Deborah Koreshoff

[kwangett]

I stumbled upon this thread after learning from my elderly parents about Deborah Koreshoff's father, Victor Koreshoff.

In the early 1960's my father, a Chinese Australian who grew up in the bush, was a medical student at the University of Sydney, and my mother, a Chinese Malaysian who immigrated to Australia for school, was a young librarian at the University of New South Wales. My mom worked at the university library where Mr. Koreshoff ran the copy machine. My mother spoke of how kind Mr. Koreshoff was and how knowledgeable he was about bonsai. My parents wanted to buy some of his bonsai but for a long time he refused. Then after he got to know my parents he gifted them two bonsai. They admired how he made his own bonsai pots that were fired with a homemade glaze of ash from a specific type of tree that was used by the Chinese. Apparently Mr. Koreshoff could only afford to use a kiln once a year, so my parents were honored that the bonsai that they received were in his homemade pots.

In the mid-1960's my parents moved to the US, raised a family, and retired to southern California. They still speak fondly of Mr. Koreshoff's expertise and generosity from six decades ago. I had not heard this story when I bought a little dwarf jade plant a month ago, intending to learn about beginning bonsai. So this morning I was excited to hear about Mr. Koreshoff's story and his daughter's book. I eagerly ordered a hardcover copy of "Bonsai : It's art, science, history and philosophy" from Amazon and it is due to arrive at my home in Seattle this week.

I understand that Ms. Koreshoff no longer is active in the bonsai community, but if anyone has a way to pass along this story of her father to her, she might enjoy hearing about the positive impact his kindness had on a young Chinese-Australian couple in 1960's Sydney.

[PeachSlices]

Last i've seen was a post on Heron bonsai's page from 2022

With the caption

I had the great honour of meeting Dorothy Koreshoff and her family today at Herons. This is me with a copy of Deborah Koreshoff's famous book which was written in the early 1980s when there were very few good bonsai books around.
Really made my day.

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