What's the cure for boredom in bonsai?

[Colorado]

Oh, no doubt. I've wanted to add one to my Japanese Maple collection for a while now. When it gets here, I'll have ten total JMs spanning seven different cultivars: standard Acer palmatum, Bloodgood, Shishigashira, Crimson Queen, Orangeola, Arakawa, and the Sharp's Pygmy.

Great maple cultivar collection! Starting some cuttings for non-grafted maples would be another non-boring activity

I am sure many here would be happy to buy arakawa cuttings off you! (Myself included, ha).

 

[AcerAddict]

Great maple cultivar collection! Starting some cuttings for non-grafted maples would be another non-boring activity

I am sure many here would be happy to buy arakawa cuttings off you! (Myself included, ha).

Definitely going to propagate a few of these trees. I hope to get 3 to 4 nice layers off the Shishigashira, as it's currently about five feet tall with numerous branches. The Arakawa will be a little while though. It's literally an air layer itself that was just separated from someone else's tree earlier this year. However, I would certainly not be against layering it again in the future.

 

[ShadyStump]

Yeah, collecting trips can eat up a lot of time in spring and fall. Esp. if you're willing to drive far and hike up mountains. Make a road trip vacation out of it. Plus, you can get really interesting material without paying a fortune.

This is essentially how finally got roped into the hobby full time, and how I keep myself going in it. I love being out in the woods anyway, always checking out cool trees. Once I made that connection, there were no more excuses for me to not do it now.

 

[Forsoothe!]

Definitely going to propagate a few of these trees. I hope to get 3 to 4 nice layers off the Shishigashira, as it's currently about five feet tall with numerous branches. The Arakawa will be a little while though. It's literally an air layer itself that was just separated from someone else's tree earlier this year. However, I would certainly not be against layering it again in the future.

Ya know how I hate to be critical, but you're making it too easy. The time spent doing air layers is subtracted from refining your ~special~ trees. The energy expended growing new parts could be spent growing refined parts. You are stuck in the @sorce's 1st level of bonsai philosophy!

 

[andrewiles]

Ya know how I hate to be critical, but you're making it too easy. The time spent doing air layers is subtracted from refining your ~special~ trees. The energy expended growing new parts could be spent growing refined parts. You are stuck in the @sorce's 1st level of bonsai philosophy!

I don't know. The OP wants to spend more time, not less. If he had too many refined trees to manage this would be a different discussion.

As a beginner myself I think there is quite a bit of value in learning the fundamentals. Even to the point of having too many trees, at which point the lower quality ones get to move on.

Propagation is important and rewarding. Teaches about how roots grow, and when the tops need those roots. I doubt most people think it's a good idea for a relative newcomer to go out and buy expensive refined trees, without first going through the steps to get there. Creating younger trees, and keeping them alive, is quite rewarding, imho.

 

[Forsoothe!]

I didn't say buy anything else, much less expensive trees, I am pointing out that you can't refine a tree at the same time you are air layering off parts of it and @sorce post postulates that you get stuck working on lower level trees at the expense of graduating to making your trees better. If you are sensitive to this counterproductive line of thinking you will notice threads here by people who fool around with trees for years where the trees go through a series of chop, grow, chop, grow, ad infinitum and after years look just like they did originally. This is not progress. There are people who have been in bonsai for ten years and still have a one year level of understanding, just doing the same wrong things over and over and over.

 

[andrewiles]

I agree with that. I just don't see evidence the OP is suffering from this. If you're not stuck in that loop by all means spend time propagating and learning from that.

 

[Crawforde]

Get a few willows
They can be pruned weekly, and the cuttings take easily, so you can have more.

 

[AcerAddict]

Ya know how I hate to be critical, but you're making it too easy. The time spent doing air layers is subtracted from refining your ~special~ trees. The energy expended growing new parts could be spent growing refined parts. You are stuck in the @sorce's 1st level of bonsai philosophy!

I'm making it too easy for you to be critical? OK, interesting take. Well, just to ease your mind and keep you from having to be critical, the standard JM and Shishigashira that I'm air laying in the spring were bought SPECIFICALLY for the purpose of propagation. No crucial time will be subtracted from my other trees. I think you may have forgotten that I started this thread asking for ideas because I want MORE things to do in bonsai, not less. Trust me, 10 years from now, I will not still have a bunch of nursery pot material without several more mature, refined trees on the benches.

 

[leatherback]

I am pointing out that you can't refine a tree at the same time you are air layering off parts of it

Technically this is true. But if you are in posession of special cultivars that have good parts that can become bonsai on their own and/or are learning how to propagate, it makes a lot of sense to layer of promising sections.

It is easy to discourage people to learn things and tell them "it is not worth the time invested". Maybe not for you. But for others, yes there is.

people who fool around with trees for years where the trees go through a series of chop, grow, chop, grow, ad infinitum and after years look just like they did originally.

