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Bonsai Today online has a free article about starting with nursery stock. In the article it starts out by stating that it is next to impossible to find flawless bonsai starting material. It then talks about the goals of working with such material. The fact is that many don't have access to great material. Whether it's money or location not everyone will produce a show quality bonsai. Should they quit?
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Starting with nursery stock, the tree is bound to have flaws. You remove the floors and look for positives. Roots, trunk, taper, foliage close to the trunk and branch placement.
If your also refering to starter material, as in, bonsai sold at a specialist bonsai nursery, then the tree would have been grown in the ground, been transfered into a pot and then exported. Obviously the tree is not going to be in a finished style. If you find such a tree at a nursery, it will either have some flaws or be VERY expensive.
There is access to great material out there and it's not a fortune. Check out some of the trees in the $50 bonsaitalk show from last year. In years to come I would show some of these trees at a local club show. It's whatever scale you are into bonsai. If you wish to show trees internationaly, you would have had to be training the tree for quite a few years, for it to look anything.
I like bonsai for the rewards it gives me. Not other people only.
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I wonder if success can be found in these "flawed" bonsai? Is working on these trees just practice to get better so that one day in the future we will feel justified shelling out several grand for better stock?
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I started around the other way. I first bought imported starter trees because I couldn't wait for it to start looking like a nice tree. The last 2 trees I've purchased, have both been nursery stock, One of them was the most expensive tree I've ever bought. Although it was still an imported tree, but raw material. Even that has flaws but I will remove these in years to come. This tree will make ME very proud in years to come.
Regards
Delboy