This Monday, the Society is happy to welcome guest artist and author Michael Hagedorn for discussion on his works “Bonsai Heresy: 56 Myths Exposed Using Science & Tradition.”  Members will have the opportunity to ask questions.  Because of the Guest Speaker for General Program there will be no Bonsai 101.

As always, senior members will be available in person to help with any bonsai questions you have.

The meeting will be in person in the Regenstein Center at the Chicago Botanic Garden, or is available through WebEx.

The Midwest Bonsai Society board is happy to announce our General Society meeting schedule for 2024! As dates get closer, each meeting’s Bonsai 101 and ‘Main Program’ content is finalized, and our website updated. Check back here, or keep an eye out in our newsletters, for more details on our meetings, as they are available.

Hope to see you at a General Meeting soon!

March 4 - Burnstein Hall
April 1 - Burnstein Hall
May 6 - Pullman Room
June 3 - Burnstein Hall
July 1 - Burnstein Hall
August 5 - Burnstein Hall
September 2 - Burnstein Hall
October 7 - Burnstein Hall
November 4 - Burnstein Hall

(All meetings start at 7 PM - please see our Meetings page for more details)

The annual Midwest Bonsai Society Holiday Party is Tuesday, December 5, 2023.  The setup is at 5:00 pm, dinner at 6:00 pm.

Where: Heller Nature Center, 2821 Ridge Road, Highland Park, IL 60035

When: December 6, 2022 - 6:00 pm to 8:30 pm.

Bring a pot luck disk if you can, and any item you would like to donate for the evening’s free raffle. The Society is providing drinks. The last party, 2022, was a great deal of fun with fine food, wine and drinks. This is a great opportunity to renew friendships and meet new Bonsai members.

A map and more information is available on our Holiday Party page.

The next society meeting is October 2nd!

7:00 PM: Bonsai 101 program; “Bonsai Preparation and Winter Storage” presented by Victor Zurczak. 7:30 PM, General Program: “White Elephant Sale”.  All members are invited to bring supplies, pots plants or any other bonsai related item that you want to sell or give away.  MBS will have leftover Children's Workshop trees available for sale at $10 each.  Trees are  Zelcova, Chinese Wisteria, Japanese Maple, Trident Maple, and maybe one Amur Maple.

As always, our meetings are held at the Chicago Botanic Garden’s Regenstein Center, as well as on-line for members. Please see your email for remote-participation details!

August 7th is our next General Society Meeting, at the Chicago Botanic Garden.

7:00 PM, Bonsai 101 program; “Accent Plants” presented by Linda Camp.
7:30 PM, General Program: “Show Presentation for Bonsai” demonstration by Victor Zurczak.

Come with trees you want to prepare for our August Exhibition, get advice, and suggested improvements.

More information is available on our Meetings page.

Right on the heels of our May Exhibit, the June General Meeting will be held 7:00 PM Monday, June 5th, at the Chicago Botanic Garden’s Burnstein Hall, as well as via WebEx. WebEx Invitations will be sent to all members via email.

The Society welcomes guest artist Sergio Cuan with his program “Deciduous Bonsai Development.”

Sergio will join us remotely via WebEx, but joining in person has its own benefits - feel free to bring trees you want to discuss with senior members of the Society for help, guidance and support!

More information is available on our Meetings page. We hope to see you in person, or virtually, on June 5th!

Just over a week to go to the 17th Annual Midwest Bonsai Society May Show - held at the Chicago Botanic Garden May 13 and 14th!

You may have even caught a story on WGN of our upcoming show! Focusing on trees-in-training, the May Show is a great opportunity to stock-up on bonsai materials, show tress you’re proud of in the non-judged show, take a workshop (spots still available!) or otherwise just get ready for the bonsai growing season!

More information, including links to sign-up for workshops, or to register your tree for the show, is available at our page dedicated to the May Show. Hope to see you there!

May is almost here, and we’re happy to announce the programming for our May 1st General Society meeting at the Chicago Botanic garden. A great opportunity to get together with other society members, this is also a good opportunity to bring in your own tree and get feedback from others, as you prepare your tree for a May or August showing! We hope to see you there!

7:00PM - Bonsai 101 - Wiring Techniques presented by Victor Zurczak
7:30PM - Main Program - Presentation and Demonstration from Mark Fields on grafting.
Meeting will be available in person, and via Webex. Members are also invited to bring a tree to get advice on care or styling from Victor Zurczak or other senior members.
Note: We will be meeting in the Pullman room, as opposed to our normal location. The Pullman room is still within the Regenstein Center.

