Destination Asia Festival

The Morton Arboretum

Explore the diverse cultures of Asia through music, dance, food, and more.  Join us for a fun-filled weekend that will transport you across the globe.  Starting with a member preview on Friday evening and all day on Saturday and Sunday, enjoy diverse cultural performances and demonstrations, various shopping and art vendors, and local food trucks.

This event attracts new members to our club and allows members to gather and interact with the Festival attendees and teach them about the art of bonsai.

PSBS is proud to be back in the Sycamore Room hosting our Annual PSBS Bonsai Exhibition.  Our Bonsai Exhibition is where our club members can show their trees which they have spent so much time on.  There will also be several “trees in training” tables where our new members can show their work and others can display interesting trees in progress.  Please consider bringing as many of your trees as possible.  As PSBS members, you are allowed up to three display trees for judging but unlimited “trees in training.”

We are lucky to have Mr. Chris Baker of the Chicago Botanic Garden as our judge for this year’s exhibition.  Chris will also be on hand Saturday afternoon to do a Bonsai demonstration.  When he was introduced to bonsai, Chris Baker’s journey began 15 years ago in Gainesville, Florida.  After moving to Maryland in 2004 to work as a horticulturist at the National Aquarium in Baltimore, he joined the Baltimore Bonsai Club.  In 2010 Baker, at an Open House at the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum, met Curator Jack Sustic and expressed an interest in curating a public bonsai collection one day.  He began volunteering at the Museum in the spring of 2011.  Then, thanks to an introduction from Sustic to Tohru Suzuki, a third-generation bonsai master in Japan, Baker spent six months in 2012 as an apprentice at the Daijuen Nursery.  In 2013 he was chosen for the NBF-sponsored First Curators Apprenticeship position.  In 2014 Baker’s dream to curate a public bonsai collection came true when he accepted a position as the first full-time curator at The Chicago Botanic Garden in Glencoe, Illinois.  There he has used the skills and knowledge gained in Japan and at the National Arboretum to raise the status and quality of the Chicago collection.  See below for the criteria Chris will use while judging.

Workshops are available with limited seating on both  Saturday and Sunday.

Please consider bringing a tree for display.

If you are interested in volunteering time at the show or need transport for your trees, please contact Nick DiBattista (nicholasd_1@yahoo.com or 630-479-2112).

Link to Parking information for volunteers

Link to Morton Arboretum for more information