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The Arboretum’s Bonsai Collection

American Beech from Mies Collection

Bonsai is the art of growing dwarfed, ornamentally shaped trees or shrubs in small, shallow pots. The word comes from the Chinese word meaning to plant in a basin.


Today, the art of bonsai is growing in popularity across the country, both for collectors and for gardeners. Locally, the Mid-Shore Bonsai Society meets regularly at Adkins Arboretum.

Bonsai workshop participant at the Spring Symposium 2006

The Arboretum has three bonsai in its collection all donated by the Mid-Shore Bonsai Society. A red maple (Acer rubrum) and an American beech (Fagus grandifolia) were trained by Fred Mies of Potomac, Maryland. Mies had a passion for the art of bonsai that led him to create an extensive bonsai collection. The red maple is an informal upright style and is at least 70 years old. Mr. Mies collected the beech in 1979 from near the Washington beltway and trained it to look like a small forest.

The most recent addition to the collection is an informal upright northern white cedar (Thuja occidentalis), originally collected from the shores of Lake Huron in Ontario, Canada in 1993. The collector estimated the northern white cedar to be 75 years old when dug.

The Arboretum’s bonsai collection is maintained by Buck Schuyler and the Mid-Shore Bonsai Society. Contact Buck Schuyler for more information, or 410-634-2847 extension 29.