AusBonsai

Love those colours, they're as good as flowers

Today is my birthday and, having taken a week off work to do some work in the garden and finish off building the shade house, i decided to take a visit to Bonsai Sensation and see if i couldn't find a tree to add to my collection to mark my 36 years on the planet.

I have rough stock and young material that needs a decade + of work coming out my ears (and other orifices), so i was on the hunt for something a bit more established of which i have actually very few.

This tree fitted the bill nicely, Japanese Maple with good age to it and the scars have healed up nicely too so no massive trunk chop scars to deal with unlike other trees i have on the go. While there is a bit of a weird base there where it has grown over a rock, overall i like the more traditional style of the tree that will be a counterpoint to all the prunus i have coming along slowly that will be more artsy. Too soon to really know how big the leaf size will be, but certainly doesn't appear that it will end up being outrageously large once fully leafed out and hardened off, but only time will tell.

While i post this in maple madness thread that is for my shorter-term trees, it is going to be a long-term tree in the collection so it may end up getting its own thread eventually.

A bit late, but HB!
You couldn't ask for a better gift: what great taste your benefactor (you) has.

A belated HBD dude! Looks like a great birthday present.

Promethius wrote: ↑August 31st, 2023, 2:43 pm A bit late, but HB!
You couldn't ask for a better gift: what great taste your benefactor (you) has.

Thank you! I wandered around for quite a while looking at lots of different options, but i kept on coming back to this tree and finally decided it had to be this one.

I find it hard to get enthusiastic about growing young plants up into bonsai over decades, but i adore slowly developing good structure into the more refined image over the years.

I greatly admire people who can grow from seed up to the tree, i tried long ago but I just don't have the patience for that!

Tim,

My teacher told me "growing bonsai is not about him having patience, that's why I have too many to count "
And he is right about having too many to count

Elmer

Ps that pot is stunning

hahaha yes i definitely have too many rough pieces of material, and find myself frequently with the thought 'i need more trees' popping into my head.

I just finally picked up on the difference between the thought being 'more trees' not 'more rough stock' or 'more tube stock/ seedlings'

I have no idea what my dalliance with bonsai will become but that's one of the things I have noticed more than with other interests, literally a niche for everyone within the whole. There is no right or wrong way to approach, learn or do.

Belated happy birthday and nice choice. In your hands, I have no doubt that the tree will be improved and become something special.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Elmer wrote: ↑September 1st, 2023, 7:36 am
I have no idea what my dalliance with bonsai will become but that's one of the things I have noticed more than with other interests, literally a niche for everyone within the whole. There is no right or wrong way to approach, learn or do.

Exactly right, there is so much scope within bonsai to explore and find what excites you, makes you happy and what you're good at/ best at. For some it's just the fun of it without any expectation of the future (probably the best place to be honestly for pure enjoyment). For others like me it's refining trees more than anything else and focussing on just a few specific species i modestly say i am adept with, others want to grow traditional species, some want to be on the cutting-edge trialing unknown and unused species and riding that rollercoaster. Others enjoy propagation and the process of the first stage of the tree's life, some want to dig trees from private property and get a head start that way. Some want to do a bit of everything and great respect to those who are good at all aspects and all species because that is a rare skill indeed.

No one is right, no one is wrong. Without those doing the propagation and germination we don't have the next generation of trees on the way. Special shoutout to Ryceman there Without those experimenting with new species and styles we don't get to have our views challenged and our ideas expanded. Without those growing traditional styles and species, we don't know where we came from to allow us to push those boundaries. Without those maintaining more refined trees we don't have a yard stick of aspiration to keep motivating us to do the best we can with our trees.

I've lost count of the number of times over the decade + I've been seriously pursuing bonsai as a hobby/ obsession that I've become disheartened, lost interest or considered giving the hobby away entirely but i'm glad i've kept it up. The loss of interest has always been when i've had too few mature/ refined trees and too many young pieces with no direction to them.

I encourage you and everyone else to take a bit of stock and occasionally think over where you are at, remember where you began to put it in perspective, and where you think you want to go. It's easy to get mired in hundreds of plants in pots and have bonsai become more a chore than a hobby. At those times grab a tea/ coffee/ libation of some description and, without distraction, just spend some time looking at and closely interacting with your trees and you'll find the amazement in these wonderful trees again. A good Marie Kondo of stuff that doesn't bring you joy also helps from time to time i find!

