This Wednesday, we headed across the East River for a fun and creative evening at the Bonsai Bar event hosted at Farm.One, a unique local venue known for cultivating some of the world’s best salad greens and specialty herbs! Over the course of the evening, our patient instructors Sophie and Daniel taught us the basics of the ancient Japanese art form of bonsai with our own dwarf jade plants. From root pruning techniques to control the plant’s size to the aesthetic principles that allow the young shrub to develop into a small tree that looks wise beyond its years, we were lucky to receive a hands-on introduction to the craft that seeks to capture the beautiful patterns of nature.
After some seemingly aggressive potting and trimming, we began to shape our plants and each bonsai began to take on its own unique character, ready to grow and evolve over time (fingers crossed). We wrapped up the evening with a photoshoot of our creations and headed home with beautiful new plants to brighten both our homes and office spaces. Here’s hoping our bonsai thrive under slightly less supervision than we required that evening.