Local Garden's Old Bonsai Collection

[youngsai]

This is truly is my own mini Shangri-La, at a local garden near my house, a well to do businessman passed away and left his bonsai collection in the garden's charge. This collection included about a hundred bonsai, mixed, with both tropical and seasonal trees. The collection has been kept alive by the people who maintain the garden, with the tropicals in a greenhouse and the others spending the winter in a coldframe. However, almost all of them have lost their luster, and a lot of them are starting to not look so well. It is a shame, and I am (hopefully with this communities help) going to do my best to change this.

I will be using this thread to show pictures and from there, hope to start a dialogue about which trees need immediate attention, and which trees need attention soon; and in general, build a long term framework with which I can successfully bring these trees back to their full potential.

Here are some of the pictures I have taken so far.



Please help me get this collection back in health and beauty. Any advice is welcome, if you would like to see any other pictures of specific trees, let me know and ill take more pictures of what you would like to see.

For now, I am going to be repotting the Bougy's in the next week or two. They will be repotted (tentatively, please let me know what your Bougainvillae are in) in 1-1-1 parts red lava, pine bark, and large particle sand.

 

[youngsai]

more pics

 

[youngsai]

 

[youngsai]

 

[JudyB]

Youngsai, it's great to see that there is interest and involvement in upkeep at your local garden.

As you asked for advice, here is what I think. It seems that there is some material within that collection, that isn't very developed, and perhaps not even all that good of starting material. I would put these on the back burner, and concentrate only on the finer pieces in the collection. It may not be within your power to do so, but perhaps the local club could take on the trees that aren't really great material to see what can be done.

Please forgive me if I'm offending, and it could be that the photos do not do justice.
But if this collection is to come back to health and beauty, it may help to have less overall to deal with.

 

[jk_lewis]

I probably would have put it less diplomatically than Judy, but I agree.

 

[Vance Wood]

There are a few nice pieces in the collection, especially the Mugo on a rock; but for the most part it is a ho hum collection. There may be some really nice species represented that deserve to be rescued but unless the garden is interested in a major salvage project they would be better off selling it. I assume you have been growing bonsai long enough to know it can take decades to develop a good bonsai and one year to destroy it.

 

[october]

In post #2. The last tree on the end looks like a Hinoki Cypress. It might have some potential with good care and crafty wiring.

As far as this collection. Here is the best advice I can give for it's survival. First go through all the trees and remove all dead foliage and needles. Dead parts only. It is too late to do any repotting, unless the tree is declining. Early next spring, I would repot all the trees that need it. If they have been in those pots for a while, the whole collection might need it. I would just repot them right back into the pots they are in.

After these 2 steps are done. You will then need to wait about 1-2 years to see what survives and recovers. It will be at this point you can start wiring and styling.

This is going to take an extreme amount of work. It will probably take you a day or two to go through the trees to remove dead parts. Also, repotting this whole collection is going to take you a few days. You can probably split the time up over a few weekends in spring.

Some of these trees do have potential. However, some probably not. Either way, even with the ones that do, it will be a couple of years before you can style.

Good luck.

Rob

 

[daygan]

To my eye, these six (below) have the greatest potential. I'd focus on them:

The rest are really just sticks. Not much to them.

 

[ghues]

If you follow Rob's advise (removing dead needles etc) then I'd also fertilize them from now to the end of fall which may provide them with some good reserves come the spring re-potting season.
I would even take some of the moss off to allow better watering and fertilizer uptake.
This could be a great challenge, good luck and keep us posted.
Cheers Graham

 

[youngsai]

I agree with you all on only some of them being of good quality, thank you for your honesty. Please do not sugar-coat things with me, I'm a young man and can bounce back from rebuke quite well

