Bonsai tourism

Bonsai collections are open for public viewing in many cities around the world. For example:

• Australia: Admission is free at the Brisbane Botanic Gardens, where the Bonsai House displays hundreds of trees, some 80 years old. [1].
• Belgium: The Belgian Bonsai Museum hosted by the Bonsai Centre Gingko at Laarne organizes international competitions and workshops [2].
• Canada: The Montreal Botanical Garden has an amazing indoor bonsai facility that can be viewed year round [3].
• China: View the bonsai at the Botanical Gardens in Beijing [4], Shanghai [5] and Suzhou [6].
• Germany: The Grugapark in Essen has a permanent bonsai exhibition [7].
• Indonesia: Pluit Bonsai Centre in Jakarta is an enormous sales and trading centre for growers and collectors [8].
• Italy: The firm Crespi Bonsai hosts an international competition, the Crespi Cup, every year at the Bonsai Museum in Milan [9].
• Japan: Near Tokyo, the city of Omiya has an artisanal village of bonsai growers and stylists grow and maintain their stock. In Omiya Bonsai Village, more than a half dozen large bonsai nurseries allow visitors to view trees most days during growing season. By one estimate, more than 10,000 trees of world-class quality can be seen in a single day [10].
• Singapore: Thousands on bonsai are on display at the Chinese and Japanese Gardens on two islands in Jurong Lake [11].
• Spain: Visitors to Marbella can enjoy the collection at the Museo de Bonsai [12].
• Taiwan:Taiwan is part of the Chinese culture. And yet, bonsai from Taiwan look different from the ones we see in Chinese penjing books.[13] [14] [15]
• United Kingdom: The Birmingham Botanical Gardens and Glasshouses hosts a rotating collection of about 25 trees at a time, and occasionally gives bonsai care workshops [16]. Heron's Bonsai Nursery in Surrey amasses 7 acres of a wide range of bonsai trees. Also on show are examples from the owners personal collection alongside Japanese gardens. Regular bonsai classes are available, with a bonsai clinic on the first Sunday of every month [17].
• United States: The National Arboretum in Washington, DC contains the National Bonsai and Penjing Museum, an impressive collection of trees, some of them gifts from the Nation of Japan or foreign heads of state [18]. The Arnold Arboretum in Boston, Massachusetts is home to the Larz Anderson Bonsai Collection. On the West Coast the Weyerhaeuser Corporation [19] maintains a collection open to the public at its headquarters near Seattle. In California, the Golden State Bonsai Federation [20] has two collections: the Collection North in Oakland, and the Collection South Huntington Library and Gardens in San Marino. Lastly, the North Carolina Arboretum in Asheville, NC also has an excellent display of Bonsai[21]. The C.V. Starr Bonsai Museum of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden houses a famous collection of indoor and temperate or outdoor bonsai plants and are exhibited in a Japanese-style architectural setting. The Brooklyn Botanic Garden's bonsai collection is considered one of the finest in the world and is the second largest on public display outside Japan, featuring as many as 100 specimens at any given time. Some of the trees in the collection are well over a century old. A stylized verandah complete with tokonoma, or alcove, looks out onto the entire exhibit. Text panels introduce the history of bonsai and explain culture and care.