I did not expect sewing and bonsai to end up sharing a six-foot table, but that is exactly what happened with my display, Sown Roots, at a bonsai show hosted by the Bonsai Society of Brevard here in Florida.
The display centered on a Brazilian rain tree bonsai I had purchased at this same show one year earlier. That day, I also joined the club. A year later, I came back with the same tree - still very much in training - as part of my own bonsai show display.
In some ways, the tree and I were on roughly the same timeline. We had both spent about a year getting more serious about bonsai.
I called the display Sown Roots, with the tagline:
Shaped by hand. Grown with time.
The title plays with sown and sewn, bringing together two very different kinds of making that have more in common than I first realized.
The Brazilian Rain Tree That Brought Me Back to the Show
My Brazilian rain tree is not an ancient masterpiece, and I am not pretending it is. It is a tree in training.
But that is part of what made bringing it back to this particular bonsai show feel important.
I had bought the tree at the Bonsai Society of Brevard show one year earlier, when they had the show at Brevard Zoo. That was also the day I joined the club. I had been interested in bonsai and dabbling with trees for more than ten years, but joining the club marked the beginning of a much more intentional period of learning for me.
Over the following year, I paid closer attention. I worked on developing the tree (and many others). I listened to people who knew more than I did. I learned more about structure, timing, pruning, presentation, and all the other things you slowly begin to notice once you stop looking at bonsai as simply “a little tree in a container.”
Then suddenly the same show came around again. This time, instead of browsing the vendor tables and admiring everyone else's trees, I had the opportunity to bring one of my own.
That full-circle moment became the backbone of the display.
Fun fact: Her name is Tweety. I named my Brazilian rain tree after Tweety (after Tweety bird) because she has become my proverbial canary in the coal mine. She does not like to get dry, and she's usually the first of my trees to let me know it's time to water by folding up her leaves.
In true Tweety fashion, she spent most of the show with her leaves curled up. The air conditioning was apparently not to her tropical liking (indeed I was cold too), so she basically decided to take a nap for the day. As soon as we got home, and out into to the warm Florida weather, she stretched her leaves back out again as if to say, "Finally."
Choosing a Bonsai Pot as Part of the Display
One thing I have become much more aware of as I learn bonsai is that the container is not just where the tree happens to live. It affects the visual weight, proportion, color, and overall feeling of the composition.
For this show, I displayed the Brazilian rain tree in one of my own handmade bonsai pots. Making bonsai containers while also learning to grow and display bonsai has given me an interesting perspective. I am learning what the tree needs at the same time I am learning what makes the overall presentation feel balanced.
Designing a Bonsai Show Display Around a Story
I wanted the display to connect bonsai with another part of my creative life - sewing - without turning the whole thing into a table full of props. Tweety still needed to be the star.
The display occupied a six-foot table covered in black, with my Brazilian rain tree elevated on antique sewing-machine drawers and wooden planks. An antique portable Singer sewing machine carried the sewing theme across the table, with a tiny accent planting tucked into one of my oversized spool-shaped Sewing Station Caddies.
The more I thought about it, the more sewing and bonsai seemed like a natural pairing. Both ask you to slow down, pay attention, work with your hands, and make dozens of small decisions along the way.
Although "slow down" might be debatable. With both sewing and bonsai, I can sit down to work for a few minutes, look up, and somehow several hours have disappeared.
Maybe that's another thing they have in common - both have a funny way of making time move very, very fast.
Using Antique Sewing Machine Drawers as a Bonsai Display Stand
I didn't actually own a bonsai stand that worked for this tree, which is probably not unusual when you're putting together one of your first show displays. There were some beautiful bonsai stands at the show, and seeing the difference a good stand can make definitely gave me something else to add to my wish list.
For Sown Roots, though, I had to think a little outside the box - or, in this case, inside the drawers.
I had a pair of antique sewing-machine drawers from an old, abandoned sewing machine I rescued parts from, so I used them beneath wooden planks to create a raised platform for the Brazilian rain tree. It solved the practical problem of getting Tweety up off the table, but it also ended up being perfect for the display because the drawers carried the sewing theme into the tree's side of the composition.
That was one of my biggest beginner takeaways from the show: height really can change a display. A tree sitting directly on a large table can lose some of its presence. Raising mine brought it closer to eye level and gave it a much stronger place in the overall composition. The wooden planks I also already had on hand, though in future, I might either paint them to contrast with the pot more or replace with something better.
A beautiful purpose-made bonsai stand is absolutely something I can appreciate, especially after seeing some of the stands at this show, but not owning one didn't have to keep me from participating. Sometimes you use what you have, pay attention to proportion and stability, and come up with a solution that works for the tree and the story you're trying to tell.
The Tiny Bonsai Accent Plant That Looked Like a Pincushion
The smallest part of the display was the detail that amused me the most. I used many tiny baby Mother of Thousands plant starts as the accent planting. The little plants were pinkish in their youth, and some of them were already producing tiny babies around the edges in a vibrant green!
