bonsaial1

Bonsai is no differant than a dozen or so other hobbies. There are people like me, that are on the fringe of the hobby and there are people like Walter Pall, or Colin Lewis that are able to make a living at it. If a person has un-limited money to throw at a hobby, then one may be able to get themselves noticed by influential people in the bonsai world. When I bought Marc Noelanders book, I was astonished to find that he hunts bonsai in the mountains with friends from the comfort of a helocopter.

Now if we were to put a limit on Marc or Walter and Colin, and say that your bonsai budget is 500.00 per year (which would be a lot of money for some hobbyist) and out of that he has to buy soil, wire, pots, tools, and plant material and you can't go collecting because its protected, then there would not be as many trees in the books as they have now.

Granted they do hunt much of their plant material as yamadori, but here in the United States I have not seen the Forestry Service, Green Peace, or the Sierra Club opening up "collected plant permit stands" lately. In any endeavor it's "who you know" that makes it work for your personal goals.

I have had many hobbies in the past , salt water reef aquariums, remote control airplanes, bonsai, guitars, coin collecting, stamp collecting, sports cards, and hot sauce. It has always been the same, the groupies always hang around the guys with the most and best toys. As far as Europe having better bonsai than the USA, I don't know about that. Japan is not even as large as Calif. Europe is only slightly larger than the state of Texas. I think if you pull all the talent from the whole USA, and put them into the state of Cal. and have one SUPER SHOW, I think alot of people would change their minds.

I think there is alot of artistic bonsai here in the USA. Lets just say that the "GOLDEN COUNTRY BONSAI FEDERATION" is having their convention next year and their in the process of looking for the headliner. Who ya gonna call!! Well their is plenty of talent in Japan, expensive but good artists. There are the people that I have mentioned from Europe and probably a dozen more that could be added. But... what if "GCBF" decided that they wanted to use Buford Ghondorff. (who the hell is Buford Ghondorff?) Well let's see, Buford has been doing bonsai for 19 years, he has about 50 to 80 plants on his benches at home. Most of his plant material has come from nursery stock. Its not the best stock but it has been adequate. He has a few nice pieces that he has traded for and has refined their shape and made it his own. He owns a collection of 30 or so bonsai books, and has every Bonsai Today magazine. He belongs to 4 bonsai clubs, and goes to all the workshops to improve his trees.

Buford has requested that he wants no fee, His fee will be just to get the chance to work on the piece of material that the GCBF has procured for him. It is a shimpaku juniper with a seven-inch trunk. Massive taper, and branches up the ass with foilage next to the trunk, and lots of it. I can count on one hand how many people will get to work on material like this. Are they better artists than Buford? The world will never know.

There are bonsai people that sometimes have to make a decision, birthday present for the neighbor kids b.d. party, or 5 gallon juniper at the nursery. I'll bet the wife will help nudge you in the right direction.

I'll lay you three to one that we little fringe bonsai guys have things to offer the bonsai world. We'll just never be heard.

Untill now.... Bonsaial

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I been kidding the last seven years.
no.... really!