What's the most expensive tree you have killed?

[Srt8madness]

I haven't bought any expensive trees to have killed yet, though if you go by online prices I've nerfed a couple $250 junipers. In reality they were $20 garden center finds

My problem wasn't killing one tree. It was buying a bunch of $40-$80 japanese maples and killing them all. Well, the heat did the killing, I was just the accomplice.

 

[jandslegate]

This thread is a perfect example as to why I drag my feet on moving up to more expensive material.

 

[Scorpius]

This thread is a perfect example as to why I drag my feet on moving up to more expensive material.

If you have the horticultural side down on keeping bonsai more expensive material isn't so bad.

I've been into gardening and bonsai since I was little so that helps me alot.

 

[jandslegate]

If you have the horticultural side down on keeping bonsai more expensive material isn't so bad.

I've been into gardening and bonsai since I was little so that helps me alot.

I was kind of joking. But kind of serious lol.

 

[Underdog]

I killed an amazing collected Hemlock due to lack of experience in my rookie season. It wasn't expensive but it still hurts to this day. Was not prepared and over eager. I deleted all my pics of it just because. But I found one from the thread I started then. Ugh... I wish I could delete it too.

 

[JLBonsai]

Thanks everyone, appreciate all of the replies and pictures. Some really beautiful pieces and hopefully more learning from all that were lost.

 

[coachspinks]

$250 Japanese Maple pre bonsai. It had potential. It died of Verticillium but it was my only maple impacted so I think it came with the tree and I got lucky.

 

[BrianBay9]

$900 pine stock.

 

[bwaynef]

There are a few that still sting.

• A workshop JBP that should've been entering into refinement but I kept repotting it each year. $200-ish, with workshop included.
• A couple neagari Satsuki azaleas that were given to me. Both were weak and both succumbed to summer. $4-800 range.
• A Stewartia that was beginning to develop that went into a too-shallow pot too soon ...particularly with 3-digit temps WAY earlier than expected. Its hard to say what this one was worth, but I wasn't out very much $. Just time and potential.

 

[Paradox]

$150 - $200

 

[Sansokuu]

I think the people who have killed really expensive trees are keeping quiet.

 

[rockm]

I've killed a $400 pine, personal best. Killed it twenty years ago with an aggressive root pruning.

 

[Bonsai Nut]

I killed a $450 imported Japanese White Pine in 1996 when I took it with me from Chicago to SoCal in January (that is about $800 in 2022 dollars). The abrupt wake-up from Chicago winter to Southern California shocked it. The hot dry air and alkaline water did the rest. I also did in a $450 Japanese maple about the same time - for the same reasons.

 

[PaulH]

$800 Satsuki azalea. I'm a serial azalea killer so I've sworn them off.
Most of my murders have been the result of being away at work 12 hours a day an not being able to water during HOT weather. . Been retired two years now and haven't killed one.

 

[Cajunrider]

The most valuable tree I've killed so far is a live oak that I collected and spent 3+ years to turn it into a decent bonsai. Other than that, there is a bunch of cheaper things I've bought and killed.

 

[PonderingSage:]

Me, I’m saving up for pots. I don’t tend to buy trees anymore, landscape and wild for me. I can’t really afford good trees anyway & don’t feel like I need to.

 

[NashsMan]

My good friend, the tree management guy for a large nursery, gave me a $100 Dawn Redwood that was already dwarfed---about 2 feet tall but a very thick trunk. I put in a bonsai pot way too soon and it was dead within 3 months.
[sigh]

 

[BrianBay9]

Yeah, here's the point. What did we learn from killing an expensive tree? Personally, I learned that horticulture and some experience needs to come before working on expensive stock. I was way too abusive on a pine because I thought it could be worked like a juniper.

 

[actionflies]

$220 ponderosa pine. Over watered killed it!

 

[dbonsaiw]

$400 massive shishigashira - completely destroyed it trying to free the roots from the clay soil. RIP.

Come to think of it, my backyard is a bonsai killing field. The ones that make it wish they died. But maybe I'm learning something?