Ultimately though, if bonsai doesn't remain a hobby for you, hopefully bonsai can teach you a little about yourself and the world around you which is actually the most important part of all this

TimS wrote: ↑September 1st, 2023, 1:59 pm [quote=Elmer post_id=301427 time=<chrome_annotation data-index="0" data-data="YnBsaXN0MDDUAQIDBAUGBwpYJHZlcnNpb25ZJGFyY2hpdmVyVCR0b3BYJG9iamVjdHMSAAGGoF8QD05TS2V5ZWRBcmNoaXZlctEICVRyb290gAGmCwwXGBkaVSRudWxs0w0ODxATFldOUy5rZXlzWk5TLm9iamVjdHNWJGNsYXNzohESgAKAA6ISFYADgASABVR0eXBlW3Bob25lTnVtYmVyWjE2OTM1MTc3ODbSGxwdHlokY2xhc3NuYW1lWCRjbGFzc2VzXxATTlNNdXRhYmxlRGljdGlvbmFyeaMdHyBcTlNEaWN0aW9uYXJ5WE5TT2JqZWN0CBEaJCkyN0lMUVNaYGdveoGEhoiLjY+RlqKtsr3G3ODtAAAAAAAAAQEAAAAAAAAAIQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAPY=" data-annotation="1693517786" role="link" style="border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">1693517786</chrome_annotation> user_id=10481]

I have no idea what my dalliance with bonsai will become but that's one of the things I have noticed more than with other interests, literally a niche for everyone within the whole. There is no right or wrong way to approach, learn or do.

Exactly right, there is so much scope within bonsai to explore and find what excites you, makes you happy and what you're good at/ best at. For some it's just the fun of it without any expectation of the future (probably the best place to be honestly for pure enjoyment). For others like me it's refining trees more than anything else and focussing on just a few specific species i modestly say i am adept with, others want to grow traditional species, some want to be on the cutting-edge trialing unknown and unused species and riding that rollercoaster. Others enjoy propagation and the process of the first stage of the tree's life, some want to dig trees from private property and get a head start that way. Some want to do a bit of everything and great respect to those who are good at all aspects and all species because that is a rare skill indeed.

No one is right, no one is wrong. Without those doing the propagation and germination we don't have the next generation of trees on the way. Special shoutout to Ryceman there Without those experimenting with new species and styles we don't get to have our views challenged and our ideas expanded. Without those growing traditional styles and species, we don't know where we came from to allow us to push those boundaries. Without those maintaining more refined trees we don't have a yard stick of aspiration to keep motivating us to do the best we can with our trees.

I've lost count of the number of times over the decade + I've been seriously pursuing bonsai as a hobby/ obsession that I've become disheartened, lost interest or considered giving the hobby away entirely but i'm glad i've kept it up. The loss of interest has always been when i've had too few mature/ refined trees and too many young pieces with no direction to them.

I encourage you and everyone else to take a bit of stock and occasionally think over where you are at, remember where you began to put it in perspective, and where you think you want to go. It's easy to get mired in hundreds of plants in pots and have bonsai become more a chore than a hobby. At those times grab a tea/ coffee/ libation of some description and, without distraction, just spend some time looking at and closely interacting with your trees and you'll find the amazement in these wonderful trees again. A good Marie Kondo of stuff that doesn't bring you joy also helps from time to time i find!

Ultimately though, if bonsai doesn't remain a hobby for you, hopefully bonsai can teach you a little about yourself and the world around you which is actually the most important part of all this
[/quote]

Agree with this.

The reason J stopped visiting Bonsainut was because that site, by and large, has the opposite view. There is only one way to do it. And perfection is the aim. Without that why bother.

It always amazed the shear numbers of people that would subscribe to that belief.

The progression of spring in Bayside Melbourne as told by Japanese Maples

Maple Madness indeed.....

I got chatting to a mate at club night, he mentioned having a maple in the van that was for sale, naturally my interest was piqued and i wandered out after the demo to have a look. Certainly, it has a lot of problems that will need rectifying but i still offhandedly threw and offer his way and the next day got a phone call that the tree was mine, so now this trident has joined the collection.

Hopefully soon you will see a couple of for sale threads go up in the sales section as i start to prioritise more developed material over the younger and the stump growing including a few trees from this very thread (why it exists in the first place!) There will be some cheap stuff and some not so cheap stuff, but nothing outrageously expensive.

If you're in Melbourne do check them out the sales threads once they are approved and see if you fancy an early Christmas present or two to yourself!

Madness has returned when i found these two JM 'Kashima' trees at a nursery and couldn't say no. A little bit of negotiation got the price down a bit and they just arrived this morning.

These days i struggle to find any maples with any real age to them in nurseries; everything is production grown and sold off young, so when i saw the bigger one at the trunklines on it i jumped on it. The smaller one had an interesting form compared to the other ones there so in for a penny, in for a pound.

I'll be doing lot of air layers off them, especially of the large one with so many branches i won't need long term. I may air layer the smaller one to stay on the graft but bring the root base lower, not sure yet i'll need to investigate when i repot it

Smaller tree

Larger tree

During setup of the Waverly show i took my few sales items in and had a nose around. A friend of mine was selling this old Japanese Maple group, and we got chatting about it. Turns out it was started by the same woman (Helen Williams an old BSV member) who also started my other old tree from the thread 'Japanese Maple Rebuild' or whatever title that has.

Price was very reasonable, and i'll get the photos of it through the years the same as i have for the old single tree so i decided to pick it up.

The main 4 trees are in excess of 40 years old, the smaller tree is a later addition due to the death of one of the trees. Thinking i might propagate from one of the 4 original trees and replace it down the track to have all the same genetics in the pot, but i'll wait and see how different that one tree looks in leaf.