Patience is a virtue...

Treebeard

That I do not posess.

I've realised that I do not really have the patience required for bonsai.

Ever since I have been a member here I've had the 'do not be hasty' quote as my signature, kind of hinting that I am the patient type, content to wait around as long as it takes for whatever to happen. I've even said to newbies about the need for being patient.

Well, it's time to come clean. I'm impatient. I want it now, or at least by the end of the week

when I realised this, a little while ago, I also realised that it's OK to be impatient, and to not like many of the tasks in bonsai growing.

What I can't be doing with growing on stock, trunk chops, air layers, seeds, seedlings, major reconstruction, anything that takes years. I'll do it, I know how to do it and why to do it, but the doing of it numbs my brain sometimes.

what I can be doing with is getting a nearly done bonsai from a bonsai nursery and repotting it, wiring it, pruning it, admiring it, all within the timeframe of a couple of weeks or a month. sort of pot me, wire me, prune me, thrill me, (with apologies to u2 )

And do you know what? I don't think I'm alone in this. when I go to the bonsai nurseries, and see all the nearly finished and finished (I don't mean dead, Vance ) bonsai being sold, I can see that many, many people could well be doing what I do.

There must be hundreds or even thousands of people doing what I do, buying very-nearly finished trees and finishing them off. For some reason they seem to be in a minority on the forum here, I don't know why.

So, am I alone here?

Regards,

Chris.

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"Do not be hasty, that is my motto"
-JRR Tolkien, The Two Towers.
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christopherguise.co.uk

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Cordon

I'm certainly in the impatient category. If i don't see change in a couple days it feels like it's never gonna happen.

I can't afford finished trees and I'm too much of a snob to buy mallsai...also too poor. All i can manage is to simply be frustrated and scream "GROW!!!!" at my trees. don't worry we're all in the together

RonMartin(deceased)

Between you and me that makes at least 2 )

pootsie

Brave admission, Chris.
I'm with you, mate. You are not alone.

... but I have to be patient to collect the excess cash to follow up.

pootsie

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p.s. My cat is a bonsaiTALK Master.
Columbus Bonsai Society

Lee

one man's finished tree is another man's starter material.sounds stupid to you thiink about it properly

agraham

Damn,Chris,

We'd make a good team .I'm just the opposite.I love to grow the stock and imagine what it can become.I love to clip and grow and clip and grow.....but I hate to wire(mostly because of having to unwire).I've been at it for over 30 years and I have few "showable" trees amongst all of my projects.

I can work on a tree for years and have it almost to where I wanted it.....and all of a sudden,I see something different and prune off years of work .Fear of success?or failure?....or just a desire to keep on planning and never being satisfied with what I have created? I don't know.

I think I'm getting better in the last few years.Especially after finding bonsaiTALK .And realising that while patience is a virtue....sooner or later we all run out of time.

Cheers,

andy

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http://pittmandavis.com/

Dag936

I used to have serious patience problems with bonsai. I've been fooling around with trees for 2 years now, wiring, potting, pruning, little twigs that, I've somewhat recently realized, will never become anything more than they are now. This winter though, I've been reading up non-stop, and I've decided that this spring I'm gonna change my ways. No more two inch, trained for 2 days, "masterpieces". I've built a few sturdy growing boxes this past week and I plan on putting them to use. I figure that now that I've got a decent sized collection of trees, I can put some on the back burner for a while, and in the mean time work on the trees I already have started training.

Maybe being young has something to do with it. I'm only 18 and I've developed this sort of romanticized view of bonsai lately. I imagine decades into the future, doing the routine pruning and watering of a massive, powerful green japanese maple that I've taken care of for 30 years; nursing it back to health after an infection, carefully selecting a bud to, someday, be a major branch for the 'finished product', coaxing a pencil sized seedling into a mammoth.

Maybe these are just fanciful daydreams, but they're a big part of my love for bonsai, and a part that I feel would be robbed if you weren't training the tree through its early, pre-bonsai life. The waiting can be a bitch, but I think the care lasting many years increases the feeling of pride and ownership of a piece of art. Taking an 'almost-there' tree and doing a little pruning, a little wiring, and voila, it's a masterpiece seems a little like cheating an art.

Jay

Chris,
Is it possible we were seperated at birth?
Not exactly the same but -- r e a l -- close!

Jay

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A Bonsai student living with his trees at N 44.37 W 77.49...
Think before you act... then think again... no good comes from rushing

JavaScottC

I'm kinda like Poots, here, as in the last few years, I have realized that good stock equals quality trees. Course, not much quality stock in my yard now, but there will be.....someday. Can't really afford the good stuff.

As for buying semi finished trees, I look at it like I am finishing the art work. I may or may not be doing what the previous owner had in mind, but it's mine now
so I do what my eye sees.

And for the patience part....ever start a pine from seed? Now theres an exercise in patience.

Scott

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Great, just what we need....another blogger



http://scottsbonsai.blogspot.com