I’ve never been a huge bonsai person, but I happened to be out in Littleton, MA today buying pea gravel for a Japanese garden (you know, that usual errand that you do all the time…) and I drove past Bonsai West.  I’ve heard this place is one of the ultimate bonsai establishments on the East Coast and I’ve been meaning to go there.  So as soon as I drove past and realized what it was, I turned the car around and wandered out into the sweltering heat.

Bonsai West is amazing.

Even if you aren’t really a bonsai fan, the collection of plants and the attention to detail is at this place will floor you.  In the age of overpriced garden chains and plant death traps like Home Cheapo, visiting a place where gardening specialists (Michael Levin and collegaues) have a thriving gardening business was refreshing.  By the time I was done wondering around the massive collection, I had sweat through my clothes.  But it was the happiest I’ve been in the past couple of weeks.

And of course, I couldn’t leave without buying something.  I got some adorable dwarf grasses for the Japanese garden we are installing tomorrow.  And for the roof garden, I got a dawn redwood, the tree that everyone thought was extinct until the 1940s.