Tiny trees, big impact: Bonsai club grows more than plants

Have you ever owned a tree so beautiful that you wish it travelled with you to your new home? Perhaps there is a memory attached to it? Well, if you planted it in a pot like the Chinese did in the seventh century, you can do just that.

This is what a miniature tree cultivation club based in Potchefstroom is trying to do: Travel with their memories.

The Wag ’n Bietjie Bonsai Kai (kai, the Japanese word for club or group) has been hosting Bonsai tree exhibitions at the North-West University (NWU) Botanical Garden Gallery since 2013. Due to COVID-19, 2020 was the only exception.

The club’s latest exhibition was on 29 March 2025, organised by self-proclaimed “bonsaicology enthusiast” social musicology professor Jaco Kruger (NWU Potchefstroom campus) and psychology professor Carol Herman from the Mahikeng campus.

“The history of the club goes back 40 years. It started in Klerksdorp in the 1980s, known as the Klerksdorp Bonsai Kai. The focus shifted to Potchefstroom, and we wanted to remove any geographical reference,” Kruger said. The Afrikaans phrase “wag ’n bietjie” translates to “wait a bit”. It is also the Afrikaans name for the buffalo thorn tree, after which the club was renamed in 2023.

Kruger said that the club has about 45 members spread across the North-West province: “We have members in Klerksdorp, Stilfontein, Orkney, and a bit further upfield, but most of our members are in Potchefstroom.” The kai holds occasional workshops on Saturdays, where the bonsai enthusiasts gather at a member’s house to work on their trees together, he said.

The exhibition also held a pop-up workshop, where anyone who attended could bring their plants for pruning and styling tips. “This is normally the process that we follow when we are not having an exhibition,” Kruger said.

Wag ’n Bietjie’s ethos

“We have an ethic of non-competitiveness and co-operation, where we think on a horizontal level, rather than vertical,” he said. “Our general philosophy within the club is that any tree is welcome here, no matter your style [of cultivation].”

Reflecting on the ethos that embodies the essence of their club, Herman said they want members to make trees “in memory of something or somebody or just to help you feel better”. She said one of their young members wanted her parents to gift her a lemon tree for her graduation so that she could always have a physical reminder of the event. Herman said she tries to embody this ethos herself. “I grew a tree for my father when he passed away. When my two sons were born, I planted a baobab seed for each of them; now they are nice and big trees. So, I make memories with my bonsai.”

History of bonsai in South Africa

The art of bonsai – which directly translates to ‘planted in a tray’, is an ancient form of cultivating and growing miniature trees. It originated in China in the seventh century.

Herman explained that wars would erupt between Chinese clans, causing clan folk to lose all their crops during raids. “They then started planting their fruit trees in pots, so that when [another] war came, they could grab their tree and take it with them. It eventually evolved into an art,” she said.

This art horticultural form was further developed and popularised by the Japanese from the start of the 12th century.

According to the South African Bonsai Association (SABA), bonsai art in South Africa was only practised as a hobby by a few enthusiasts before 1965. SABA recognises Becky Lucas as the originator of organised bonsai culture in South Africa. Lucas is featured in Capel Hemy’s  1967 book How to Grow Miniature Trees: Full instructions for practising the ancient art of BONSAI.

The culture started gaining traction in 1979, as early artists spearheaded literature and workshops nationwide.

Universal language

In 2015, Herman worked with traumatised and unemployed youth in the Dukuduku region of the KwaZulu-Natal province. She introduced them to bonsai by choosing trees together and helping them style and repot. “The idea was to empower them to grow their own trees later and sell them. Then COVID came, so I stopped with the project. I moved to Mafikeng two years later,” she said.

“In January this year [2025], my husband and I went back to Dukuduku on holiday, [and] on the pavement, there were all these plants, and you know what, they’d carried on with the project,” she said.

Herman said she could hardly speak Zulu back in 2015. “In bonsai, you do not need language, it is a universal language [that] people understand; as long as you can get through to them to grow a tree,” she said.