Contest Announcement

soonami

It may just be my inexperience, but when I saw notoriously difficult dwarf alberta spruce at home depot for just $1.25 a piece, I heavily wired branches, shaved branches, cut slits, etc to see which would work. I tortured the tree, but with a species that is usually so hard to deal with and as cheap as it was, I just used one tree as practice for the second one.

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John Dixon

Soonami,

I doubt it's a matter of inexperience. It's just a different way of seeing it. I don't see the reason to practice bonsai styling on material knowing you are likely to kill it. Maybe it's because I already know it will from previous efforts that killed a tree I wanted to keep alive. Obviously, it's better to kill a $1.25 piece of material - and learn - than to kill an expensive specimen and learn a very hard lesson. Still, don't put too much stock in that. If you can style a piece of cheap material - and it LIVES - you are learning a better way, at least in my opinion.

No wrong method here, except the one where you don't do anything at all. You applied yourself and for that you deserve to be congratulated.

John

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John Dixon

Si vis pacem parabellum

Stay off the trails of others, that's where the booby-traps are.

soonami

Lol, just thought that was funny, "1337" is LEET in internet slang meaning "elite" just thought I'd share that with you John for your good advice.

I guess I wasn't doing anything detrimental either, I didn't repot and saba-miki my picea, but I was trying to learn which technique would be successful at wiring the branches down. I figured doing multiple techniques on one tree would save me time in the long run. As for my contest entry, I hope it lives since it was really nice material to start with, but I was a little too unaccomodating with it.

John Dixon

Well I can definitely say I've learned something today!!! Let me know what the slang is for idiot, I'm sure I'll time that well.

John

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John Dixon

Si vis pacem parabellum

Stay off the trails of others, that's where the booby-traps are.

Joanie

When the contest first started, we talked a lot about "instant bonsai" and killing trees for the sake of a contest. Many people believe that the contest was to show the ability of the person to do an initial styling, with an eye towards a future. That's why repotting the tree at the same time as styling it was frowned upon.

Like John, I also left branches too long so that there would be less die-back. I styled my tree with the intention of keeping it alive. Although knowing that it was a difficult species to make a believeable silhouette immediately, I would rather have something that doesn't win (or even place) but will be a satisfying tree in a few years.

So, the people whose trees were pushed too far just won't enter. But for those of us who kept with the spirit of bonsai as a whole, and who hopefully didn't push their trees over the edge, another look at them next year may be instructive. I will personally donate one nice prize for that competition, maybe it will be the only prize, and maybe it will just be between John and I? Very well!

Joanie

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John Dixon

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Joanie,

I hope more will enter so I won't be the only loser!!!

John

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John Dixon

Si vis pacem parabellum

Stay off the trails of others, that's where the booby-traps are.

Arnie

Does creating a finished sillohuette breach the Spirit of bonsai?.
It is very possible to create a finished looking bonsai and keep it happliy alive....nothing new here.

I appreciate there are very different schools of thought on this Instant Bonsai argument. I have respect for the slower more spiritual Japanese techniques - but I equally respect the countless European masters who create more instantly finished outlines from well prepared material. Perhaps there is a different perception to this kind of styling in the US.

Respectfully
Arnie

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Where theres a will theres a way

Joanie

Arnie, if the tree lives, then it can enter the contest. You can push some species farther than others. The point is that pushing a tree over the edge just to win a contest is against the spirit of bonsai.

Joanie

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Joanie

John, if I thought I would win it, I wouldn't be donating the prize!

Won't it be fun to see how our trees look when they have had a chance to fill out and flourish under our care?

Joanie

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