Bonsai means “tray planting” in Japanese. Many examples of the form are hundreds of years old, passed down from generation to generation. Some of the specimens we have growing in the Colibraro Conifer Garden could have been trained into ancient miniatures. Learn how this is possible with expert Robert Mahler, owner of Kifu Bonsai in East Greenville, Pennsylvania. Mahler will talk us through the art and science basics of bonsai.

Bob Mahler discovered his passion for bonsai at an early age. As a teen, he was fortunate enough to apprentice under the direction of Chase Rosade of Rosade Bonsai Studios in New Hope, Pennsylvania. From there he traveled to Tochigi-Ken Japan where he would spend the next 4 years under the exclusive direction of world-renowned bonsai artist Susumo Sudo. He returned to the states in 1993 and soon thereafter became the curator of bonsai at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden in Brooklyn, New York. He left Brooklyn in 2005 to pursue a lifelong dream of working with individual collectors via lectures, classes, private collection maintenance and tours abroad. Bob opened Kifu Bonsai (studio) in 2017.

Join us for talks and workshops highlighting sustainability, women’s influence in horticulture and the healing power of plants during this monthly speaker series. Information: kathleen.salisbury@temple.edu or 267-468-8400.