FredL

OK, all you bonsai geniuses who have been at this for years, as well as all us no-talent newbies, let me put a question to you: What represents a reasonable standard for beginning trees to be considered legitimate bonsai? Not world class, not excellent, first rate, or even good bonsai. But, legitimate, basic, "entry level" bonsai.

What is the essential difference between something that is a plant in a pot and a real, legitimate bonsai.

I have seen Walter Pall's comments on this in the past and I think he sets far to high a standard. I have seen a tree that I would consider a pretty good bonsai, clearly recognizable as a bonsai by the great majority of people either inside or outside of the Bonsai Community, described by him as not a bonsai at all but merely good material to start with in the creation of a legitimate bonsai. There was no question that the course he recommended for improving the tree in question would improve it considerably, but to say that is a great deal different from saying that it was not a bonsai at all.

It doesn't seem to me that a tree has to be world class to meet minimal standards of being a bonsai. Nor that any tree in a pot constitutes a legitimate bonsai, regardless of what a literal translation of the term means in Japanese.

Next Spring, I will be at a crossroads and must decide in the case of several of my trees whether I should continue them in grow boxes, trying to improve them still further as pre-bonsai material or whether to begin to try to create some actual bonsai with some of them. When I was taking classes in California, our instructor would have beginners work with trees of 18"to 30" and not much bigger than a pencil in diameter. We would create trees that certainly seemed at least equal to the trees we describe as Mallasai on this forum. We considered them to be bonsai, though certainly bonsai at the lowest level of quality and value. And, far inferior to the tree I saw Walter dismiss as merely good pre-bonsai material. Myself, I have seen trees offered for sale as bonsai that even I did not consider legitimate bonsai, and I think my standards have been a lot more forgiving than those of many others.

I'd be very interested in what others view as minimal standards for a tree to be considered as a minimally acceptable bonsai. I would find such a discussion very helpful in deciding where to go next with my best material, as well as just a darned interesting question in its own right.

Fred

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