Cultivating pre-bonsai that I may not be able to maintain

[Dryad]

Hi everyone, first time poster here. I'm a 21 year old student living in Dublin, Ireland, and over the past three years I've developed a huge interest in bonsai. In 2018 I was gifted a Chinese Elm bonsai (what I soon realised was a mallsai, still great for practice!), and since then ive been researching a lot of bonsai techniques & methods online, on YouTube especially.

I've acquired quite a collection of pre-bonsai material, mostly native saplings from seed (Ash, Beech, Hornbeam, Oak & Yew), cuttings (Willow & Chinese Elm) as well as some promising air layers taken from Fuschia in my garden. I'm considering training most of them in the ground once they're more mature and letting them grow out for a few years before trunk chopping/branch selecting etc...

My only issue is, I plan on doing a lot of travelling once I graduate, and might even pursue a postgrad abroad next year or the year after. I know it might sound silly, but it despairs me to think my pre-bonsai will be left behind to wither! I'm living with my mother who isn't very horticulturally inclined, and would travel too often to water them in my stead. Right now I even feel guilty acquiring new bonsai material with the knowledge it will eventually die in my absence.

So ramblings aside, can anyone else relate to this? Have any of you made grand plans for your bonsai and pre-bonsai, knowing you'll be travelling abroad too often to take of them properly?

 

[leatherback]

In normal years, I am on the road 2-4 months per year. But my partner and a friend water trees when I am not around.

In your case, if you know you will be gone for a reasonable amount of time, I would try to find someone who keeps bonsai that might be willing to take some of them in.

Have a look at bonsai Ejit (?) based in Berlin. He has a huge network. Might be willen to help you find a solution.

 

[AJL]

You could make life easier by ground growing as many as possible while on your travels- when you return they will have developed nice thick trunks!

 

[Dryad]

In normal years, I am on the road 2-4 months per year. But my partner and a friend water trees when I am not around.

In your case, if you know you will be gone for a reasonable amount of time, I would try to find someone who keeps bonsai that might be willing to take some of them in.

Have a look at bonsai Ejit (?) based in Berlin. He has a huge network. Might be willen to help you find a solution.

I actually follow Bonsai Eejit on Instagram, adore his collection! I believe he's based in Belfast. Thanks for your response, he's definitely a good person to get in touch with in that regard.

 

[Dryad]

You could make life easier by ground growing as many as possible while on your travels- when you return they will have developed nice thick trunks!

That's a good point - we definitely get enough rain here for at least some of them to survive!

 

[Hack Yeah!]

That's a good point - we definitely get enough rain here for at least some of them to survive!

This is a great option, surely you'll visit your mom once in a while and maybe she could sprinkle the field if you go through a drought.

 

[sorce]

Welcome to Crazy!

Search for the one about the dude about to RV his trees across country!

Sorce

 

[penumbra]

WE all all own a similar path. I am 71 years old and hope to be doing bonsai as long as I can. But I do have a couple of younger friends that will step in and gladly adopt my collection if I check out early.

 

[ShadyStump]

While I was in the army I was deployed so many times it never even crossed my mind to try keeping a tree, but I considered finding one for the mess deck on the cutter when I'd changed over to the coast guard. Never got around to it though.

Point is, it took 30 years from when I first discovered and fell in love with bonsai to finally being settled down enough to pursue it. There could be worse things than a life interesting enough to leave your trees for.

 

[Dryad]

While I was in the army I was deployed so many times it never even crossed my mind to try keeping a tree, but I considered finding one for the mess deck on the cutter when I'd changed over to the coast guard. Never got around to it though.

Point is, it took 30 years from when I first discovered and fell in love with bonsai to finally being settled down enough to pursue it. There could be worse things than a life interesting enough to leave your trees for.

Wow, thank you for this perspective. You're right - it's certainly ambitious to think I could pursue bonsai properly until I am somewhat settled down after my travels. I suppose any of my trees that survive in the meantime are a bonus!

 

[TimberLakers]

Given your intention is to do train these in the ground - why not just accelerate that process?

Would certainly cut back on the watering for Mom, and you can just dig them up after you're done wandering.

 

[Bonsai Nut]

Hi everyone, first time poster here. I'm a 21 year old student living in Dublin, Ireland, and over the past three years I've developed a huge interest in bonsai. In 2018 I was gifted a Chinese Elm bonsai (what I soon realised was a mallsai, still great for practice!), and since then ive been researching a lot of bonsai techniques & methods online, on YouTube especially.

I've acquired quite a collection of pre-bonsai material, mostly native saplings from seed (Ash, Beech, Hornbeam, Oak & Yew), cuttings (Willow & Chinese Elm) as well as some promising air layers taken from Fuschia in my garden. I'm considering training most of them in the ground once they're more mature and letting them grow out for a few years before trunk chopping/branch selecting etc...

My only issue is, I plan on doing a lot of travelling once I graduate, and might even pursue a postgrad abroad next year or the year after. I know it might sound silly, but it despairs me to think my pre-bonsai will be left behind to wither! I'm living with my mother who isn't very horticulturally inclined, and would travel too often to water them in my stead. Right now I even feel guilty acquiring new bonsai material with the knowledge it will eventually die in my absence.

