----- Original Message ----- The reason I take photos is that I can always
look at what my tree(s)
looked like (good or bad). So it is a sort of permanent record of my
feeble attempts.


As I look at this discussion, I am reminded of the expressed need to "talk
to your plants" (Musta been from the feel-good seventies). This was aimed
at houseplants, so I talked to them, and said, "My way, or the dumpster."

Looking backward, I may have been a little short on tact, and hard on those
plants, whose only duty was to survive, but it has helped me with bonsai,
and I cull my collection with the ruthlessness of a sales manager.

Do I have trees that would be embarrasing to show? Of course. Most of these
are in the experiment stage; (I call them "victims").

Would my best trees be an embarrasment in the collection of one of the
masters on the list? Of course, But they are all an ongoing process that I
enjoy Some I keep simply because I remember what they have come from. The
enjoyment is greater when the process leads to something beautiful.

Carl does beautiful paintings. But, I'm sure that he has experiments that
have either been sanded off, if he works on board, or have disappeared under
a new painting. I feel that bonsai is the same way.

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