Turning Over a New Leaf

Fans of the Marjorie McNeely Conservatory’s beautiful bonsai collection will find a lot to love in the second half of the Sunken Garden’s Fall Flower Show, on display through November 29. Over the last year, a team of horticulturists and Right Track apprentices have been carefully training a collection of chrysanthemums into expressive bonsai shapes that are now arrayed throughout the Sunken Garden. 

Designer Rylee Werden says Japanese horticulture inspired many of her plant material choices this season, from Japanese maples and grasses, to Edgeworthia, or mitsumata, a plant whose long fibers have been prized for making durable paper, including Japanese yen banknotes. Mums have long been the centerpiece of Como’s Fall Flower Show and hold special significance in many Asian cultures, where they symbolize longevity, renewal, perseverance, loyalty, and honor. Werden hopes to honor these enduring qualities, which Minnesotans have demonstrated in extraordinary measure throughout an unprecedented year.

While the Japanese garden influence is a starting point, it’s not a strict template. “We didn’t follow all the rules of a Japanese garden,” Werden says, adding that creating an immersive experience of autumn was more on her mind. “Especially during the fall we’ve had with warm stretches and hot days, I feel like if people missed some of the fall foliage experience they were hoping for outdoors, maybe they can get a little bit of that feeling here.”

Every Sunken Garden display typically takes a year or more of planning, potting, and pruning to bring thousands of plants, flowers, and vines into bloom at the same time. But Werden says creating the special bonsai mums featured in the Fall Flower Show required even more time and coordination. Horticulturists Isaac Zaman and Reva Kos served as staff leads on the project, working alongside fellow horticulturists Rylee, Robin, Alejandro, and Marie, as well as Right Track horticulture apprentices and interns. Over the past 12 months, the group gathered weekly to train, shape, and carefully pinch back the leaves of each mum, with some plants in development for as long as two years, creating the dramatic yet miniaturized shapes showcased throughout Minnesota’s most beautiful room.

With her expertise and years of experience in bonsai, Kos helped guide the team in incorporating many of the art form’s traditional principles into the project, while Isaac brought the apprentices and interns together, encouraging their creativity, coordinating their efforts, and keeping the work moving forward. Together, their knowledge, guidance, and collaboration helped bring these extraordinary living sculptures to life.

“I really want to recognize all the hard work our apprentices and horticultural staff put into the bonsai mums,” Werden says. “It’s been so fun to see how much creativity and imagination everyone brought to the very same plant material.” And, we couldn’t accomplish our show change without our incredible volunteers—we had 18 volunteers!’