What are your 2025 bonsai goals?

[shohin_branches]

What are your goals for the growing season?

What are you looking to improve upon?

What steps are you taking to get there?

Do you have milestones you want to hit?

 

[shohin_branches]

Goal #1: use a 4 point tiedown for all repots in 2025
This can be tricky with some of the pots I have but some careful planning and a huge roll of 2mm wire should help me get there. Grow bags don't count for this.

Goal #2: Improve note taking by creating care records for 20 trees.
I'm shooting for two records added to my binder each month
Bonus points for making a drawing of what I envision for the tree.

Goal #3: Wire all the trees!
I bought a lot of cheap rolls of aluminum wire and I got a wire caddy from my mentor. Wire more, practice more, improve my wiring technique. Rewatch the Colin Lweis wiring class. I just need to find a good source of copper wire for conifers.

 

[jason biggs]

i have to succeed with baobab propagation this year !! small cuttings, truncheon cuttings, air layers...

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

Weeding. Weeding. So much weeding.
And making choices. My collection composition is changing from cheap starter plants to fiddle with, to more advanced material. I broke through a barrier last year when it comes to designing and I have it figured out, more or less.
That means my eye for material has been shifting from "I can make this work in 10 years" to "I don't want to water this for another 9 and instead focus on how to improve the ones I can finish in 2 years".
I never thought I would be that person, but I trashed a bunch of smaller projects.

Also trying my hand at trident maples.

 

[shohin_branches]

Weeding. Weeding. So much weeding.
And making choices. My collection composition is changing from cheap starter plants to fiddle with, to more advanced material. I broke through a barrier last year when it comes to designing and I have it figured out, more or less.
That means my eye for material has been shifting from "I can make this work in 10 years" to "I don't want to water this for another 9 and instead focus on how to improve the ones I can finish in 2 years".
I never thought I would be that person, but I trashed a bunch of smaller projects.

Also trying my hand at trident maples.

Last year I threw some really ugly projects in the compost and it actually made me relieved that I didn't have to keep looking at them on my benches anymore.

 

[Shibui]

Time for me to wind down.

• Plant 1 less row in the grow beds.
• Sow no seeds.
• Fewer cuttings.
• Try to reduce the number of larger trees.
• Pass on project trees 'that might be good in 5 or 10 years' to others.
• No trident or JM seedlings to be potted up. Even if they 'might be great in 5-10 years'

 

[Cadillactaste]

Attempting to change angles of trees, to improve upon them...and moving a couple trees into nicer suited pots...for better pairings. Concentration gives me a headache...as I'm on a lot of medication to get better and in a brain fog. But, I'll get them done.

I've raw material also new to me...so setting structure along the way. Will be deeper contemplated. What to keep...what to discard. Just when I say no more rough material... an oddball curiosity draws me in. lol

 

[ShadyStump]

Over the past couple seasons I've actually seen A LOT of losses. Weather, pests, and just not being able to keep up on everything. I've come to feel it's for the best. Lost a couple nice ones, but most were starters, and stuff that I never even got to starting.

Of what's left, there's some good ones, and some really hardy ones, and I'm just going to keep them going. Also a couple of seed starting projects of personal favorite species that I'd like in landscape as well as pots.
I've been staying offline allot more recently, and I'm going to keep up with that. Will still be making efforts to keep progression threads updated for your and my own sake. Otherwise I'm trying to adjust my focus to real life and face-to-face accomplishments and relationships. I love y'all, but digital hugs just aren't cutting it. LoL

 

[pandacular]

1. Work on trees from at least 5 collections that are not my own. I want to work on more better trees, but am definitely at capacity in my own garden. One of my core tenets is "the goal is to work on great trees, not to own them"
2. Learn how to use my greenhouse
3. Beautify my garden more outside of the trees. I find that when everything else is in better shape, I feel better and my trees look better
4. Successful air-layers!
5. Incorporate a business--this will entail making some money on bonsai, but I'm fairly certain I can pull that off.

 

[BobbyLane]

Trying my luck with more root cuttings/branch cuttings, maybe an airlayer. Improving the small bits that I have. Not buying any more material.

 

[Wulfskaar]

I like this because it makes me think about what I'm trying to do.

What are your goals for the growing season?
All my trees are young, so grow grow grow!
Protection from squirrels is going to be key this year.

What are you looking to improve upon?
Fertilizing and wiring need to improve bigtime.
Also, try to get moss to stay alive. I found a new patch in my front yard that's totally different from the moss I normally see in my yard, so I'm trying that out.

What steps are you taking to get there?
Reading and doing. I just need to do things on time.
I found how hard wiring can be with my DAS. I'll learn from those mistakes and rewire some parts of that soon.

Do you have milestones you want to hit?
I think 2025 is mainly a growing year for me and keeping my trees alive. My BC is ready to start developing branches, so I'm going to focus on that, and learning how to make them ramify.

 

[shohin_branches]

I think a common thing with bonsai is you want to try everything and it's easy to have a lot of plants that don't get the care that they need. I keep trying to remember that I need to curate my collection. I get really attached to each tree even though it's going to be a lot of work because I see the potential in the ugliest stick.

This episode of bonsai wire really helped me to think about my five ugliest trees every year and could I sell them to get one nicer tree.
https://www.bonsaiwirepodcast.com/1276571/episodes/15360076-chat-with-richard-wright

 

[Pigskin Pete]

I'll be going into year 2 with some of my trees, so the main goal is to keep them alive. A second year of gaining general skill and experience.

Secondarily, I now have enough trees and age variety that I can play with a few different phases at once. So I'm going to work on wiring some, letting some just gain vigor, watching a few saplings emerge, and of course a couple of repots.

 

[PA_Penjing]

- My goal is to start working with only a few species that I have determined are best for my yard, and develop them to smaller final heights than I used to shoot for.
- Looking to improve on my patience and (long term) focus
- My path to success is through only allowing myself to work with the few trees I have or get gifted for free. Can't change courses if it means abandoning my whole collection.
- No milestones to hit, I just want to enjoy bonsai like I used to when it was new to me and I was less boxed in by rules. I can't quantify that as a milestone and I don't want to

 

[Erik]

What are your goals for the growing season?

What are you looking to improve upon?

What steps are you taking to get there?

Do you have milestones you want to hit?

Restart my long lost passion for trees Bonsai Penjing. restart my collection focus on building and setting up my nursery. NEVER AGAIN WILL I SACRIFICE MY PASSION FOR DOLLARS.

 

[Jrmcmich]

1. Be more careful on trees added to collection. First 2 years tried to add anything
2. Hope my wintering in cold frame was successful as this winter was brutal
3. Would like to start a forest but will see if I have or acquire right trees for that.