Graydon

No arguing here - sorry to build my rant on your comment. No offense meant.

I'm just stating that branch selection and some species go hand in hand. Those branches help fatten that trunk. And good horticulture practices will help you develop and refine both the branches and the trunk at the same time. Show me a beginner that knows that.

Ron did a great job with this article. All new people interested should have to read things like this before touching a plant. But here in America I think we have this whole bonsai thing backwards - and that is just like us Americans. Make it faster (fast food) - make it easier (mallsai) - make it discounted (wallymart and homey depot). And then when it does not work it MUST be someone else's fault - oh - I should have paid attention and actually learned something before I started. Maybe I should join a club or something.

I am trying to advocate that these new people selecting their "masterpiece stock" get help from someone that knows their @ss from a hole in the ground - that's all.

All the book smarts won't help that much - for example let's say a local club member named Jimmy reads every bonsai book he can find. He has learned every japanese style name and can even use the Japanese word for informal upright. He knows he wants a pine (or a maple or a cypress or a hornbeam) so he goes to a nursery and picks out a tree. He thinks it has a good trunk (criteria #1) and it has a nebari of sorts but they are all tangled(criteria #2) and it has branches - duh (criteria #3) and the tag on the plant has the growth habit so we are good to go (criteria #4). Now Jimmy goes home and starts root pruning in July and clipping and wiring and all the other things the big boys do - only with his book smarts - no hands on ever. Lucky bastard doesn't kill the poor thing - he just maims it for years of suffering and recovery. Then the regret sets in - maybe I should have paid attention to how this plant grows for a year or two before the pruners hit the branches.

Now let's say I am Jimmy and that was 5 years ago (or 10 or 20 - time means nothing to these plants). That first plant I bought still sucks but it has a prominent location on my bench as it will serve as a reminder and to my lack of knowledge. It humbles me in a way that no book or article will ever humble me.

However - I can now help that plant become something it was never destined to be but only because of my learning. That $250 starter stock that was on the next bench so many years ago looks a hell of a lot better in the rearview mirror - know what I mean?

Sensei - please help me pick out a plant for I do not know what I am doing. How hard would that have been?

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