Bonsai Exhibition In The Pharmaceutical Garden

2023 Author: Ashton Daniels | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-11-27 17:13

Recently, the Moscow State University Botanical Garden "Apothecary Garden" never ceases to delight us with wonderful events. Now, in this strict and very serious scientific institution, you can not only admire the plants and learn a lot of interesting things about their life, but also listen to lectures on botanical painting or become a participant in a master class on oratory and business communication, or even listen to music at Night classical concerts on the grass.

But we want to pay special attention to the exhibition "Bonsai - Miniature Landscapes from Living Russian Trees", which was held in the "Pharmaceutical Garden" from May 12 to 19, 2017 as part of the XVII Spring Flower Festival.

This is the second bonsai exhibition in the modern history of the Pharmaceutical Garden - the first one, held in 2016, was more traditional (see Bonsai Exhibition "The World in a Clay Bowl"). This exhibition is entirely dedicated to Russian plants.

Visitors to the exhibition had a unique opportunity to see the plants so familiar and beloved by us - apple, oak, birch, pine, hawthorn, red currant and many other trees and shrubs of Central Russia and southern Russia - in a completely different artistic and natural perspective - grown and formed in the legendary Japanese bonsai technique. The age of most of the displayed exhibits is more than a dozen years old, some specimens are more than half a century old, and the size is comparable to the size of ordinary indoor plants.

Small apple tree (Malus x micrimalus), 25 years old

English oak (Quercus robur), 25 years old

Hanging birch (Betula pendula), 20 years

Bonsai art originated in 200 BC. e. in China, several centuries later, the Japanese, together with Buddhism, mastered it, brought it to filigree perfection, and now it is considered traditionally Japanese. The word "bonsai" itself in translation into Russian means a plant (sai) in a low bowl (bon). To create bonsai, over the centuries that have passed since the inception of this art, about 400 species of plants have been selected and specially bred. But few people could have imagined that our native birches and currants could become an excellent material for creating compositions in the style of ancient Japanese art.

Hawthorn (Crataegus sp.), 60 years old

For most of us, bonsai is necessarily a purely exotic oriental miracle, grown from special "bonsai" plants. Although bonsai is not a particular type of tree, bonsai is a work of art created by an artist from living material in accordance with a special technique that allows artistic images of trees to be expressed in miniature. With this technique, you can form a beautiful bonsai from almost any kind of tree.

European larch (Larix decidua), 40 years old

The author of the exhibition compositions is the bonsai artist Andrei Darusenkov, a Russian master of this art, still rare in Russia. All the trees that became part of the exhibition compositions were found by the author in wildlife, carefully dug up, transplanted into pots and later formed in the tradition of bonsai art. All "living landscapes" that we saw at the exhibition are contained in the conditions of the Moscow region. Some of them have won prizes at international bonsai competitions.

Japanese quince (Chaenomeles japonica), Grove style, about 20 years old

Andrey Darusenkov has been practicing bonsai for over 20 years. He visited Japan on numerous occasions to study this ancient oriental art. He regularly holds exhibitions of his works and master classes on various techniques of bonsai formation. He is the author and hero of many publications and television programs about the art of creating and maintaining miniature trees.

Common pear (Pyrus communis), 30 years old

Elm (Ulmus sp.), 40 years old

Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris), 15 years old

With the aim of spreading this art in Russia, the Bonsai Workshop of Andrey Darusenkov was created. The workshop is engaged in teaching bonsai techniques, organizing and conducting exhibitions and bonsai festivals, provides services for the formation and maintenance of trees.

Warty euonymus (Eonimus verrucosus), 20 years old

Irga Canadian (Amelanchier canadensis), 10 years old

Ash (Fraxinus sp.), 15 years old

Andrey Darusenkov's collection contains about 300 bonsai trees that are at different stages of formation. After all, the art of bonsai is alien to vanity, it requires patience, artists' vision of the perspective of their living pet and patient care for it. Bonsai trees have been grown for decades, sometimes centuries. Bonsai care is both a kind of ritual and meditation.