The reality of Bonsai/Tree Penjing [ at least for me]
is that after all this time[over twenty years]all I have
is about 10 trees that I would say are up to mark.
Though I have about 50 other maybes.
[I spent a great deal of time in my earlier days testing
local trees and very few were worth the effort.]
So once I make 10 posts of images on the Gallery I
am done for the next 5 or so years.

Ha! Join the crowd.

The first one third (at least) of most people's bonsai "career"
is spent learning what NOT to do -- including what trees not to
grow, either because those trees don't like you or they aren't
suitable as bonsai. This is the impatient, botched tree stage.

The next third is spent collecting trees (usually so many you
can't do ANY of them justice) and "doing bonsai" on them. This
is the combined I-want-it-all-NOW stage and the
Oh-my-God-What-Can-I-Do-With-All-These-Trees! stage.

The final third -- which I HOPE I am finally entering -- is spent
nurturing the few of the multitude that you ended up keeping
because they had potential and which now may be turning into
fairly nice trees. (Plus maintaining those trees you keep for
one kind of sentimental reason or another.) This is the
There's-Hope stage.


Additionally,after being on and off of this list for about
4 years[??],I haven't that much left to say.Once one masters
the horticultural aspect,you run into philosophy,if that's
your inclination.

Most of us long-timers have said things more than once -- often,
Many times more than once -- because there are always newcomers
to bonsai -- and the list -- who haven't heard it. WE may get
tired of saying it, but there's something of a obligation to
people who ask for help, eh? (Even if it turns out that they
don't want to hear what you have to say (See below.).)

Very few have enough Art training to really push the trees
to their highest level of design and so most peter out at this
stage.
It would take about 4 years of active study to get the Art
training and this is just a hobby for most,so it never happens.
[Critiquing someone with little or no art training leads only
to confusion.Most are still trying to figure out the why of
the 1,2,3 of the branch rule.

Well, I continue to disagree here. A college level "art
appreciation" course (the one the football players all have to
take ;-) certainly won't hurt. But I'd wager that as many people
who have never taken a formal art class have a "good eye" for
design as do folks who majored in art. No one has managed to
convince me that a major in painting, print making or ballet is
any particular help toward bonsai. Sculpture? Maybe?

I _will_ agree that young people today -- whose grade school art
experience may be little more than the "stay-inside-the-lines"
variety in this back-to-basics age -- may be starting the race a
few steps behind the line. But by looking at good trees and
trying to analyze why they do or do not work (for them) they can,
in time, develop an eye.

The rest is skills development -- wiring, pinching, pruning,
repotting, etc.


The other problem is the modern sense of individuality,it
is after all,their tree and their not going to chop it down
to make it better,it's too precious,or time is tooo short or
they get offended.

This is just part of that first stage of bonsai I noted earlier.
You outgrow this, or you stop doing bonsai. It's simple, and
nothing to get hot and bothered about.

And gosh, I hope individuality never, ever becomes a "problem."
There already are too many of our "leaders" (worldwide!!!) who
would rather lead an ant colony than a bunch of people with
minds.


Or there just isn't enough tree to say much about it.]

Well, my favorite line on the gallery (aside from "put it in the
Potensai Gallery") is "plant it in the ground for a few years,
then come back to it."


I figure many of the experienced hands on the list have a
similar situation and so the list goes very silent for long
periods - but I can't definitively say this is so.

Nah. The snow is melting (somewhere!) up north. They can see
their trees again. ;-)

Jim Lewis - - Tallahassee, FL - Bonsaiests
are like genealogists: We know our roots!

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