So ramblings aside, can anyone else relate to this? Have any of you made grand plans for your bonsai and pre-bonsai, knowing you'll be travelling abroad too often to take of them properly?

I hope I am not being redundant by telling this story here, because I have told it several other times on this site.

Earlier this year I was visiting a gardener (not a bonsai enthusiast, per se) and his property was amazing. It was landscaped with some of the biggest rare conifers I had ever seen, as well as truly dozens of large Japanese maples. When I asked where he got all the large trees, he told me that decades previously, he bought a bloodgood Japanese maple, and took many cuttings from it. His parents owned some rural property here in North Carolina, and he planted 200 cuttings in an open field. Real life intervened, and he joined the military, and after 20 years traveling the world, returned to NC to eventually sell the property with his Japanese maples on it. He cut a deal with the buyer where he got to keep 100 maple trees, and the buyer could keep the rest. He hired a backhoe to dig out the 100 trees, and moved them to his new home, where he traded many of the trees for similarly aged large landscape conifers. Ultimately he ended up with an extensive landscaped property... for the cost of a bunch of cuttings plus time.

I would recommend you consider a similar plan

 

[Dryad]

I hope I am not being redundant by telling this story here, because I have told it several other times on this site.

Earlier this year I was visiting a gardener (not a bonsai enthusiast, per se) and his property was amazing. It was landscaped with some of the biggest rare conifers I had ever seen, as well as truly dozens of large Japanese maples. When I asked where he got all the large trees, he told me that decades previously, he bought a bloodgood Japanese maple, and took many cuttings from it. His parents owned some rural property here in North Carolina, and he planted 200 cuttings in an open field. Real life intervened, and he joined the military, and after 20 years traveling the world, returned to NC to eventually sell the property with his Japanese maples on it. He cut a deal with the buyer where he got to keep 100 maple trees, and the buyer could keep the rest. He hired a backhoe to dig out the 100 trees, and moved them to his new home, where he traded many of the trees for similarly aged large landscape conifers. Ultimately he ended up with an extensive landscaped property... for the cost of a bunch of cuttings plus time.

I would recommend you consider a similar plan

Fantastic story, cheers for the insight! Would that I had a field in which I could plant 200 cuttings... Unfortunately, unless I were to completely take over my garden (I live in the suburbs), I only have room to plant a dozen or so saplings. However come to think of it, I may be able to persuade my uncle to allow me plant some in the corner of one of his fields down the country... This story should be enough to convince him!

 

[Forsoothe!]

Why not sink them in your Mother's landscaping? There must be a bed near enough to a lawn sprinkler head to do that job, and then you'd only have to re-pot and re-sink periodically.

 

[StarGazer]

@Irish Dryad, Consider how many you can plant in the space you have, leaving some room for growth above ground for branches and trunk, and below ground for roots. One thing you can do when you are not traveling is to prune them to manage their growth and keep them at a manageable size.

 

[Dryad]

Why not sink them in your Mother's landscaping? There must be a bed near enough to a lawn sprinkler head to do that job, and then you'd only have to re-pot and re-sink periodically.

Well, my mother's "landscaping" is little more than overgrown shrubs and trees separated by a small area of lawn! Everything is quite squished together - she likes the untamed look. As for a lawn sprinkler heh, here in Ireland we let the weather take care of that

 

[Dryad]

@Irish Dryad, Consider how many you can plant in the space you have, leaving some room for growth above ground for branches and trunk, and below ground for roots. One thing you can do when you are not traveling is to prune them to manage their growth and keep them at a manageable size.

Cheers, I think this is my best bet. If I prune back some of my mother's shrubs, I should have enough space to comfortably plant at least 10 of my pre-bonsai.

 

[Forsoothe!]

Well, my mother's "landscaping" is little more than overgrown shrubs and trees separated by a small area of lawn! Everything is quite squished together - she likes the untamed look. As for a lawn sprinkler heh, here in Ireland we let the weather take care of that

So much the better. You want to keep them alive as opposed to growing vigorously. Sink the pots deeper than the rim and mulch with autumn leaves run through a lawnmower, deeper outboard, but only a half in at the trunk. Voilà!

 

[leatherback]

If you are leaving for a trip and plant the trees in the garden, take them out of the pots. Even in Ireland it can get dry enough to dehyrdrate a pot.

Then again.. If you can leave them with your mom, why not ask her to water them for you.

 

[eryk2kartman]

Good to see another Irish here Welcome,

Looks like you already got the answer but i would plant them in the ground for sure,
Prepare them for it, root prune the year before you go, trim them and set up for next years, next spring (the last one before traveling) plant them in the ground, after couple of years they would grow huge trunks, you can always ask your mam to trim them for you(like a hedge).
Alternatively found someone to look after them, maybe local nursery would do it for you?
Did you ask in Leinster Bonsai Club? they could advice you where to go.