April 3rd will be our next general meeting at the Chicago Botanic Garden. We have a great program scheduled:

7:00 PM - Bonsai 101 Program will be “Forest Design” presented by Victor Zurczak.
7:30 PM - General Program is "Forest Planting Workshop” led by Linda Camp.   You are welcome to just watch or bring your own trees and pot, or purchase package from BC Bonsai.  Package includes trees, soil and pot. Trees available will be Maples, Dawn Redwoods, Black pines, and Ficus.

We hope to see you there!

Our apologies, we realized that we had the wrong address for this year’s Annual Holiday Party. Our party will be held December 6th at the Heller Nature Center - the correct address is 2821 Ridge Road, Highland Park, IL 60035.

Full details are available at our Holiday Party page.

We hope to see you there!

The annual Midwest Bonsai Society Holiday Party is Tuesday, December 6, 2022. The setup is at 5:00 pm, dinner at 6:00 pm.

Where: Heller Nature Center, 2821 Ridge Road, Highland Park, IL 60035

When: December 6, 2022 - 6:00 pm to 8:30 pm.

Bring a pot luck dish if you can, and any item you would like to donate for the evening’s free raffle. The Society is providing drinks. The last party, 2021, was a great deal of fun with fine food, wine and drinks. This is a great opportunity to renew friendships and meet new Bonsai members.

11 days to go! Our website now has all of the information necessary for you to plan your visit to the 44th Annual Mid-America Bonsai Exhibition, to be held August 19-21 at the Chicago Botanic Garden! Plan to attend a workshop, and sign-up via our online registration process. Review our vendor list, and plan ahead for what you need to purchase. Review our tree registration process, and easily pre-register your tree using our online form!

All that information, and more, is available on our August Exhibition page.

We can’t wait to see you at the Exhibition!

Coming soon - the 44th Annual Mid-America Bonsai Exhibition, returns to the Chicago Botanic Garden August 19-21. Information is starting to flow in as we firm-up plans, including vendors, workshops, and demonstration schedules. The Society is excited to host Mark Fields as our Guest Master. Check our August Exhibition page for more details, and keep an eye out for updates throughout the summer!

This Saturday and Sunday May 14th and 15th, the 16th Annual May Bonsai Show returns to the Chicago Botanic Garden. Open from 9AM to 5PM each day, vendors from around the Midwest will have items for sale to help you restock your supplies that may have dwindled these past few years. Demonstrations will teach about the art. Seats are still available for some of our Workshops. More information is available on our dedicated webpage for the May Show.

Focusing on trees in development, the May Show looks to educate the public about the art of bonsai - and to do that we need your trees! Tree registration is Friday May 13th between noon and 6:30PM - speed-up the process by preregistering your tree via our online form, available at the bottom of the May Show page. While you are there, make sure you read the important information about preparing your trees for the show.

We hope to see you, and your trees, this weekend!

May 2nd is our next General Society meeting at the Chicago Botanic Garden.

7:00 PM, Bonsai 101 Program: “Wire and Wiring Techniques” presented by Victor Zurczak.
7:30 PM, General Program: Choice of two hands-on Workshops. Either “Preparing your trees for May show” or “Work on your own tree, not in May show”. Victor and other senior members will be available to answer questions and assistance.

More information is available on our Meetings page. We hope to see you there!

Our April General Meeting is shaping up to be a great one. Come join us April 4th at 7PM for our exciting programming. More information can be found at our Meetings page.

Location: Chicago Botanic Garden Regenstein Center Burnstein Hall
Bonsai 101 Program: Soil and Pot Preparation presented by Victor Zurczak
General Program: Root over Rock Planting workshop by Victor Zurczak. Come to just observe or create your own tree. BC Bonsai will have trees, rocks, muck, soil and pots available for $50.00 and Victor will guide us through the process. Please feel free to bring your own tree and material to create a root over rock or any tree from your collection to work on and get advice from Victor or other experienced members.

As we begin nearing the growing season, our March General Meeting program, to be held March 7th between 7 and 9PM, has been announced! Our Bonsai 101 program will focus on a general approach to bonsai - a program certain to help both new and seasoned bonsai practioners. After that program, we will transition into a Mame workshop put on by BC Bonsai. Materials costs will vary between $30 and $50 for this workshop, depending on the pot and plant selected.

Further details available on our Meetings page.

Hope to see you there!

Don’t forget that we have a help line service that you can access by emailing us at midwest.bonsai@yahoo.com One of our senior members will answer your questions and/or offer suggestions. We have coupled this with a new blog feature where we publish these questions and responses for all members to view. To see previously answered questions, navigate to Bonsai Helpline.

Our first General Meeting of 2022 will be on Monday February 7th at 7PM at the Regenstein Center at the Chicago Botanic Garden.

Our Bonsai 101 Program will be on tools for the Bonsai Workshop presented by Victor Zurczak. The General Program will be on sharpening bonsai tools by Jim Beck. Learn about sharpening tools and bring in a tool for Jim to sharpen.