PLEASE SNIP MESSAGES!


Don't you guys think this could be a natural progression?

Sure it is -- and I thought that's what I at least implied.

We all start out with more trees than we can really care for.

I'm just starting
and I've got this constant desire to get more trees - not just
to have them,
mind you, but because I know it's going to be years before I
have any "good"
trees and I want to maximize my opportunity to HAVE some really
good trees.
I'm not nearly educated, practiced or arrogant enough in the
art of Bonsai
to assume that every tree I work on is going to eventually be a
masterpiece.
So, by getting as many as I can and practicing on them,
increasing my own
experience and "hands-on" knowledge, I think (hope) I'm also
increasing the
likelihood that at least a few will be "Ooooh, Ahhhh" trees
someday. A few
years from now, when I know a lot more and the trees I have are
more
developed and further along in the process - yeah, I'll
probably reduce how
many I have. Then again - someday, I may get to retire and
I'll have more
time to spend with them....



HOWEVER, don't you think you could get _better_ trees if you have
just a few that you could lavish some attention on? If you have
so many that you can only affort to give 10 mnutes a day on them,
what do you think you will have in 10 years -- or what do you
think you will have learned?

Better, I think (and none of us know this when we start) to have
half as many trees and spend twice as much time on each.


Michael wrote:


Most importantly, you should have the TIME to work with each
tree at the highest level.

Quantity should not be confused with quality.

YES!

snip

And wrote:


How much is too much? Clue: the number of trees is MUCH
lower
than one would imagine.


It takes a while for most of us to realize this FACT. You can
have a gazillion ho-hum trees, a hundred OK trees, or 25-30
nice
trees.

I've only made it down to the OK level ;-) but now that I have
a
few whose potential I'm beginning to see, I've become a lot
more
ruthless in culling trees off my shelves. I just today planted
a
Chinese quince out in my yard. It had been in a pot for
several
years and, frankly, was a bit boring there (and probably bored
itself). It'll be happier with more root run.

I don't know if mame count. ;-)


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