5 STAGES OF BONSAI
Stage one-
Getting anything and everything that "looks neat and different", but nothing over twenty-five bucks. Also, a lot of stuff goes into pots the same year.
Stage two-
Realizing what you can and cannot grow. Realizing what winter does to some trees (ie:ficus). Also, you realize that paying thirty-five dollars instead of twenty-five dollars buys you another year’s growth. You also realize you shouldn't have repotted that juniper in August.
Stage three-
You realize that a lot of those trees that you put into pots were not ready’ and are by no means bonsai yet. So you either: a) take them out and put them in a larger pot or the ground (because that’s how you get trunks, you have learned), or b) give them away. Plus you really have a good handle on what grows where, and why. You also are giving away those five hundred cuttings you were going to one day make into the biggest forest ever. You start to realize that although paying thirty-five dollars for a tree buys you a year, paying three hundred dollars pays for thirty years, and you are getting to know what you really like, although it changes with what you see and who is training you at the time.
You also have a feeling for what is a good bonsai and why.The tree you liked in the beginning because of “that cool root that goes around the pot like a snake, or winds around the trunk, oh so cool ", are now the worst trees in your collection because they are so fake and really were made that way by mismanagment, so you either rework or toss them. (ie: give them away, to someone else who is still in stage one.)
Stage three can start to bud into other substages as well, but it always tends to converge in the end.
Substage one is that you realize that big sized trees really make an impact, so the bigger the better, especially if it is "high quality". You will pay double for something if it is high quality and has traits your looking for. After all, you can now grow stuff good and don’t have to worry AS MUCH about something just up and dying without warning, because you now know the warnings ...mostly.
So your stuff gets big and beefy, but you still have a few tiny trees around .. . after all, they are cute, in their own right. However, they are a bit out of proportion compared to the biggies, because their leaves are big and internodes will never match the proportions.
Stage four-
You have taken classes from "masters", you make your own soil and it WORKS . Plus you have made your own fertilizer and have found it works great. You know what goes where in the sun scheme of things, and know how and when to rotate and have your watering down to a science. You also give advice and you know what you are talkiing about from experience, not just reading about it or from what you have heard.
You may even give beginner classes at your club and dabble in selling some of your work to friends. This is also a good time to start a business because you have a good artistic eye at this point. For the record, most people will never get out of stage 1,2,or 3, so are in a small minority at this point unless you are an avid Bonsaitalk fan, because then you are again among fellow 4s.
You also have gotten rid of many of your trees that were "nominal" in your area. IF it doesn’t thrive after three years in your area, you can be certain it will never thrive and you either trade it out for supplies, or other great pieces because at this point you are VERY selective on what you get, if it’s anything. You have limited space and are not willing just put anything where you show your trees. After all , people at this point expect to see greatness at your yard, even though you know you have many that still need touch ups, but your show area is just that, an area where each one of them can be put to a show and maybe even place, or even win.
Stage 5-
At this point, you are retired, or full time in the hobby and it is now a part of your life. At this point, you’ve forgotten more than most will ever know in this thing other people call a hobby that you call day to day stress relief. You also only keep the big stuff if you have a close friend to help you move it, if you don’t have help, this point can again go in two different directions. If you don’t have help, you start to intensify your small shohin trees to exceptional status and you again start to buy, but at this point only something already considered a mature bonsai, because you are running out of those "in 5 or 10 years" sayings.
You also start to sell, because you are specializing in small stuff, you take more time getting it to "that" level , and you don’t have time or energy messing with trees over 2.5 feet tall you can’t wire in one setting.
You go from the fifty or so trees that took up all your time, to a respectable twenty of the best, and smallest. So you can spend more time teaching, or even socializing at clubs with wife, husband, or kids, whomever wants to spend time at that point.
IF you stay in good health, you already have a location or person who you are going to will your tree to, and you do tend to make sure they are in perfect condition. The few trees you do buy, end up being elevated to great status in record time. Not because you are so great (although you are at stage 5) but because you knew exactly what to look for when you bought it and knew you didn’t want to wait more than 2 years to show it. You are the best you know at what you have.
But by this point some of your pupils have surpassed you , although they either don’t know it or won’t admit it ...but you know and beam with pride that it was because of you they started off on that path. So the hobby advances because of the forty or fifty years you contributed. As it should be.
There are more tangents I didn’t list, but I didn’t want you guys to fall asleep.
By DaytonaBonsai
http://forum.bonsaitalk.com/member.php?u=3447