Xref: kermit rec.arts.bonsai:75971

Andrew G wrote:

Hi everyone
Just reading a recent thread where someone is moving state and a response to
it was someone suggesting the person sell their bonsai away and "start
again" apart from their favourite/s.
snip
I am always on the look out at work for natural specimens but will stop
collecting soon.
I refuse to buy any already "made".
So just wondering, many people here frequently sell them, to start over?

P.S. Happy 4th of July to you
Andrew Forster Mid North COast NSW Australia

Andrew:
I have been doing bonsai for five years now, and have killed off a number of trees
through ignorance and over-zealousness. I have also traded collected trees (mostly
raw material) for nursery stock that I couldn't find in the wild. An example is
with honeysuckles. I have had the opportunity to collect large, 100+ year old bush
honeysuckles on a local farm. I wound up with about ten, and decided that it would
be difficult to keep up with all of them. So, I decided I'd trade at a bonsai
nursery when the owner of the nursery happened to see one of the smaller ones I'd
collected and found out that I had some even larger. I traded four for a japanese
flowering apricot that has a nice trunk. No cash outlay.

I have a number of trees I collected in the wild early on, and intend to keep them
because they have large trunks and will be long-term projects, which was why I
collected them in the first place. When I collected them three or so years ago I
already knew they'd be in development for close to a decade.

In terms of buying a "finished" tree, if you can afford it, do it. Don't refuse to
do so on principle. There is something to be said for having a few trees that are
further along. I have a really nice procumbens juniper that is "finished" in terms
of the development of the lines of the trunk and the positioning of the main
branches. My contribution to it has been thinning out the crown and refining and
developing the pads of foliage. Even though I did not design the trunk, I still
feel it is just as much my tree as any that I collected from the wild because I
selected it because it appealed to me, and I have altered it somewhat to fit with
my vision of what I'd like it to be.

I don't know how long you've been doing bonsai, but I suspect you'll find your
thoughts about giving up trees change.

Now, anyone who has seen my jungle will find it hard to believe that I have traded
trees (I've traded away about 40 collected trees) but I have, and probably will
continue to do so periodically. There are a number I won't trade, but others,
maybe, if I come across something I'd like even more. Alan is right. The way to
step up your collection is to always be open to new possibilities. Always a good
philosophy in life too!

Craig Cowing
NY
Zone 5b/6a Sunset 37

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