*Off-Topic*
I thought something similar to what you all were saying. Well, what I had actually thought (allow me to go off topic for a moment) is that it was interesting to see that although the sticks are quite old, they are undeveloped and of no quality because no (field-growing, sacrifice branching, etc) committment was made, they were just put in a bonsai pot as fast as possible (at least I think that's the problem). That was a big realization to me, that placing a tree in a bonsai pot actually restricts it's development as a bonsai (besides ramification). This this a proper way to think for conifers? I know, say beech, is very different. Anyways, I digress.
*Off-Topic

Most of these I think were the lesser of the gentleman's collection. However, perhaps 3 or 4 tropical s, and 7 or 8 of the conifers, are quite nice. Some I think are quite old, with nice bark and deadwood, but bc of taper and size, will only work as Shohin. I will still post pictures of everything else that I have not posted, for posterity and because I left out a few nice ones bc I was trying to move quickly. I will be taking your advice and removing dead stuff and taking holes out of the moss to facilitate air circulation and water.

 

[youngsai]

I was thinking about making compost tea and using that to fertilize them (for quicker, more thorough penetration), any advice on making my own fertilizer? I was thinking seaweed (which I can collect here in abundance, if anyone wants any let me know!), rapeseed, bonemeal, fish emulsion, iron chelate.

 

[painter]

where is this collection located in NJ?
painter

 

[marcosolo]

This is eerily similar to something I'm going through..Only advice is, don't expect a damn thing....Especially trees...

 

[fourteener]

This is truly is my own mini Shangri-La, at a local garden near my house, a well to do businessman passed away and left his bonsai collection in the garden's charge. This collection included about a hundred bonsai, mixed, with both tropical and seasonal trees. The collection has been kept alive by the people who maintain the garden, with the tropicals in a greenhouse and the others spending the winter in a coldframe. However, almost all of them have lost their luster, and a lot of them are starting to not look so well. It is a shame, and I am (hopefully with this communities help) going to do my best to change this.

I will be using this thread to show pictures and from there, hope to start a dialogue about which trees need immediate attention, and which trees need attention soon; and in general, build a long term framework with which I can successfully bring these trees back to their full potential.

I admire your enthusiasm. If these were the trees of a friend, I would go all out to take care of them til I could get the best price for my friends widow. If it weren't the case I would charge $25 an hour and force them to decide how valuable these plants are to them. They can pay me in cash, they can pay in in trees, but we live in a world where people pay for the expertise of another.

As a bonsai community we are generally a care-giving group, that's the kind of people who are willing to go through so much to get a tree to thrive and be invested in. But at some point there are only so many hours in a day. This rich business man paid someone to train his dog, raise his kids, manicure his garden space. I have no problem getting paid to take care of another of their possessions.

Again, if this is as a favor to a friend, work til the sun goes down. If not, charge a fee and don't feel bad!

 

[Vance Wood]

I admire your enthusiasm. If these were the trees of a friend, I would go all out to take care of them til I could get the best price for my friends widow. If it weren't the case I would charge $25 an hour and force them to decide how valuable these plants are to them. They can pay me in cash, they can pay in in trees, but we live in a world where people pay for the expertise of another.

As a bonsai community we are generally a care-giving group, that's the kind of people who are willing to go through so much to get a tree to thrive and be invested in. But at some point there are only so many hours in a day. This rich business man paid someone to train his dog, raise his kids, manicure his garden space. I have no problem getting paid to take care of another of their possessions.

Again, if this is as a favor to a friend, work til the sun goes down. If not, charge a fee and don't feel bad!

I totally agree. If these trees were Kimuraesque I would be striking the klaxon on bonsai sites anywhere I could find them and demanding that they be sold or given away.

 

[october]

I admire your enthusiasm. If these were the trees of a friend, I would go all out to take care of them til I could get the best price for my friends widow. If it weren't the case I would charge $25 an hour and force them to decide how valuable these plants are to them. They can pay me in cash, they can pay in in trees, but we live in a world where people pay for the expertise of another.

As a bonsai community we are generally a care-giving group, that's the kind of people who are willing to go through so much to get a tree to thrive and be invested in. But at some point there are only so many hours in a day. This rich business man paid someone to train his dog, raise his kids, manicure his garden space. I have no problem getting paid to take care of another of their possessions.

