Pacific Bonsai Museum sets beginner bonsai class for June 27

Pacific Bonsai Museum brought beginners to the pavilion at 2515 S. 336th St. in Federal Way for a three-hour Bonsai Basics Class that ended with each participant creating a juniper bonsai to take home. The session ran Saturday, June 27, 2026, from noon to 3:00 p.m., and the museum positioned it squarely for novices of all ages.

The setup was designed to remove the usual barriers that keep people on the sidelines. All bonsai materials were included, so participants did not need to arrive with tools, wire, pots or training stock of their own. The museum also set a family rule that anyone under 16 could attend only with an adult, keeping the class open while still framing it as an in-person teaching session rather than a drop-in demo.

Grant Rauzi led the class with the kind of authority that comes from decades in the hobby. The museum describes him as a past president of the Puget Sound Bonsai Association and its current board chair, and Rauzi says he potted his first bonsai 40 years ago. The museum presents his approach as one built on precision, discipline, focus, awareness, commitment and continual learning, which fits a class that asks newcomers not just to watch, but to make their first tree.

The pricing also kept the event within reach for members and non-members alike. Members paid $140, while non-members paid $150. Pacific Bonsai Museum says members receive priority registration, along with access to virtual Curator Q&As, repotting sessions and store discounts, a package that ties class attendance to the broader life of the museum.

That broader life matters at a place that says it is one of only two museums in the United States solely dedicated to bonsai. Pacific Bonsai Museum says its collection holds 150 trees and draws more than 55,000 annual visitors, while its history reaches back to Weyerhaeuser’s creation of the institution in 1989 for the Washington State Centennial and to its 2013 transition into the nonprofit Pacific Bonsai Museum. Its 2026 calendar also listed a May 23 bonsai basics class, a June 6 Puget Sound Bonsai Association auction, and more bonsai basics classes on Aug. 8 and Sept. 19, keeping the ramp from admirer to practitioner running through the summer and into fall.