Larz Anderson Bonsai Collection facts for kids

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The Larz Anderson Bonsai Collection is a special group of tiny trees called bonsai. You can find them at the Arnold Arboretum in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts. This collection is one of the best in the United States. It even has a Hinoki Cypress tree that is over 250 years old!

The bonsai trees live in a special building called the Bonsai Pavilion. This pavilion is part of the Dana Greenhouses. You can visit the collection from mid-April until the end of October. When winter comes, these bonsai trees, which lose their leaves (called deciduous trees), are kept in cold storage. They stay at temperatures just above freezing to protect them during the cold months.

Larz and Isabel's Love for Bonsai

Larz Anderson was very interested in the plants and gardens of Japan for a long time. He first visited Japan in 1889 and brought back two small maple trees. In 1907, he and his wife, Isabel Weld Perkins, built a beautiful Japanese garden at their home, Weld (which is now Larz Anderson Park).

But it was in 1913, when Larz Anderson was working as the U.S. Ambassador in Japan, that he and Isabel truly fell in love with bonsai. He wrote about seeing "dwarf trees of fantastic shape" and "gnarled trees hundreds of years old." He said they were in "pots of beautiful form and color," making it feel like a "little fairy place."

Buying Bonsai from Yokohama Nursery

The Andersons bought 40 bonsai trees from a company called Yokohama Nursery. This company had amazing catalogs from 1901 to 1922. These catalogs had beautiful pictures, including drawings and photographs. They showed very old Hinoki Cypress trees, like the ones in the collection today. The catalogs called these ancient trees "Relics of the Tokugawa Era."

We don't know exactly how much Larz Anderson paid for his trees. But the 1913-1914 catalog showed prices from one to fifty dollars in "U.S. gold." About a month later, the Andersons brought their new bonsai collection back to the U.S. and kept them at their home, Weld.

Rainosuke Awano: The Bonsai Expert

When the Andersons brought their bonsai to America, most Americans didn't know how to care for them. So, the Andersons hired several skilled Japanese gardeners. The most famous was Rainosuke Awano. He was a young man who took care of the bonsai while also studying for his doctorate in philosophy at Columbia University. Later, he went back to Japan and became a professor at Kwansei Gakuin University.

Sharing the Collection with Everyone

The Andersons showed their bonsai collection to the public a few times. They first displayed their new trees at a spring flower show in 1916, organized by the Massachusetts Horticultural Society. They also participated in another show in 1933, which featured chrysanthemums and Japanese dwarf trees.

During the 1933 show, House Beautiful magazine interviewed Rainosuke Awano and showed pictures of the collection. The writer described the bonsai as "venerable patriarchs" (meaning very old and respected leaders). They noted how these trees, from a country with ancient art and culture, now lived comfortably at Larz Anderson's home.

Donating the Bonsai to the Arboretum

After Larz Anderson passed away in 1937, Isabel donated thirty of these miniature trees to the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University. She also gave money to build a special shade house for them. When Isabel died in 1948, the nine remaining bonsai trees she owned were also given to the Arboretum. This included an 80-year-old Hinoki Cypress tree. This tree had been a gift to the Andersons from the Imperial Household just before they left Japan for the last time.

Challenges for the Collection

The staff at the Arboretum tried their best to care for the bonsai. However, they didn't have much experience with this special art. The Larz Anderson Collection struggled because it needed expert care to keep the delicate trees healthy. Also, forcing the trees to grow early each year for the spring flower show made them weaker. By 1962, only 27 of the original 39 bonsai trees were still alive. Sadly, the Hinoki Cypress that had been a gift from Hirohito was among the trees that did not survive.

New Homes for the Bonsai

In 1962, the Charles Stratton Dana Greenhouses were built, which really helped the collection. This new building included a hexagonal (six-sided) redwood lath house. This is where the bonsai are displayed during the warmer growing season. It also has a concrete-block cold storage area for winter protection. This storage keeps temperatures between 33 and 35 degrees Fahrenheit. Before this, the bonsai were kept in covered pits and cold frames during winter. This old method was not good for the trees' health, and the freezing of their roots even cracked many of their original Japanese pots.

New Experts Bring New Life

In 1969, the bonsai collection finally got the care of a true expert again. Constance "Connie" Derderian had been teaching bonsai classes at the Arboretum for several years. She was asked to repot the Anderson collection and start a program to make the old trees strong and beautiful again. She became the Honorary Curator of the Bonsai Collection.

Under Connie Derderian's care, the remaining trees in the collection became healthy and vibrant once more. When she retired in 1984, Peter Del Tredici, who had worked as her student since 1979, became the new curator. More recently, Colin Lewis, a well-known bonsai artist, has been working with the collection. The trees are getting healthier and looking even better under his care.

A Sad Event: The Theft

Over Columbus Day weekend in 1986, someone broke into the bonsai house. Six plants were stolen, including three Japanese Maples that were part of the original Larz Anderson Collection. Because of this sad event, the Arnold Arboretum decided to improve the bonsai house. They replaced old redwood planks with strong douglas fir wood. New doors were installed, giving visitors a clear view of the collection. A new security system was also put in place to protect these valuable trees.

The Trees That Remain Today

Out of the original 39 bonsai trees that the Andersons donated, 15 are still alive today:

• 7 Hinoki Cypress (Chamaecyparis obtusa)
• 4 Japanese Maple (Acer palmatum)
• 1 Trident Maple (Acer buergerianum)
• 1 Higan Cherry (Prunus subhirtella)
• 1 Sawara Cypress (Chamaecyparis pisifera 'Squarrosa')
• 1 Japanese White Pine (Pinus parviflora)

The Hinoki Cypress trees seem to be very strong; 7 out of the original 10 are still alive. According to Larz Anderson's notes, the oldest of these Hinoki Cypress trees began growing in 1737!