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I know that there are people who think that the local garden center is not the place to find bonsai material.

Treebeard wrote: My Point? Don't expect to fall over a stunning piece of material when visiting garden centres. In fact, don't even expect to find any mediocre material even after inspecting every plant in the place.

I suppose this is possible depending on where you live but here in Michigan this is not true. I suspect that the real problem is that the bonsaiist is going into a place like this hopping to find something that just jumps out at them as a potential bonsai. Going through every plant in the place is not simply walking up and down the lanes looking at every tree, its much more than that. If you are not willing to get your hands dirty and bend your knee this will be your experience as well. I have been through nurseries that others have told me had no decent material. After a couple of hours of serious looking I have come out with as many as ten decent trees to turn into good bonsai.

To me the garden center is the modern equivalant of in the wild collection, it can be hard work and often the results do not square with the impression the books leave the novice as to what they are going to find.

So here are the options we are faced with: Harvest from the wild. This is great and I highly encourage it. However; this is not possible for many that practice the art due to a variety of reasons: Accessability to areas where you can find good trees, lack of financial resources to travel to remote locations, and personal health issues which preclude such activity.

The bonsai nursery can be good depending on location or it can be non-existant for a majority of bonsai growers. Some of those that do exist deal with the kind of material that they can sell and in a lot of areas this happens to be tropicals, the ubiquitious house plant bonsai. If this is your thing then that's in your favor. If you are into temperate plants this may not be a great option.

Landscape harvesting is another option but the same issues that haunt collecting from the wild apply to this resource, location, cost, and ability to actually dig the tree/trees.

This leaves the many of us with the garden center maze or nothing at all

2-Jan-2005	#42
Vance Wood bonsaiTALK ArchMaster Join Date: Sep-2002 Location: Roseville Michigan Country: USA USDA Zone: 5/6 AHS Heat Zone: ? Posts: 2,302	I know that there are people who think that the local garden center is not the place to find bonsai material. Treebeard wrote: My Point? Don't expect to fall over a stunning piece of material when visiting garden centres. In fact, don't even expect to find any mediocre material even after inspecting every plant in the place. I suppose this is possible depending on where you live but here in Michigan this is not true. I suspect that the real problem is that the bonsaiist is going into a place like this hopping to find something that just jumps out at them as a potential bonsai. Going through every plant in the place is not simply walking up and down the lanes looking at every tree, its much more than that. If you are not willing to get your hands dirty and bend your knee this will be your experience as well. I have been through nurseries that others have told me had no decent material. After a couple of hours of serious looking I have come out with as many as ten decent trees to turn into good bonsai. To me the garden center is the modern equivalant of in the wild collection, it can be hard work and often the results do not square with the impression the books leave the novice as to what they are going to find. So here are the options we are faced with: Harvest from the wild. This is great and I highly encourage it. However; this is not possible for many that practice the art due to a variety of reasons: Accessability to areas where you can find good trees, lack of financial resources to travel to remote locations, and personal health issues which preclude such activity. The bonsai nursery can be good depending on location or it can be non-existant for a majority of bonsai growers. Some of those that do exist deal with the kind of material that they can sell and in a lot of areas this happens to be tropicals, the ubiquitious house plant bonsai. If this is your thing then that's in your favor. If you are into temperate plants this may not be a great option. Landscape harvesting is another option but the same issues that haunt collecting from the wild apply to this resource, location, cost, and ability to actually dig the tree/trees. This leaves the many of us with the garden center maze or nothing at all