bonsaial1

While the Kimura thread went painfully south, I feel that the forum should be opened to the subject of criticism !

Bonsai is all about criticisim. While everyone "says" that they do bonsai for themselves, this forum would not be too active if everyone did not have an ego. Pics of trees are posted here for the reason of;
1. Recieving a critique
2. maybe a virtual
3. Being told that you have a great tree.
4. Am I pruning in the right direction.
5. What should I do next?


Without criticisim how would one know that you are getting better? If you post a tree here today and post it here a year from now, and it still looks the same, I would hope that most people would tell that person that it needs help or they should just stick it in the ground till they are more knowledgeable. To keep giving a person gentle strokes does not always help the person develop good bonsai. No one wants to be told that their tree sucks. That is damaging. But you don't have to dance around the truth either.

I see lots of pencil size bonsai posted. While this is a good way to start with growing stock, it can hardly be called good bonsai. The desire to get the tree into a suitable bonsai pot can be overwhelming. Yet, newbie artist need to realize that the trunk just will not thicken fast enough in a pot that has confined the roots. Trees such as these need to be grown in large containers or the ground.

The subject of monotary budget comes up occasionally. I myself have been influenced by this roadblock. It was not untill my later years that I could afford more expensive larger stock. And even some of this has been reduced to shohin size trees, to make the trunk ratio better. Trees 14" to 18" tall look better when the trunk is in the 2" size bracket. This makes the stock skyrocket in price, but the final product is much better. If a person wants to put a pencil size seedling in a pot, and call it bonsai, for the most part it would have to be about 3" tall. This would be the maximum size that would start to have some trunk ratio.

I have seen posts such as: I just bought this plant at the nursery, I know its not to good but what can I make out of it?

Bonsaial hard criticism would be: why did you spend good money on this in the first place? Why should someone here have to try to design a plant from stock you allready know is not good? Why not look for plants that can be made into suitable bonsai with minimal pruning. Begin to look for plants at the nursery that have an outline that can be seen within the nursery can. Branches low down on the trunk, with no pom pom foliage, and interesting trunk curves that can be utilized. Notice I said utilized. Don't just buy a plant cause the trunk is all bent up. It has to flow and be harmonious with the plant.

So... Bonsai is all about criticism. Good and bad. There is an art to giving criticism too! Choosing the right words can be hard to do when giving a negative. We have allready seen its painfull effects elsewhere on this forum.

If you think a tree is beautiful, you have allready criticized it!! You have become a critic. While a person may loath the critic, you sure could't do art without them.

Have fun, Bonsaial

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