2025 Baxter Symposium Presenter

Session: Forces of Nature: Uncovering the Stories of Trees

Chris Baker has been studying and working on bonsai for more than 18 years. Like so many, he started out and as an enthusiast with a true love of horticulture, nature and natural trees. He began volunteering at the U.S. National Arboretum, bonsai and penjing museum in 2011 and did so on and off until 2014. Baker spent six months in 2012 studying with bonsai master Torho Susuki at the Diajuen Nursery in Okasaki, Japan. Returning to the U.S. in late 2012, Baker was awarded the “First Curators” Internship at the U.S. National Arboretum bonsai and penjing museum in early 2013. In 2014, Baker was hired as the first full time curator of the Chicago Botanic Garden. Baker is a Regional Director of the North American Bonsai Federation, International Consultant for the World Bonsai Friendship Federation and a board member of the American Bonsai Society. Though trained in a more traditional style, Baker's true passion is naturalist looking trees and using native species as ambassadors for imperiled ecosystems.