Advanced Bonsai Design - A Performance
Join us for a beautiful evening of bonsai design at Denver Botanic Gardens' Sturm Family Auditorium with Bonsai Specialist Larry Jackel and three artists from the Rocky Mountain Bonsai Society. See a live demonstration and learn about the techniques used to develop wild material collected from the Front Range into bonsai.
Price: $45, $40 member
Instructors: Larry Jackel, Adam Johnson, Paul Koenning, Todd Schlafer
Larry Jackel saw his first bonsai at the Midwest Bonsai Society annual show held in Dundee, Illinois, in 1972. Ever since he has studied bonsai and acquired trees. A move to Denver in 1976 connected Larry with the Rocky Mountain Bonsai Society, which provided the nurturing necessary for him to become proficient in the art and craft of bonsai. Larry chooses trees from the Front Range, particularly the ponderosa pine but also the limber pine, bristlecone pine, pinion pine, Douglas fir and the Rocky Mountain juniper for bonsai. He teaches about these conifers in lectures, demonstrations and workshops across the country. In 2012, he joined the horticulture staff at Denver Botanic Gardens as its bonsai specialist. He develops and maintains the bonsai collection displayed in the Bill Hosakawa Bonsai Pavilion.
Adam Johnson first learned the art of Yamdori with local collector and Colorado native Jerry Morris. After meeting Larry Jackel in 2009, he became a member of the Rocky Mountain Bonsai Society. He has been a student of Bonsai Mirai since 2016. In 2019 Adam was awarded the Rocky Mountain Bonsai Society Artist of the Year. He maintains a collection of approximately 100 native Rocky Mountain trees.
Paul Koenning is an arborist who loves studying tree growth patterns and how specific species respond to environmental conditions. Realizing similarities in growth patterns between differing species guides his approach to styling bonsai and pushing boundaries. For Paul, investigating and understanding how trees respond to environmental conditions is where beauty is captured.
Todd Schlafer is the winner of the Best Tree and Accent Plant Award in the 2021 National Bonsai Exhibition in Rochester, NY. Todd travels around the U.S. and Europe teaching bonsai and working on private collections. He also holds classes at his facility, First Branch Bonsai, in Denver, CO. He is a past president of the Rocky Mountain Bonsai Society, was named the 2012 Rocky Mountain Bonsai Society Artist of the Year and is the 2016 winner of Best North American Species Award for his Colorado Blue Spruce at the National Bonsai Exhibition in Rochester.