Monday April 27th, 2026 - PSBA General Meeting with guest Penjing artist Che Zhao Sheng

We are excited and honored to welcome Che Zhou Sheng as our guest artist for the April 27 general meeting. He will be doing a demo on Lignan-style penjing. Mr. Che is the first and primary pénjǐng artist at The Huntington’s Chinese Garden in San Marino, California. Also known as Liú Fāng Yuán or the Garden of Flowering Fragrance, it is considered one of the finest classical-style Chinese gardens outside of China. Mr. Che has worked at the fifteen-acre garden for over twenty years, and practiced pénjǐng for half a century. More than sixty percent of the Chinese Garden’s pénjǐng collection was cultivated by him, originating from his personal backyard. Mr. Che specializes in the Lǐngnán School of pénjǐng, from the Guǎngdōng region of South China. He has been profiled by the Los Angeles Times and his work featured on Jonas Dupuich’s highly-popular Bonsai Tonight blog.

Mr. Che was first exposed to pénjǐng in his native Guangzhou while shopping for flowers at a market during the Chinese Lunar New Year Festival. He was “absolutely amazed by the beauty and exquisite form of pénjǐng” and “started going to the store and watching the gardeners every day.” He began his training in 1976 under the guidance of Lǐngnán Master Lu Xue Ming, before immigrating to the United States a decade later. Mr. Lu is one of only five pénjǐng masters to be certified by the Chinese government as such, and is the creator of the Pacific Bonsai Museum’s famous Surinam cherry named "Holding Up the Sky.”

Mr. Che’s work follows the Lingnan School’s naturalistic style, using the “Grow and Clip” technique—a method that promotes new branch growth through repeated and strategic pruning. This results in multiple branches that create movement and balance, closely resembling trees found in nature. He is "inspired by all of nature—the forests, lakes, and rocks,” and brings all these scenes in his mind to bear when creating pénjǐng, which he considers to be “the art of nature.”

Mr. Che is the first pénjǐng master to visit the Puget Sound Bonsai Association in twenty-three years, since Qingquan 'Brook' Zhao’s visit in 2003. Do not miss this rare opportunity to learn about a fascinating art, rarely seen, let alone taught, in the United States.

Friends of PSBA, Robert Cho and his son Nolan of Asia Pacific Gardening in Kent, recently visited Mr. Che. Check out the YouTube video of their visit with him in the Huntington Chinese Garden here.

Guest artist workshops are offered on Sunday, April 26 in the morning and afternoon at Mercer Slough Environmental Center in Bellevue, and Monday, April 27 at CUH. Please check our Guest Artist Workshop Guidelines before signing up for a participant seat. Contact Lynn to sign up or for more information.

Participant and observer seats are still available for all of Mr. Che’s workshops.