The vision of the Bonsai Garden at Lake Merritt (BGLM) is to provide education, inspiration and enjoyment of bonsai to novice visitors and bonsai enthusiasts within a museum of bonsai masterpieces.

The BGLM opened its gate to the public on November 6, 1999. Before the BGLM became a reality, interest in learning and practicing Japanese bonsai techniques had been growing in the greater San Francisco Bay Area since post WWII, when a number of Bonsai Clubs were established. These clubs became connected by the Golden State Bonsai Federation (GSBF) of California, which remains very active to this day. Members from many of these clubs supported the idea for a permanent bonsai garden to maintain, display, and preserve the history of important bonsai. In 1997, the GSBF supported the opening of two permanent bonsai gardens in California – BGLM in Oakland and the GSBF Bonsai Collection at the Huntington Library and Botanical Gardens in San Marino. Since then, the GSBF Clark Bonsai Collection in Fresno was added, and the GSBF continues to oversee all three exceptional public bonsai collections.

The BGLM is the permanent home to some of the most important historical bonsai in the United States. These include the Japanese Daimyo Oak, presented by the newly opened Japanese government to the first U.S. envoy to China in the 1860’s, during Abraham Lincoln’s Presidency. You can also see the Japanese Black Pine tree featured at the 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco. Our permanent collection assures that these precious bonsai along with suiseki viewing stones are preserved for everyone’s enjoyment. Nearly 90 of our 150 superb bonsai are on display at any one time. The collection is rotated regularly, and changes with the seasons, so come visit often!

The BGLM is located at Oakland’s Lake Merritt Lakeside Park, and is the only major all-volunteer bonsai garden in the country. BGLM is staffed and maintained entirely by volunteers from throughout the greater San Francisco/Bay Area. BGLM is supported entirely by donations from our generous visitors and the bonsai community.

When you visit, volunteer docents are always available to help you with information about the collection, landscape plants, Japanese entrance gate, bonsai in general, and bonsai clubs throughout California. Completion of this open air cultural museum was made possible through the support of the Oakland City Council and its Parks and Recreation Department as well as the GSBF and its member clubs across the State.