Well said, John.

There are two solutions to this problem that come to mind.

Buy inexpensive garden center stock (junipers, etc) to beat up on while you
practice and learn what will kill the species you really want to develop.

Learn by using tropicals. The best thing I did in my earlier years was to
get a couple of Green Island Ficus. These respond so fast to pruning that
they are magnificent teachers, and you will get plenty of practice rewiring
them as they grow. They also do very well in low light conditions.

Regards.

Bart
----- Original Message -----
From: "John NJ"
To:
Sent: Thursday, February 27, 2003 10:53 AM
Subject: [IBC] Mastering Technique (Was [IBC] proposal)


Some of you may have forgotten what it's like to be new in this hobby.
Let
me try to refresh your memory.

When you first start out you don't have any real bonsai. By real I mean
trees trained over the years to be in a small pot. Most likely you have
the
dreaded mallsai. So you read everything you can get your hands on, watch
videos, peruse the internet, join IBC and even join a local bonsai club.
You've got lots of energy and ideas and can't wait to get started. But
you
can't. Why? Because it's still winter. So you wait.

Spring rolls around and you buy some promising nursery stock. Maybe you
go
out collecting, looking for that special tree. If you find one you tag it
because, according to the books, it takes three years to properly dig a
tree
up. So you move on to the nursery stock.

Some of your nursery stock needs to develop roots so you plant them in
oversized training boxes and wait a few years. Some of your stock needs
to
develop trunks so you plant them in oversized training boxes and wait a
few
years. Some have great trunks but the branches are too high so you plant
them in oversized training boxes, trunk chop and wait a few years.

If you're lucky you have some stock that has great roots, trunk and branch
placement so you plant them in training boxes, prune some branches, wire
some other branches or the trunk and wait a few years.

All of the above takes several weekends in the spring. Summer roles
around
and you've got all these training boxes with trees at various stages of
development. You water them, talk to them and are generally very proud of
"pre-bonsai" (although your wife and kids think you're nuts). Friends
come
by and you show off your stock. They don't understand why your bonsai
don't
look like the ones in the pictures. You just shrug it off because they
just
don't understand the "art" of bonsai.

Anyway, you sit in your yard and watch your trees grow, which is much more
exciting than it was watching your grass grow.

Fall rolls around and you start getting your trees ready for winter rest.
You bring some in the house, put some in cold frames, bury some in the
ground and leave them all to sleep. Now what? You start reading
everything
you can get your hands on, watch videos, peruse the internet, read IBC and
even visit your local bonsai club.


After 2-3 years of this you can start looking at real bonsai pots. Maybe
in
5-10 years you may have something worth showing your friends. If you're
still around in 25 years you may actually be able to take one of your
trees
to a show. Yippee!!!

Any of this sound familiar?

John

From: Michael Persiano

This is not a bad idea, but the ONLY way to master
technique is to jump in and do it. Buy materials,
tools, wire, and submerse yourself in the art.

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