What is the bonsai industry market share?

Answer 1

I know of no market research in this area. Compared to the sales of garden trees/plants, houseplants, street trees etc. I would imagine it is a very small percentage. In the Seattle area, for example, there are hundreds of nurseries/garden centers. Of those very few have a bonsai section. Many of the few specialty bonsai nurseries in the area have closed over the last 10 years. In my opinion, the reason is twofold.

1. Many bonsai artists prefers to create their trees from nursery stock, cuttings, airlayers, or yamadori (trees collected from the wild) rather than buying trees already developed by others.

2. The inexpensive "Mallsai" sold at the large discount stores are mass produced, often in China, and are sold with little or no care instructions. Often outdoor bonsai like junipers are bought, many given as gifts, and are dead within a month or two because they are kept indoors, and are planted in poor soil.

People are not likely to spend several hundred or thousands of dollars on a really nice bonsai as sold at a reputable bonsai nursery when they expect to kill it.