I tried, I really did. Promised myself for months that I would sell off a bunch of the little stock, and only keep the trees that had a lot of potential. Too many things in pots... no time to work with them all.
The concept was good, the theory was sound... sell off the lesser stuff and use the money toward one nicer tree. Absolutely. No doubt, the very best way to go. At the club show and sale, where a lot of people come through. Price them to move, and come home to a yard with less trees, thereby having more time to work on each of them.
So, the day before the show comes... and I put off picking out the 'rejects'. Messed with my show trees, polished my shohin stand, fussed with the accent plants. Time just flew by. No trees got culled, no decisions got made.
Show morning... gonna get up early and go through the yard. The soft light of morning will show me what needs to be sold. But three baby possums in the yard at 5:30 was a distraction, then it was time to get dressed and go. Volunteering, as always, so I had to be there early to set up. Stayed all day, came home very late. Tired, but inspired.
Still no trees chosen to sell. Maybe Sunday morning.
Sunday morning comes, and I'm exhausted. Yesterday, running around doing volunteer work, the day so hot that even the 'Zonies* were complaining. In the still cool morning, under the threat of a very hot day again, I decide to leave even earlier for the show so that I get a parking spot in the shade. I glance over the trees while watering, and try to pick out at least a few.
How can I sell that one? Someone gave it to me, and he'll be there. He would be hurt if he saw it on the sale table. And that one, a gift as well. And the one that I won at the raffle, with the pretty flowers. And hubby won that one, he was so proud.
Those elms are going to be a grove some day, they are being worked on early and they all match. Can't sell them. The cork oaks... they are just beginning to cork. Another grove potential. If I put the twisted pomegranate cuttings into the ground, some day they will be awesome like Jim Barrett's. The list goes on.
I leave without any trees tagged for sale.
The concept is still valid. Rock solid idea. Cull the trees, almost a rite of passage from beginner to ... well.... more than beginner. Being held back by a yard full of tree-like objects whose flaws mean that they will never be really good bonsai. Weighted down, slowed down, dragged down by lesser and younger stock. Yep. Absolutely the way to go. Sell the trees, move foward into better trees, enlightened and unencumbered.
There's always the fall sale.
Well, we will see.
Joanie
*denizens of the great but hot state of Arizona, who escape their shimmering desert for brief days by coming to (generally) mild San Diego. Well, not this weekend. We were as hot as Arizona but more expensive.