Sorry to say but.. Some people actually want taper in their trees. If one looks at Japanese nurseries, it is very normal for trees to spend 30+ years as rough stock, developing trunklines, taper and branch positioning before starting to thing about putting it into a bonsai pot and growing a canopy. One big problem with starting too early on the building of a canopy is that you are stuck with a bunch of stick in pots without any redeeming quality, no trunks, no taper and no way of ever becoming better.

A good bonsai starts at roots, trunkline. And the rest follows. Do not rush to get things into a pot and a crown on it.

 

[rockm]

rockm said:


I've found that not having to "do" anything to trees is because you don't know what to do, mostly...Fall brings an opportunity to wire some deciduous trees (which can take days to do correctly). Also now is a good time to actually get out and visit bonsai places--I've got to get up to see Matt O. in the next couple of months, as well as plan trips to store my oaks at a bonsai nursery. There are destinations around you (some may take a drive--A weekend trip to D.C. to see the National Bonsai and Penjing Museum--now is a great time, since summer crowds have gone and the D trees leaves are changing. Also all the trees are out on display. At the end of next month, the staff starts consolidating them in the Chinese pavilion and winter quarters for storage.

"I'm not a big traveler to be honest. My wife and I usually do one big vacation a year, especially now that we live at the coast again and pretty much live where we used to go for vacation. Aside from going over to the Charlotte area in December for the Winter Silhouette Bonsai Show, I don't see myself driving around much in the near future."


@AcerAddict, you live within a half-day's drive of what is arguably the best collection of bonsai outside of Japan and you won't make the effort to go see it? No wonder you're bored...

 

[AcerAddict]

@AcerAddict, you live within a half-day's drive of what is arguably the best collection of bonsai outside of Japan and you won't make the effort to go see it? No wonder you're bored...

I just like growing plants, man. No need to bust my chops over it.

That's a pretty inaccurate broad statement to make too, don't you think? "You're bored with the hobby because you don't want to drive half a day to D.C."

I'm driving three and a half hours to Kannapolis this December for the Winter Silhouette Bonsai Show. Spending the weekend out there to see 50 vendors and 50 exhibitions doesn't get me any credit?

 

[Shogun610]

and talking to a girl lol.

God speed… it doesn’t get any easier.. trust me.

 

[bwaynef]

I've also recently acquired a complete Bonsai Today set and 1979 - 1990 (with lots of incomplete years after that) International Bonsai magazines. I'm finding them more interesting than most drivel on TV/Netflix/Hulu. I'm itching to work on my trees but its a touch early for the work I want to do so I'm sitting on my hands while I try to prepare.

 

[HorseloverFat]

I grow out sacrifice branches when I’m bored. *clicks tongue*

 

[Shogun610]

Start a Bonsai metal band lol.

 

[HorseloverFat]

I think it’s also, as has been discussed, RANGE.. not just capacity...

Enough to make sure there’s ALWAYS SOMETHING to do.

 

[Forsoothe!]

I've also recently acquired a complete Bonsai Today set and 1979 - 1990 (with lots of incomplete years after that) International Bonsai magazines. I'm finding them more interesting than most drivel on TV/Netflix/Hulu. I'm itching to work on my trees but its a touch early for the work I want to do so I'm sitting on my hands while I try to prepare.

This is Fig moment. You need some for houseplants that you can play with through winter. 'Too Little' is the crème de la crème of figs and easy houseplants with a dozen or more varieties.

​

 

[AcerAddict]

Start a Bonsai metal band lol.

What would I name it?

"Heavy Wiring"
"Bonsai Banzai!"
"Sacrifice Branches"
"Yamadori Posse"
"Hack & Chop"
"Shallow Roots"
"The Pot Swappers"
"Pancake Nebari Breakfast Buffet"

 

[rockm]

I just like growing plants, man. No need to bust my chops over it.

That's a pretty inaccurate broad statement to make too, don't you think? "You're bored with the hobby because you don't want to drive half a day to D.C."

I'm driving three and a half hours to Kannapolis this December for the Winter Silhouette Bonsai Show. Spending the weekend out there to see 50 vendors and 50 exhibitions doesn't get me any credit?

Yeah, I'm busting your chops . I asked rhetorically. You know how many people in the U.S. would kill to be within a five hour drive to the National Bonsai and Penjing Museum? It's on more than a few peoples' bucket lists...The Kannapolis show is nice and has vendors(!), and the 50 exhibits will, undoubtedly, be very good. However, they're not even close to what's in the museum. You won't see anything like what is there anywhere else outside of Japan (including Japan, if you count Imperial Household bonsai that are seen by invitation only).

You say you'd like to get more involved in doing "bonsai stuff." Well, a trip to the Museum is pretty much that...PM me if you decide to go. I'd be glad to show you around...