The Bonsai Review

Published twice a year (Spring/Fall). TBR is dedicated to the bonsai art form. We cover people, nature, art, culture and travel. Each issue combines great photography with informed writing by and about important figures in the bonsai world.

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CURRENT ISSUE 2.2, Fall 2026

Issue 2.2 This issue considers how the love of nature and bonsai unites people across the world. We feature stories and images from the 10th World Bonsai Convention in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (with its theme of “Unity in Diversity’) and also visit Tasmania’s natural wonders that inspire talented artists to create unique bonsai.

Across the ocean, we asked Pacific Bonsai Museum curator Aarin Packard about the new Bonsai United  exhibit (partly inspired by the FIFA World Cup) while also including images from the inaugural US National Tropical Bonsai Exhibition in Houston, Texas. If you stop to think about it, many of the beautiful bonsai on display there were created from Asian, Caribbean, South African and South American species.  

“We’re all playing the same game”. – Aarin Packard

SEE PREVIEWS OF THE FEATURED ARTICLES BELOW

Pacific Bonsai Museum exhibit Bonsai United explores the impact that different natural and cultural environments have on bonsai as it is practiced throughout the world. It is the first global survey of its kind.
Tasmania, Australia’s southern island state, is home to one of the country’s best-kept seasonal secrets. For a few fleeting weeks each autumn, pockets of its alpine landscape are transformed by a remarkable seasonal phenomenon known locally as the turning of the fagus.
The great Japanese masters didn’t create bonsai in isolation. They looked to the landscapes around them for inspiration, capturing the character of mountains, coastlines and ancient trees in miniature. So what happens when that same philosophy finds its way to Tasmania, Australia’s southernmost island, where Gondwanan forests still survive and some of the world’s oldest plant lineages continue to grow?
The World Bonsai Friendship Federation awarded the honor of hosting the 10th World Bonsai Convention to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. They chose "Unity in Diversity" as their guiding principle.
The inaugural US National Tropical Bonsai Exhibition was held on September 4-6, 2026 in Houston, Texas. This was the first national level bonsai show to feature only tropical and subtropical plants from the US and Puerto Rico
"In much of the southeastern United States, Albizia julibrissin is treated as a roadside weed. It grows rapidly, seeds freely, breaks in storms, and appears wherever disturbed soil gives it an opening. At the 2026 American Bonsai Society Learning Seminars, Bonsai in the Blue Ridge, held June 4 through 7 at the North Carolina Arboretum in Asheville, my Mimosa received Best in Show, People’s Choice, and Best Flowering. " - Dane Smith
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