Virtue is its own reward (kinda!)

Bart Thomas(deceased)

Recently I began helping with the bonsai in a well-known local garden, which is open (for an admission fee) to the public. The bonsai are used as accents in the "Chinese" section of the garden.

The person who had been caring for them has been assigned so many administrative duties thet the bonsai have begun to "get away." My job is to try and "corral" them. I'm finding that I love it! I am also learning to deal with species that are new to me.

It's not just that I get to work on bonsai, but that I'm finding myself faced with challenges that I would never face in dealing with my own modest collection.

I work on trees that I would walk right past, if I were shopping, and that, if they had been in my collection, I would probably have given up on (sold or given away). Thus, I have to deal with what is there, and it's giving me a whole new understanding of bonsai.

It's not just a matter of badly overdue pruning, but also of dealing with design adaptions to disguise that some branches may have been lost due to not getting enough light (because of shading by the overgrown upper branches). In a sense, it's my own personal "Tree of the Day"!

An added benefit: My wife has even gotten interested in the project. (I bring the trees home to work on because there is no proper workplace in the greenhouses.) Saturday, she even made a suggestion, so I put the shears in the hand, and asked her to make the cut!

Now, it's our tree!

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Ian_Homer

Bart,

Great news.

I am sure you will enjoy and bring much needed benefit to the trees.

Maybe in time, you can convince them to buy some real "specimens" to look after !

Best wishes,
Ian.

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Bart Thomas(deceased)

Not likely.

Chase told a story of a visit to (another) garden where the bonsai were not a focus. When he saw some bonsai that were crying for water, he alerted a gardener. He was told "Not my job; the guy who does that is off today."

Jerry Meislik

Bart,
Great. I know that you will do a superb job with them.
But remember no good deed goes unpunished.
Jerry

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Jerry Meislik
Whitefish Montana USA
Zone 4-5
http://www.bonsaihunk.us/