Quote:
Originally posted by K.A. Rutledge
Hi Matt,
Surely you understand that my alternative to untrained nursery stock is not $100 bonsai. I'm sure that you know that bonsai material that is trained and is in a bonsai pot is widely available for $50 or less. Sometimes a lot less.
The fact is that those just starting out will, in most cases, fare far better with trees that already have shallow, compact (healthy) root systems and somewhat mature and trained branch structures than with untrained trees in deep nursery cans that require large hack-backs on top and on the roots - and which are usually suffering from having been shipped in a truck across the country to a foreign climate.
Desu ne?
Kind regards,
Andy Rutledge
http://www.bonsai365.com/ :: living bonsai every day
zone 8, Texas
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Andy, Unfortunately, I don't think I could find bonsai in pots in any condition or quantity in Northern California for $50 let alone a lot
less than $50. Maybe there is a huge untapped niche? There is an import store in the Asian mall that sells some trees typically in the $75 and up range in bonsai pots. They come straight from the greenhouse of the importer. I bought a huge
Ponytail Palm there for maybe $150 when they first opened and repotted it right away. I bit my tongue when the shopkeeper's son cautioned me about not watering it and just using a few icecubes around the perimeter. The soil drains now and that pony gets watered every sunny day.
I often see some total cr@p rooted juniper cuttings at Home Depot with the glued on rocks and fishing guy, typically $9.95 on special or $19.95 normally, and I am sure that isn't what you mean.
Just browsing online now, I didn't see much online at Bonsai Northwest for under $50. They have some Hornbeam starters for $35 to $50, but they are in plastic nursery containers. Brussels probably has some material in that range in pots. I am sure there are regional differences in what $50 will buy.
I wonder whether trees with shallow, compact root systems actually do have better survivability when subjected to the vagaries of beginner watering. I think buying an established tree in a small (shallow container) with someone else's potting mix could be pretty disastrous. My stepdaughter got a mini rose in the mail from her boyfriend and almost killed it in three days before I wrested the near-dead thistle from her hands, repotted it in a larger container, and dropped it in the greenhouse out of reach of her watering can and the "dreaded drainage death dish."
For this reason, I do tell those who ask me for suggestions after killing their first bonsai is to get a larger tree and pot than is typically sold to beginners. The volume of soil is a buffer against dehydration and the height helps with drainage when overwatered. When trees are sold as bonsai, economics often demands that the smallest pot that will hold the rootball is used. This makes the tree trunk appear bigger, reduces shipping weight and container cost, but it has the negative affect of starting the beginner out on a precarious edge.
When I read your article the first time, I came away with the impression that we were talking about a higher level of development than you have indicated you were. Now if the tree only has some minor development, I suppose I don't see the cause or the case for bigotry.
If I look over at bonsaiboy.com with the idea of what $50 will buy
http://www.bonsaiboy.com/catalog/sale.html
I would instead head to the garden center with my $50, and look for something rusting in the corner in one of those antique metal cans. When Tosh Subaromaru's Nursery in East Palo Alto closed (could it be 10-12 years ago?) folks had a field day hacking those trees out of the containers and the ground and even the growing benches into which the roots had grown. An estate sale like that or auction is a great place to spend $50, but the trees that I purchased there I always think of Tosh's Oak, Tosh's Maple, Tosh's Pine, even though they scarcely resemble what was growing in the old gentleman's garden at that point in time.
Regards,
Matt