Who has killed more trees than they have on their benches?

[Silentrunning]

I am killing far fewer trees since I quit buying the bargain rescue trees at the nurseries.

 

[penumbra]

I find most of my trees die when on holidays

What is this Holiday thing? But seriously, if I have to leave a few days for some reason, my wife cares for them and she is a board certified horticulturist and arborist and has been a professional gardener and groundskeeper for something like 40 years. Still, she has command of her ego and does exactly what I ask if I ask and enough common sense to override me when she has too. Yeah, I know, I'm lucky.

 

[rockm]

I knew that killing trees was part of the process but I am still amazed that everyone reports such high rates. I have not had experiences anything like these reported except for seedlings. (and cuttings if they count) Out of about 200 trees in training I lost maybe 5 this year and they were from doing too much at one time.
Now cactus are different. It has rained so much the past two years that I have lost several. I have had to change my planting mix.

Do you collect? that can add substantially to the toll. I have never worked with seedlings or cuttings. I've always started with larger stock, including containerized nursery trees. I worked most of that stuff pretty hard initially.

 

[leatherback]

What is this Holiday thing? But seriously, if I have to leave a few days for some reason, my wife cares for them and she is a board certified horticulturist and arborist and has been a professional gardener and groundskeeper for something like 40 years. Still, she has command of her ego and does exactly what I ask if I ask and enough common sense to override me when she has too. Yeah, I know, I'm lucky.

Well.. to be honest.. been away for holidays 10 days this year. Been away for work 6 weeks. But near 3 months per year not at home myself just means a big risk of not spotting the signs, too little recovery time when I am home between trips and too much reliance on others. Working on a job that has me home more.

 

[namnhi]

Well.. to be honest.. been away for holidays 10 days this year. Been away for work 6 weeks. But near 3 months per year not at home myself just means a big risk of not spotting the signs, too little recovery time when I am home between trips and too much reliance on others. Working on a job that has me home more.

You, my friend, are not suitable to have these many kids at this time. You can't leave your kids home for someone to take care for that many days out of the year. You should put them in the ground until you can start taking care of them.

 

[penumbra]

Do you collect? that can add substantially to the toll. I have never worked with seedlings or cuttings. I've always started with larger stock, including containerized nursery trees. I worked most of that stuff pretty hard initially.

I do not collect very much and to be honest, that is part of the reason. I would hate to "harvest" so many for so few. In the views of many, yourself included, I am something of a plant nut. I view plants literally as our ancestors and have spent many many years studying plant intelligence and communication. I know it sounds pretty new agie for a 70 year old man, but it is where my 61 years of working with plants has led me.

 

[leatherback]

You, my friend, are not suitable to have these many kids at this time. You can't leave your kids home for someone to take care for that many days out of the year. You should put them in the ground until you can start taking care of them.

Considering my killing rate I feel i might be prooving you wrong

 

[penumbra]

Well.. to be honest.. been away for holidays 10 days this year. Been away for work 6 weeks. But near 3 months per year not at home myself just means a big risk of not spotting the signs, too little recovery time when I am home between trips and too much reliance on others. Working on a job that has me home more.

Twenty five to thirty some years ago I had many bonsai. Then my kids took their mother to court and they came to live with me. All of the sudden I had more than I could handle and I was loosing the battle with my attempts to do both. My kids won and I got rid of all of my bonsai and kept only a few larger ones that could go for long periods of neglect.
I am retired now and I only travel for more than a few days in the winter. The kids have their own kids. Thus, I am back in the game.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

I currently have maybe 5 trees in bonsai pots that I would call bonsai. 25+trees in bonsai pots on their way to becoming bonsai.

Maybe 100 sticks in pots and or seedlings or other projects in early phases of becoming bonsai.

I have killed thousands of trees over the 46+ years years I;ve been messing around with trees in pots. My pomegranate I bought in 1971, kept it some 38 years, then forgot to bring it in and it froze to death. Ooops.

Most expensive tree I killed, $1100, we still don't talk about that. Have killed more than one over $600 in price. Don't talk about that either. Vast majority are inexpensive stuff.

Maybe 10 plants I have deliberately moved to the compost heap.

Sold maybe 50 to 100 younger trees in early phases. Nursery stock. Never sold a "full blown" not embarrassed to show it bonsai.
I gave away at least as many as I sold.

Killing trees is part of learning about what you can get away with.

 

[leatherback]

Killing trees is part of learning about what you can get away with.

Yup!

 

[atlarsenal]

I have killed thousands of trees over the 46+ years years I;ve been messing around with trees in pots.

Damn Leo! You really came clean on this one. I would give you a like but I’m not sure it’s appropriate in this thread.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Damn Leo! You really came clean on this one. I would give you a like but I’m not sure it’s appropriate in this thread.

I have not had any recent losses of significance. I did loose one $45 pine over winter, but the rest are all doing fine. So I am happy. Bonsai is a hobby I do, trees come, trees go. My enjoyment is in the doing, and in the talking about the doing (hence the time I spend here).

Of course my earlier and bigger disasters hurt at the time. But those big ones were more than 10 years ago. Looks like a big list, and if it all happened in one year, I would be out of here. But these losses were spread over 46 years. They did not happen yesterday, or even this year. The big losses were more than a decade ago.

In some ways losses allow you to retarget the focus of your collection. There are benefits in starting over sometimes. You already know what did not work.

 

[penumbra]

In some ways losses allow you to retarget the focus of your collection. There are benefits in starting over sometimes. You already know what did not work.

I do agree with you there. While proportionally I have lost very few, I have learned a great deal from those losses.

