About us

Robert “Bob” Mahler discovered his passion for bonsai early in life. By the age of fifteen, Bob was apprenticing under the direction of bonsai artist Chase Rosage of Rosade Bonsai Studios in New Hope, Pennsylvania. From there, he traveled to Tochigi-Ken, Japan, where he would spend the next four years under the exclusive direction of world-renowned bonsai artist Susumo Sudo.

Bob returned to the States in 1993. For the following eleven years, he served as the curator of bonsai at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden in Brooklyn, New York.

Bob opened Kifu Bonsai in 2017 and continues to consult for horticultural institutions. As president of the Pennsylvania Bonsai Society, he oversees the bonsai exhibit at the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society’s annual Philadelphia Flower Show.

Bob’s personal favorites are Japanese White Pines, Satsuki Azaleas, and Japanese Flowering Apricots. Bob resides in a small farming community north of Philadelphia with his wife Jesseca and their dogs.