Pittsburgh Bonsai Society

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Pittsburgh Bonsai Society

If you are interested in the living art of bonsai, this is the place to be! No prior knowledge or experience is necessary to feel at home at a PBS meeting!

New to Bonsai? Looking for a source of information and inspiration in Pittsburgh? You've found it with the Pittsburgh Bonsai Society (PBS). Newcomers are welcomed to our monthly member meetings where they'll find workshops and demonstrations. Other seasonal events include the annual spring show, tree auction and the summer picnic . Come down and find expert information on all aspects of bonsai, plus sources for trees and supplies. We even promise to have member trees at every meeting just appreciate. Bring in your own tree for some care or styling advice.

10/06/2026

Fall came early to Daniel Yobp at Bonsai Forge with this Sweetgum.

09/27/2026

Flowering and fruiting trees have their moments to shine.
This crabapple is having its moment exhibiting its tiny red fruit in a Randy Doughty ceramic.

09/15/2026

This is an approximately 50 years old Crabapple designed by Pittsburgh Bonsai Society Club member Michael Stern. This tree will be exhibited at Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens until the middle of October. The collaboration to display PBS bonsai was initiated by Ben Dunigan, Director of Horticulture at Phipps. Thank you, Ben.

This tree was collected as a sapling from a area beside a sandlot baseball field where a great deal of Mike's childhood was spent playing baseball, playing in the woods, and climbing an abandoned apple tree.

This crabapple bonsai evokes memories and emotions from decades past.

Stop by and enjoy the apples before they drop and the myriad of horticultural delights at Phipps.

Maybe this tree, or other bonsai on display will connect you to memories or elicits positive emotions.

09/02/2026

Root temperature above 86 are not conducive to healthy root growth and function. Besides leading to burning of the foliage other unseen damage or problems exists. I wonder if a tree's immune system which exists in the root is negatively impacted, making the tree more vulnerable to disease and pests. (This is speculation. )Microbial life is negatively impacted as soil temperature go above 100.

Shading the pot can significantly reduce heat build up.

A simple strategy that lowers soil temps and is cheap and effective is white shrink wrap and packing tape. It adheres, lasts , and is easy to apply.Most of my collection has shrink wrapped since the 90+ days early in summer.

Some people use aluminum foil or white cloth as other alternatives.

Consider purchasing a garden thermometer to see how hot your soil is when temps are 80 and above and the sun is hitting the pot.

08/31/2026

David Nguyen, Daniel Yobp.and Michael Stern got together at David's garden to collaborate on a 600 plus years old One Seed Juniper.
This tree which had not been styled at the time was on display at the 2026 Pittsburgh Bonsai Society Show in Millvale in June. After 7 hours of wiring, bending, and setting structure the tree had a new and improved presence.

08/17/2026

David Nguyen is renovating his garden to be able to extend his time to style and wi ter protect his collected yamadori. He hopes to have it ready for a garden tour in 2027.

David is standing beside his one seed juniper, "Arroyo Survivor". He is wearing a shirt with a logo designed by Lisa Stern showing David dragging that tree post collection. The logo is a riff based on a Daniel Yobp , Bonsai Forge design.

In the meantime he and Michael Stern are starting to style a " small" seed juniper he collected out west.

08/15/2026

PK Nan hosted the Garden Tour today.
The garden was wonderful filled with temperate as well as tropical bonsai.The members who attended were also treated to good food, company and weather.

08/12/2026

This Chinese Elm, trained by PBS member Terry Monroe, will be on display at Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens until mid September. This tree was purchased from Meehan's Miniatures about 12 years ago. Visit the conservatory and have a look for yourselves!

08/07/2026

It has been said to get a tree to reduce the size of foliage requires placing a tree in a bonsai pot to reduce access to resources. Additionally, trimming and defoliation or partial defoliations elicits a second flush of foliage that is generally smaller with tighter internodes.

The Freeman maple, an opposing leaf tree had the single stem extentions cut so bifurcation was encouraged thru July. This occurred 3 or 4 times since spring. This tree is growing in garden soil with root pruning each spring.

In the ground sweetgums an alternate leaf pattern tree, was trimmed back to 2 leaves to encourage bifurcation.This occurred a few times until the end of July.

The first photo shows a normal sized maple leaf on top of leaves of the trimmed in ground tree. There is significant reduction with no pot restriction of roots.

The second photo shows a closeup of sweetgum leaves on a tree that has been in a bonsai pot for 3 years. The large leaf is actually size of a sweetgum freely growing in the landscape.The bonsai tree leaves are significantly smaller.

The third and fourth photos are of leaves of 2 sweetgums growing in the garden whose roots are pruned in the ground each spring. The comparison leaf from the big tree reveals foliage that is similar in size to the tree growing in a bonsai pot.

So?

Rather than dig a tree out of the garden when it is ready to be refined and create tertiary branching on deciduous trees, take advantage of the tree's strength to create more flushes and more refinement.

Consider using refinement strategies on a trees growing in the ground more frequently before potting them.

08/04/2026

Announcement: There was an oversight in the July newsletter in which one of the mentions of the picnic was not edited. The picnic is this coming SUNDAY at the Grealish residence. This was changed in April and has been announced as such at each meeting from May forward. However, there are remnants of the original date and place floating around in documents. The July newsletter has the information for the SUNDAY picnic, address, time, etc. There is also a sign up document to bring a dish or help with set up/clean up. We will email that asap.

Address

5700 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA
15217

Telephone

+14128128506

Website

http://www.pittsburghbonsai.org/

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