Midwest Bonsai Society to teach wiring at July meeting
Wiring took center stage at the Midwest Bonsai Society’s July 6 meeting, where Phil Maliot showed how raffia and guy wires shape a specimen tree.
The Midwest Bonsai Society put wiring front and center at its July General Meeting at the Chicago Botanic Garden’s Regenstein Center, Burnstein Hall, where Phil Maliot led a 7 to 9 p.m. presentation on wiring specimen trees. The club said the tree used in the demo will be auctioned at a later general meeting, turning the lesson into something members can track after the room clears.
The session was built around the practical side of bonsai styling, with Maliot covering wiring, raffia and the use of guy wires on a specimen tree. The society is blunt about why that matters: proper use of wire and bending is essential to a bonsai’s health and development. That makes the meeting useful beyond a live demonstration, because it put branch placement, structural decisions and tree safety at the center of the lesson rather than treating wiring as a finishing touch.
For growers trying to move past basic clip-and-grow habits, that is the point where bonsai often gets stuck. Wiring only works when the wire is applied with a clear plan, the bend is made with the tree’s structure in mind, and support methods like raffia or guy wires are used when the branch or trunk needs protection. Maliot’s program gave the society a chance to show how those choices affect both styling and long-term vigor, which is exactly the kind of instruction beginners and more advanced members can use immediately.
The July meeting also fit into a packed season of hands-on club events. The Midwest Bonsai Society’s August General Meeting is set for August 3, 2026 as a working session to prepare trees for the August Exhibition, with members encouraged to bring trees, tools and wire for evaluation. The 48th Annual Mid-America Bonsai Exhibition follows on August 14 through 16 at the Chicago Botanic Garden, with public hours running August 14 from noon to 5 p.m. and August 15 and 16 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Later in the calendar, Chris Baker is scheduled for a September demo on rock plantings, including selection, carving, muck preparation, mounting and dressing. October’s Iron Bonsai challenge will feature Victor Zurzcak, Matt Mazza and Larry Magee working from nursery stock purchased from Brussels Nursery in Mississippi, and November will bring winter care with Jason Davis.
The society, based at the Chicago Botanic Garden, says it promotes public awareness, cultivation and the living art of bonsai, and it holds monthly meetings from February through November. Its May Exhibit began in 2004, but the July wiring demo showed the club’s clearest pattern: teach one core skill, then let members carry it straight into the next season of work.
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