Again, if this is as a favor to a friend, work til the sun goes down. If not, charge a fee and don't feel bad!

I have to agree with fourteener here. Are these trees actually yours to do as you wish? Could you sell or keep the ones you want for your own personal collection? If not, then you are in for an amount of work that will rival a part time job added to your life.

Getting these 100 trees or so on the right track and maintaining them is a huge job. Next season, you will probably need to repot all 100 of them. Also, repot into good soil which is going to cost quite a bit of money. Then, if pots are cracked or have other issues, that means pot purshases which, for something like this, will run into the thousands. During the growing season, all these trees will need to be monitored and routinely pruned and styled. You will need to fertlize all these trees and water sometimes twice a day in Summer. This will be an everyday thing. Bonsai need to be checked at least once or twice a day from May to October, depending on your climate.

If they get pests and disease, you will need to be spraying probably every other week for the first couple of months during the growing season. I am not discouraging you from any of this and I think yo uare doing something great. However, when next season hits and you are spending about 25 hours a week on trees for a few months, just want you to be prepared for it.

Rob

 

[marcosolo]

I admire your enthusiasm. If these were the trees of a friend, I would go all out to take care of them til I could get the best price for my friends widow. If it weren't the case I would charge $25 an hour and force them to decide how valuable these plants are to them. They can pay me in cash, they can pay in in trees, but we live in a world where people pay for the expertise of another.

As a bonsai community we are generally a care-giving group, that's the kind of people who are willing to go through so much to get a tree to thrive and be invested in. But at some point there are only so many hours in a day. This rich business man paid someone to train his dog, raise his kids, manicure his garden space. I have no problem getting paid to take care of another of their possessions.

Again, if this is as a favor to a friend, work til the sun goes down. If not, charge a fee and don't feel bad!

Spot on with the $25 an hour, same figures I charged when restoring a collection..Bastard wouldn't pay me in trees..lol

 

[pwk5017]

Ok, not sure if I 100% understand your plan. Do you want to purchase the collection, purchase some, or strictly care for them at this garden center? Personally, I would feel out the garden center owner and see how they feel about them. Did they purchase the collection? Was it just given to them? Do they have an interest in bonsai, or are they looking to sell? Just my opinion, but my only interest in these trees would be to offer $500ish for the entire lot and turn a profit/get the decent trees for break even. If the owner received the collection for free, and has no interest, you can probably work on getting them for less. Really, I would just be looking to pick them all up for dirt cheap, sell off all the excess pots(even cheap chinese pots are $10 a pop easily), and keep the 5 decent trees that were mentioned. Are we truly talking 100 trees, or was that an exaggeration? Just my take on it, hopefully this didnt come off as being harsh and too "cut-throat business". I would approach the owner and see what their plans are for the collection regardless.

 

[youngsai]

These trees are not a part of a garden center, these are trees that are part of a town garden, like a botanical garden, not a garden center that sells for profit. Because of that, I think asking for these trees is out of the question. I just want to help out and style the trees, I really enjoy nothing more than throwing on headphones, listening to my Pandora, and styling trees. I don't care about getting any, really the only thing I can think of that I would get is any cutting or air-layer I would want. I guess I kind of get free marketing also since the first time I was working on trees no less than 3 people approached me and asked me about Bonsai and where they could get one/learn about them (I resisted asking them if they had heard of the internet). That being said, they are mine to do STYLISTICALLY as I wish, which is to me, just as good as my own. Furthermore, I kind of like the idea of being able to, someday down the road, go to this garden, walk around the grounds, and see where the trees I styled so many years ago, have gone.

I am going to start by removing all the dead needles, branches and whatnot; and removing some of the moss to facilitate air and water uptake. Also, as I inspect, I will post pictures of the trees that are in a more dire need to see if a fall repot is appropriate.