GaryS

Ron,

I spent an hour and a half reading this thread yesterday and by the end I forgot what it was about. Too many words and ideas for my
brain to handle.

What I mean't by a "word game" is :

Artist, we can look it up in Webster's or we can assign our own meaning to it, as we can with collector. Half the time we don't even know what we're talking about.

Now if I'm at a bonsai show or with bonsai people these words and ideas seem to just come naturally to me.

I come from Chicago but have lived up here in Central Wisconsin for the past 23 years. I've been practicing bonsai for 27 years.

Down in Chicago there were Bonsai nuseries 27 years ago. Up here in Stevens Point we have one garden center who carries some bonsai, mostly from New England Bonsai, with a steep mark up. A procumbens in a pot goes for $50-$75.

When I say the word Bonsai to most people up here it's like.... what?

So these words don't translate with the same degree of sophistication in all parts of the country.

To get back on topic, there are degrees of what I would call collectors. At one end are
people who buy imports or domestic specimens and someone else takes care of them and they are a monitary investment. I don't think the elderly gentleman you spoke of earlier would fit into that catagory.
He just gets joy from having them around to see and touch.

I have purchased bonsai that were reared in Japan for their first 20 or so years but once I take the shears and wire to them they are mine, at least that's how i see it.

Most of my plants have been collected, grown from seed, cuttings etc. and nurtured along with the ones i purchased. They are all part of my collection.

So how do I see describe myself? As a bonsai artist, bonsaiman, bonsaier (as in potter), you get the idea.

Sometimes words just confuse the whole issue I guess.

I'm too confused to write any more.

__________________
GaryS