 

[Tbrshou]

I have not had any recent losses of significance. I did loose one $45 pine over winter, but the rest are all doing fine. So I am happy. Bonsai is a hobby I do, trees come, trees go. My enjoyment is in the doing, and in the talking about the doing (hence the time I spend here).

Of course my earlier and bigger disasters hurt at the time. But those big ones were more than 10 years ago. Looks like a big list, and if it all happened in one year, I would be out of here. But these losses were spread over 46 years. They did not happen yesterday, or even this year. The big losses were more than a decade ago.

In some ways losses allow you to retarget the focus of your collection. There are benefits in starting over sometimes. You already know what did not work.

46 yrs of experience!!!! How old r u if u dont mind?

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

46 yrs of experience!!!! How old r u if u dont mind?

I'm 64 years old, I started bonsai when I was 12 or 13 years old, when I was gifted a book on bonsai, by my father's friend who lived in Japan. Dad spent the Korean War as a dental technician at the military hospital in Osaka. He befriended a nurse who he stayed in touch with until her passing away a few years ago. Dad had a scrap book of photos from his stay in Japan, mostly gardens and temples, that as little tykes, we would page through. My mother had a green thumb, and my grandfather was an early pioneer in raising orchids under lights. So my 2 hobbies, raising orchids and raising bonsai were me just an extension of my childhood. I actually have been raising orchids for 53 or 54 years. When I was a senior in high school, 17 years old, I picked up a small cutting of a dwarf pomegranate. Kept that alive for some 38 years. I consider it my "first" bonsai tree, as it was my first tree that survived more than 2 years. When you consider how often I moved through college, it is truly amazing that it survived. It looked like crap, because I made all the beginner mistakes on it. Back in 2002 or so, when I seriously evaluated it an my then 18 year old JBP, I realized both looked like crap, and that as a up until then a self taught bonsai student, I had seriously missed something. That is when I finally joined a bonsai club, started taking classes, paid the bucks needed to join groups when Ted Matson, and Colin Lewis came to Milwaukee, and finally unlearned some bad habits and began making better bonsai. Peter Tea was my most recent teacher, had him for 3 or 4 one day classes spread out over the year, for a 3 year period.

My biggest regret is I did not join a club and get lessons from real bonsai artists sooner. I always tell those new to bonsai to join a club, or at least attend shows, and take workshops and or classes from bonsai artists. There are 3 dimensional spacial elements to bonsai that are difficult to get from a two dimensional screen or print media. And even more important there is the 4th dimension to bonsai - TIME - that is difficult to grasp without teachers. Learning the sequence and timing for different techniques is very difficult to grasp from the printed word, or a video. All media for solo learning compresses time, so that you don't realize just how much time passes between each technique you are taught. In person mentors are the only way to really grasp this aspect.

Remember, bonsai is something one does, it is not a thing.

 

[MrWunderful]

I dont kill trees, Im really good at making deadwood

 

[cockroach]

I personally have never killed a tree..



Not saying I haven't had trees that croaked on me. But I have never killed it. it died. lol

Those piles of dead bonsai are now becoming very trendy in the planted aquarium hobby with hobbyists creating insane layouts. I have seen some for sale for over $450AUS

 

[Tbrshou]

I'm 64 years old, I started bonsai when I was 12 or 13 years old, when I was gifted a book on bonsai, by my father's friend who lived in Japan. Dad spent the Korean War as a dental technician at the military hospital in Osaka. He befriended a nurse who he stayed in touch with until her passing away a few years ago. Dad had a scrap book of photos from his stay in Japan, mostly gardens and temples, that as little tykes, we would page through. My mother had a green thumb, and my grandfather was an early pioneer in raising orchids under lights. So my 2 hobbies, raising orchids and raising bonsai were me just an extension of my childhood. I actually have been raising orchids for 53 or 54 years. When I was a senior in high school, 17 years old, I picked up a small cutting of a dwarf pomegranate. Kept that alive for some 38 years. I consider it my "first" bonsai tree, as it was my first tree that survived more than 2 years. When you consider how often I moved through college, it is truly amazing that it survived. It looked like crap, because I made all the beginner mistakes on it. Back in 2002 or so, when I seriously evaluated it an my then 18 year old JBP, I realized both looked like crap, and that as a up until then a self taught bonsai student, I had seriously missed something. That is when I finally joined a bonsai club, started taking classes, paid the bucks needed to join groups when Ted Matson, and Colin Lewis came to Milwaukee, and finally unlearned some bad habits and began making better bonsai. Peter Tea was my most recent teacher, had him for 3 or 4 one day classes spread out over the year, for a 3 year period.

My biggest regret is I did not join a club and get lessons from real bonsai artists sooner. I always tell those new to bonsai to join a club, or at least attend shows, and take workshops and or classes from bonsai artists. There are 3 dimensional spacial elements to bonsai that are difficult to get from a two dimensional screen or print media. And even more important there is the 4th dimension to bonsai - TIME - that is difficult to grasp without teachers. Learning the sequence and timing for different techniques is very difficult to grasp from the printed word, or a video. All media for solo learning compresses time, so that you don't realize just how much time passes between each technique you are taught. In person mentors are the only way to really grasp this aspect.

Remember, bonsai is something one does, it is not a thing.

This is freakin AMAZING to me im 34 just starting i can only imagine what your eyes and mind see when you look at raw materials thanks for sharing

 

[Shima]

Dad spent the Korean War as a dental technician at the military hospital in Osaka.

Hey my friend I was a dental tech in the Air Force in France.

 

[milehigh_7]

Pretty sure I could build a funeral pyre worthy of Ragnar himself with the trees I have slain...