The Five Most Amazing Bonsai in the World
The World’s Oldest Bonsai is a Ficus retusa that’s on display at the Crespi Bonsai Museum in Parabiago, Italy. It’s estimated to be well over 1000 years old, so for context, roughly 3 years older than National Treasure Betty White. Luigi Crespi spent 10 years negotiating the purchase of the tree, which was shaped for generations by Chinese Bonsai Masters and then by Japanese Master Shotaro Kawahara when it arrived in Italy in 1986.
The World’s Most Expensive Bonsai Tree is a 300-year-old White Pine that sold for $1.3 million at the International Bonsai Convention in Takamatsu, Japan. The tree is known for its exceptionally impressive size and quality, but so are ours, and most of our trees are $65 with Free Shipping, so….
This is wild ~ a Japanese White Pine Bonsai, planted in 1625 and cared for by five generations of custodians, survived the 1945 bombing of Hiroshima despite being just two miles from the detonation site. It was protected by a walled garden, but most of the city was destroyed, making this whole thing pretty inexplicable. In 1975 it was given by the Japanese to the United States as a 200th anniversary gift, and now it lives in US National Arboretum.
The direct translation of the term “Bonsai” means “planted in a pot”, so with that in mind, a 600-year-old Red Pine Bonsai at the Akao Herb & Rose Garden in Atami City, Japan un-officially takes the World’s Biggest Bonsai title. It stands at over sixteen feet tall and sprawls over thirty feet wide, and it’s technically in a pot, so, sure, even though Bonsai are supposed to be miniature representation of nature, I guess you win THIS time, Akao Herb & Rose Garden.
Keshitsubo or “poppy-seed class”, is the smallest size category for Bonsai, and they’re generally 1 to 3 inches tall. HOWEVER, there’s an important distinction to be made between a mature tiny tree and a seedling with a fake ID. Acer Momiji tend to be the smallest of this size range, and while the tree pictured isn’t officially the world’s smallest, it unofficially is, and that’s close enough for this blog. Also, they’re essentially impossible to care for because the margin for error is razor thin. Ours, on the other hand, VERY easy to care for...