How Do You Enjoy Your Bonsais?

DrTolhur

DrTolhur

Mame
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Obviously so much of the time and discussion around bonsai is with respect to the care and training of the trees. But at the end of the day, the goal is to create something beautiful, and the point of beauty is to enjoy and appreciate it for its own sake. So once you have something beautiful (whatever that may mean to you), how do enjoy the current state of creation? Do you go outside and just look at them one by one? Do you create a whole scene where you can take in multiple as a sort of larger whole? Set them on a turntable to examine from all sides (without working on them)? Bring them into the house when you have guests (or without guests)? Take pictures to have printed/framed or to show people on your phone?

I don't have anything that I'd call particularly beautiful yet (just started in 2020), but I do enjoy what I have to some degree. I go outside most days after work to look at my trees, partly to enjoy what they are and partly to check on new growth and make sure they're all happy. The display stand is in view from inside, so I can at least have some conscious appreciation that they exist when I see them throughout the day, even if I can't really see them particularly well. While I certainly have no aspirations of participating in shows or anything of the sort, I do look forward to having something that I tended to and can just look at it and say, "that looks real nice." Once I get there, I'll have to see about digging into better ways of enjoying them than I currently do.
 
I know what you're proposing and do the same w the routine. Enjoy mornings before work (short commute) w coffee and a round after work or at sundown... Early weekends w the birds and a bowl, not cereal

I have coworkers who are into growing plants as well so we share pics and visits sometimes. The forums are interesting

I'd say its personally fulfilling almost selfish sometimes but a lot of people would wish for that type of appreciation/happiness; gotta find balance w anything
 
Hello fellow mitten dweller!

I’m with you - I work remote, so I try to get outside at least 2-3 times a day, even if only as a short break, and walk around the garden. That alone makes having trees worth it, a mental reset. Then there is everything else about the hobby!

I also find the techniques portion of bonsai to be very relaxing - pruning, repotting, wiring... all require a lot of focus for me being only a few years in still (it’s not totally muscle memory yet) and that process is both mentally challenging yet relaxing.
Cheers from Grand Rapids.
 
Every morning I water and check for pests, which i find very relaxing. Then I sit and soak up some sun before I head to work and just stare at them and imagine their future (styles or plans, this comes to me slowly). Then after work I check them again to make sure squirrels or birds didnt move any soil, while I take note of how damp the soil is. Then after dinner I sit outside with my wife and we chat but I always sit in a chair facing the bench so I can glance at them. I creates a faux forest back drop which is nice when you have a small urban backyard like I do. That leaves my weekends for potting, wiring, pruning, fertilizing and taking cuttings. Thats the fun stuff. Just like you my trees aren't beautiful yet but I love them and they are getting there. A little afraid to see how m.uch time I spend looking at them when they actually attractive
 
This time of year is especially nice to watch them growing happily outside. A crape myrtle I thought was dead for sure has started to bud out, so fun to watch the spring progressions.
 
On weekends it’s fun to enjoy a coffee outside w my pooch and look at the trees. It usually goes in cycles depending on what work you can do during the year so some weekends are busier than others.
the routine of watering is important to get down. I’ll write in my notebook on future ideas, styling and needs for each tree. I enjoy it but it’s also a welcomed burden that I’m very methodical and scientific/creative about. It’s also fun when you get new tools , trees or supplies. Just got a Kikuwa nozzle for watering and my lord youll never go back to a garden hose.
the excitement for future collecting trips or nursery visits is what I’m currently looking forward to.
Also , depending on how serious you are , you take it further and go to clubs/ classes or even working w professionals. So that’s all fun as well.
then combined with all that, I’m looking at houses to buy, so the backyard is a must. Planning and day dreaming about that as well.
 
I spent a year planning on a certain bud to start growing. And it did.
That's something money can't buy. We did it together.

Neither is seeing everything perform as intended in spring.
I get back from work at around six or seven, spend a couple minutes watering, rearranging, picking some weeds before dinner. A good start of the daily end of the day. The opening paragraph for relaxation.
 
I enjoy the everyday care of them. The watering, the daily pest inspection to make sure everyone is healthy. When the weather is nice I usually sit outside among them with a book just taking in some warmth and sunshine alongside my leafy family.
 
Watering I find relaxing... taking a tree from stage one...to a more finished stage...the journey is what feeds me. Sure...they are lovely to look at. Especially once there. But to me...it's the journey.

I may bring a tree into the house for a day for admiring if in bloom. But then they go back outside on the bench. This one was headed to the greenhouse...rain was moving in for two days.
20210601_201953.jpg
 
The way we learn to water: when it is needed not to a schedule

Reading this site from the UK I plan most work more on the stage of the plant than the time of year

It feels like we communicate and I feel much more tuned in to nature

For some time I have felt that the seasons were out of whack from the mostly old literature and the dates from standard horticulture but the trees know whats up and their seasons seems accurate.

I like that each tree is cleaning the air, I loved finding out we grow trees big first for this reason. I propagate as much as possible, my finished trees may be smaller but if I can get an extra 50 of each should make up for that!
 
I have my trees set out on two sides of the house. On the east side of the living room is a large picture window and outside there's about thirty trees on display. Most of my conifers are set out on a fabrication of beams and boards. Inside this is the only place I can get a cell signal so this is where I sit whenever I'm online. It's a riot out there! With the lizards and chipmunks playing chase and the robins and juncos and occasional steller jay hopping around and it's a big event when one lands in a tree. Whenever I look up I see bonsai. I enjoy studying them from a distance and will often get up and go out there and turn a tree to get a better view from a different angle. These trees usually spend the winter where they are and I love to sit and watch them get snowed on or waking up in the morning to see nothing but humps out there.
On the north side of the living room is a big sliding glass door that opens onto the deck, about a 20'x20' square and on the deck are over seventy trees, all my deciduous. This is where you'll find me when I'm not working on something. It's hard to sit here and not find something that needs my attention. I have a table set up and often (while enjoying some buds and suds) I will bring a tree to the table to work on it. More often I roam around the deck and work on trees where they are.
Out in front of the deck is a big pond and I often see osprey and herons fishing from the big ponderosa pines while I sit and enjoy the trees. In lieu of television it's the best show around!
 
I only have a fistful of trees, and they're either half dead or ugly as hell.
That's alright because sometimes I go for walks out to the hills past the edge of town, and while climbing through the rocks I'll often find another to try bringing home with me. The hard part right now is leaving them out there! Everything is out of season right now.

So I suppose I enjoy the hunt more than anything else at this stage in MY bonsai development. My first great trophy will be the one that makes it through this next winter to truly start styling.

Philosophically speaking, I suppose I enjoy my trees the same way I enjoy my work with troubled high schoolers. They're a rag-tag mishmash of broken and contorted beings with untold potential, and every once in a while I'll have a sort of breakthrough with one that makes all the trouble worthwhile.
 
Early morning, before my daily run, with coffee and the dog before anyone else is alive for the day is hard to beat - except maybe late in the day with a beer and the dog.

I also sometimes bring one inside for a day or so to enjoy at night when I'm watching TV.
 

Do you bring a tree or 2 inside to enjoy at night?

My normal routine is to check all of my trees when I get home from work around 6:30. Starting around June I'll have to water again then too. Then I usually bring a tree or 2 in to enjoy while watching TV etc. Then they go back out in the morning when I do my main watering. I have this table...
www.bonsainut.com www.bonsainut.com
 
I like mornings best before the gnats come out, but I walk amongst my gardens and trees when they call out to me ..... and when I need to talk to them.
I don't do vacations any more. I'd miss my plants too much.

Nice thread by the way.
 
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