You know what guys, I used to think you could have to many trees in your collection as well.
That was until I purchased a Nursery and then I realised one can never have enough trees. To many times I have been guilty of buying a plant because it did something for me at the time (or to stop a mate buying the tree, nothing like a bit of friendly rivelry during a buying trip ), only to get it home and then wonder just what it was that had caught my eye in the first place. Tree gets chucked out back of the collection while I work on something else. Couple of months later, a) that original tree catches my eye and gets turned into something half decent, or b) it gets carted off to the Club trading table and I make a few bob out of it - to buy something else I don't need.
No guys, you can never have to many trees, so just keep buying them at every opportunity Ron, the Nurseries will love you and you will never run out of stuff to do either.
Graeme I will forever defend your right
to disagree with my opinion.
I too have fallen into this trap and have too many plants. To add to this problem, I have a number of plants that belong to my son who is at University 400km away and has nowhere there to keep them, so mum has custody of them as well. I have this awful habit of sticking cuttings in pots because I can't stand the waste - only to have them strike and add to my problem.
I am now at the stage where I am looking at my collection, and starting to get rid of some. I chopped a biggish benjamina yesterday - and threw the top in the bin! I was proud of myself! I have also decided that 4 other benj's are going into a yard sale on the weekend. All from cuttings or collected specimens, so nothing I have spent money on.
Its good to know everyone else has been there, done that, bought the t-shirt.
Glenda
"Knowledge is not a heavy thing to carry around" - JB Taylor (my father)
"The more you learn the more you earn" - JB Taylor
"There are exceptions to every rule, but to be an exception, you must first be exceptional" - Me
My garden budget is limited by the fact that it has to be self funding(at least, sometimes it also has to help household budget)
So I do not have a lot of trees, maybe about 20 mostly starters.
I am concentrating on propagating lots of those which are also good sale plants at markets, or which I can also use to revegetate our property, or build the ornamental garden. Some may have different phases in their lives, the box hedge contains some great bonsai starters, hmm. The most likely few will go to bonsai, others will be used or sold elsewhere. That works well, the good bonsai hopefuls are often the ugliest and least saleable market plants.
Only the olives have no other purpose in life, and I dont care if I kill them, I have a personal vendetta against them as woody weeds. For them its bonsai or combustion heater. As wild seedlings they are not much use for fruit, even if they were I would not sell them and encourage more people in the hills to plant olives. I dont want to be a party to that environmental disaster. Unfortunately I am, as my horticultural production lecturer had me prepare a graduate paper on olive production, he is the guru on olives in the Adelaide area. Im sure the work I did on them will be used to educate more environmental vandals.
Bonsai is just another thread in the interwoven pattern of the plants I grow, use for crafts, for food, for sale to fund more potting mix, use for revegetation, and simply love to look at and admire. Im in the shadehouse working most days, usually they dont take much extra time, just pass by and see how they are doing as I look after all the other plants.
No way can I justify $100 for a good starter when the kids school fees have not been paid, no more than $10 a week on all plants, unless I make a bit of money from them.
357 potted plants, counting sets of bulbs and seedlings as a single entity, plus over 200 cuttings underway.
Last edited by Greth on April 12th, 2010, 11:16 am, edited 3 times in total.
If you are not killing plants, then you are not extending yourself as a gardener..
), only to get it home and then wonder just what it was that had caught my eye in the first place. Tree gets chucked out back of the collection while I work on something else. Couple of months later, a) that original tree catches my eye and gets turned into something half decent, or b) it gets carted off to the Club trading table and I make a few bob out of it - to buy something else I don't need. 
