of bonsai education for serious bonsai students.

The School will commence in January 2015 with five or six students chosen from among the applicants who present the best qualifications. The School is seeking applicants who have demonstrated an interest in bonsai education, a dedication to improving the bonsai community and the temperament to be good bonsai students, teachers and role models.

The School program is organized into the following four levels:

• Level One – This basic instructional overview is designed to establish a solid foundation of bonsai knowledge upon which to build a commonly agreed upon set of best bonsai practices.
• Level Two – This in-depth course of advanced instruction of the finer points of bonsai art and science places an emphasis on students being able to share with others the knowledge they have learned.
• Level Three – This focused course of study is designed to support students in becoming experts on their preference of bonsai species and styles. Students will conduct bonsai classes for their own clubs.
• Level Four – This independent research is designed to help students develop expertise in a particular variety of bonsai and record their knowledge for all of the bonsai community through a formal and scientific methodology of study that results in a published report. They will be available to present their findings at bonsai gatherings like GSBF Conventions.

Instructors will be led by Kathy Shaner, noted bonsai master and curator of the BGLM, and will include a number of experts in their respective fields, for example:

• Gordon Deeg, Garden Master, BGLM
• John Boyce, Volunteer, BGLM
• Ryan Nichols, Instructor of Horticulture Science, Cal Poly Pomona

A Syllabus for the Bonsai School has been created and is available for your review and consideration by email. At the conclusion of all levels of this program, students will be able to maintain and sustain a bonsai collection like the one at the BGLM by being able to:

• Develop a set of ‘Best Practices” that are used to maintain and improve the bonsai in the collection
• Understand how to select bonsai to add to the collection
• Understand when to de-accession bonsai from the collection and replace them with superior specimens
• Create and execute a long-term styling plan for the bonsai in a collection
• Create and execute a long-term care plan for all bonsai in a collection
• Develop a detailed understanding of the various intricacies of the care for each unique species in the collection including re-potting, watering, fertilizing and styling under the guidance of the Curator

In order to successfully complete this course, the student should possess the following traits, abilities and characteristics:

• Be a committed student of bonsai with a varied personal collection of quality trees that they have developed
• Be an active volunteer at a collection with one or more years of service
• Have the time to devote to a four-level course of study
• Be willing and able to attend each of the classes
• Be willing and able to commit to being an active volunteer at a bonsai collection for at least five years after completing the course

The classes will be taught using the Oxford University model, which means that the teacher will present information to an informal gathering of a small group of students who will then discuss the topics and together with the teacher develop an agreed upon set of bonsai best practice principals that they will follow. Each session will be followed by work on bonsai that is designed to put the principals that were developed into practice and make adjustments as necessary.

There is a charge for the School and a requirement that students dedicate time volunteering at an approved public bonsai garden upon graduation as part of a “residency” program. Classes will be held on weekends and are designed to be completed in 10 sessions per year for a period of up to four years. The exact schedule for 2015 is in development and will be published later this fall. The initial group of students is expected to complete all four levels of the program, but we plan to offer individual levels of instruction at a later date which do not necessitate the completion of all four levels.

For those interested in learning more about the GSBF Bonsai School at Lake Merritt, send an email to [email protected] and place the word “Bonsai School Information” in the subject field. If you wish to make comments or ask questions about the School, please do so on this blog site.