Tiny Trees Tower At Bonsai Bonanza

In order to maximize its access to air and light, Peter Hlousek’s blue spruce has branches far enough apart for a bird to fly through them. 

That’s one of the guiding principles of bonsai, the art of growing and shaping tiny trees — which Hlousek has been doing for nearly three decades as a member and former president of the Bonsai Society of Greater New Haven.

The Bonsai Society, which was founded in 1973, hosted its annual Bonsai Exhibition in Edgerton Park on Saturday and Sunday to raise money and display its members’ green thumbs. For Hlousek, the society is a great social organization, in part because bonsai growers share tricks of the trade, like which particular soil mixes and fertilizers are best for which trees. 

Preston Duncan joined the society after visiting last year’s show. Now, he has dozens and dozens of trees at home, which he takes joint care of with his best friend. ​“We have a lot of camaraderie,” Duncan said, explaining that the society boasts nearly 70 members and meets in Edgerton Park on the second Tuesday of every month.

For Hlousek, bonsai is a calling. ​“There’s nothing I don’t like about bonsai,” he said. ​“I’m going to keep doing this as long as I physically can.” 

Hlousek, who worked in apple orchards as a young man, turned to bonsai growing as a focus for his energy after his body wouldn’t let him continue running marathons. You can grow ​“alone or with other people,” Hlousek said, but when you get to taking care of the trees, ​“you’re in a zone. I get such a good peaceful feeling. It brings me satisfaction.” 

Though bonsai growing as an activity only sprouted in the United States in the 1970s and 1980s, according to Bonsai Society President Alex Amendola, it has existed in Japan for hundreds of years, and the similar art of penjing has been practiced in China for millennia. Bonsai, according to society member Jim Foertsner, is all about creating ​“an ancient looking tree, as an art form.” 

He pointed to a Japanese hornbeam, which normally grows to about 40 feet in a forest. This one was no more than one foot from gnarled roots to leafy canopy. 

This effect is achieved through a convoluted set of procedures that begins with a specific kind of soil, a combination of lava rocks called ​“boon mix.” As the tree grows, practitioners might wire branches and ​“directionally prune” their trees to control the shape and outline of the bonsai. 

This artistry did not go unnoticed. Zahra Ashe-Simmer and Oliver Egger, two New Haven residents, came to the exhibition after seeing a banner advertising the event over Whitney Avenue by the Yale School of Management. 

“There’s a sculptural quality” to the trees, Ashe-Simmer said, ​“and there’s something so pleasing about [the trees] being miniature.” 

Egger’s interest in bonsai was spurred by a family drama. ​“Leo, my twin brother, had a bonsai he got from a guy on the side of the road,” Egger said. ​“He really cared for it before it died of a fungal infection.” 

In Japanese, bonsai means ​“tree in a pot,” as any grower will tell you. For the society’s official badge maker Steve Asprelli, both the pot and the trees are a family affair. 

Asprelli’s wife made the pot for his American larch forest (which is multiple trees grown in one container) out of hypertufa, a lightweight cement mixture. The forest has been ​“in development” for about 25 years, but only in his care for the last 15. Asprelli inherited the forest from his brother-in-law after the latter’s passing. 

For now, the Bonsai Society keeps growing. It remains a place for people to come together, express camaraderie, and grow a tree.