Those plantlets looked remarkably like pins sticking out of a pincushion. So I leaned into it. I placed the plants in the top portion of one of my oversized spool-shaped Sewing Station Caddies (which I used as a makeshift kusamono or shitakusa container), where the pincushion would normally sit. I added one actual pin among the plantlets and slipped a pair of scissors into the scissor slot. That was it.
I did not want the joke to turn the display into a novelty arrangement. It was just a small visual moment that rewarded someone who looked closely.
In bonsai display, a supporting plant is often referred to as a shitakusa or kusamono. A bonsai accent plant helps establish season, scale, environment, or mood while remaining subordinate to the primary tree. The tiny Mother of Thousands was interesting, but was subordinate to the Brazilian rain tree.
What I liked most was the little reversal happening between the objects. The plant seemed to imitate a pincushion, while the sewing object seemed to imitate the plant.
What I Learned From Creating a Bonsai Show Display
I am still learning, so I am not offering these as official rules for how to display a bonsai tree. They are simply the things I noticed while putting this display together and then seeing it in the room alongside other bonsai.
- Start with the tree. The idea, props, stand, and accent all need to work around it rather than the other way around.
- Use height intentionally. A simple platform can completely change the visual presence of a tree on a show table.
- Leave some empty space. You do not have to fill every inch simply because you have six feet of table.
- Edit ruthlessly. If an object explains the theme but pulls your eye away from the tree, it probably does not belong.
- Keep the accent subordinate. The companion plant can add another layer to the display without becoming another main event.
- Step back often. Something that looks perfect while you are arranging it from two feet away may look completely different from across the room.
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Ask people who know more than you. One of the best parts of joining a bonsai club has been having access to experienced growers who are generous with their feedback. Our group, Bonsai Society of Brevard, have not just become fellow bonsai enthusiasts, over the last year, they have become my friends.
- It's okay to be a little weird. Really. My display was definitely a little outside the box, but people responded to it. Even better, the story behind it prompted other people to tell me stories about their own lives and creative interests. We connected. I think that's one of the wonderful things art, including bonsai, can do - make someone stop, think, remember, and feel something.
One Year Into My Bonsai Club Journey
Joining the Bonsai Society of Brevard has made a huge difference in how quickly I have been able to learn. There is only so much you can absorb from books, videos, and experimenting alone. Being around people who have worked with trees for years gives you a completely different education. And having the ability to text a friend to ask - should I repot or should I make this big cut, can help you build confidence and skill and create lifelong friendships.
Rob Kempinski, the club vice president, has been especially encouraging. He has become something of a bonsai mentor to me - and, yes, he literally wrote the book, and you can get it on Amazon here.
He was also the reason this display actually made it to the show.
I Almost Didn't Bring My Display
Here's the funny part: after putting all of this together, I almost didn't bring it.
I already had plans that morning, and by the time I got home and needed to get ready for the show, Tweety had another surprise for me. Florida summers make Brazilian rain trees grow like crazy, and she had gotten a little too enthusiastic. So minutes before I was supposed to bring her to the show, I was giving her an emergency haircut.
Nothing like a last-minute bonsai trim to really build your confidence before your first display.
Plus, I was already nervous. Tweety is still a young tree, I am still pretty new to all of this, and my display was definitely not traditional. Then there was the part where I would have to stand up in front of people and talk about it. Public speaking is not my thing.
It would have been very easy at that point to decide this whole thing could wait until next year.
Then Rob texted me to ask if I was coming. Well, shoot.
When your bonsai mentor checks in to make sure you're bringing your display, it's a little harder to chicken out. So Tweety got her haircut, I got myself together, and we went.
My husband came with me and was my rock through the whole thing, especially when it was time to talk about the display. Once everything was finally set up, I had this moment of looking at Tweety on the table and thinking, Wait. She actually looks really good up there.
She was young compared with many of the trees at the show, sure. But she didn't look out of place. She looked like she belonged there. My weird sewing-and-bonsai idea worked, people responded to it, and I was really proud that I had actually done it.
If You Are Thinking About Entering Your First Bonsai Show
I think a lot of beginners probably do what I did and look at the beautiful, mature trees at a bonsai show and think, Mine isn't ready for this. Maybe it isn't going to be the oldest tree in the room. Maybe you don't own the perfect bonsai stand yet (I certainly didn't). Maybe you're still figuring out what you're doing. That's all okay!
Bring the tree.
That doesn't mean you have to pretend it is something it isn't. Tweety is young, and I know we have a lot of work ahead of us. But putting her into a real show taught me things I would not have learned by keeping her at home. I got to see how she looked in a larger space, how the height of the display changed her presence, what I liked, what I would change, and how she compared visually with more developed trees.
I also got feedback, met more people, heard their stories, and came home with more ideas than I started with. That's kind of the point, isn't it?
She's still learning how to be a bonsai. I'm still learning how to make one. Seems fair.
Sown Roots. Shaped by hand. Grown with time.
Want to See What Happens Next?
Tweety and I clearly still have some growing to do. If you'd like to follow along with what I'm learning, making, growing, and occasionally talking myself into doing, join Studio Insiders.