Page 36 - Tài liệu Ebook cây cảnh Bonsai and Penjing

The magnificent “Mums in the Moonlight” viewing stone was a gift to President Ford from the
Nippon Suiseki Association in honor of the U.S. Bicentennial in 1976.
John Creech mentions in The Bonsai Saga how the “Mums in the
Moonlight” stone came to the U.S. National Arboretum:
There is an enormous and beautiful chrysanthemum stone in the bonsai
collection that originally was sent as a gift to President Gerald R. Ford. How it
came to be a part of the National Bonsai Collection is an interesting story. In the
fall of 1976, Skip [March] and I undertook a collecting trip to Japan to visit
nurseries. While there we met several of the donors of the plants and stones in
the collection. At one bonsai nursery in Angyo, we were shown a
chrysanthemum stone that was to be sent as a gift to President Ford. Several
months later, I asked a White House staff member about the stone and what had
been done with it. To my surprise, I learned that the crate was in storage until a
decision could be made. We had excellent relations with the horticultural staff at
the White House, and I suggested that perhaps the place for it was the National

Arboretum Bonsai Collection. Our collection had by now received sufficient
status so that the stone was duly delivered and became part of the National
Bonsai Museum’s collection.

Bonsai and penjing are also used to make foreign visitors feel at home. When
President Jimmy Carter and First Lady Rosalynn Carter hosted Japan’s Prime
Minister Takeo Fukuda in 1977, a bonsai from Japan’s Bicentennial Gift was
requested for the Oval Office at the White House for the visit. In Carter’s
welcoming remarks, he noted that the close relationship between the U.S. and
Japan after World War II was made possible by “the strength of the Japanese
society and also the beauty which has always been characteristic of the arts that
exist in the minds and hearts of the Japanese people.” This beauty is exemplified

by bonsai.