What Can We Learn From This?

Walter_Pall

2002

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bonsaial1

Whats your point? For alot of people on this forum you took a great tree and made it better. You got to find worse stuff than that if you want to play here

OK, OK, I know that you thought this was pretty pathetic stock. For some that would be a dream come true. There is no doubt that under expert hands even pathetic stock can be re-born again. Would you be able to show us this same type of transformation on a pine or other conifer?

Bonsai-al

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It's about time that the proper respect be given to the fine art of balloon animals...

Walter_Pall

Now my personal conclusion:
This is an example of an interesting development of very poor material into a fair bonsai (for international standards).
This does not show that one can make a good bonsai out of anything as long as there is enough time and skill involved.
It shows exactly the contrary: What a shame to spend such time and effort with such a poor piece of material. What a shame to have chosen the informal upright form for this right from the outset. It should have been the informal broom form. This was the form the tree was crying for, but it is not in the books.
What a shame to have started with such a poor nebari which never got much better in twenty years. It will never get better. The only solution is to airlayer the tree and start a new nebari. But then the nebari will crawl upwards and the first branch is too low.
What a shame to work for twenty years on this tree and now NEVER show it because it is just not good enough for major shows and never will be.

If one wants to spend something like 300 hours with a tree in the furure it is not asked too much to spend 30 hours for looking at the right starter material. It is not asking too much to spend much much more that you are willing to if you find the rigth material.

But all this is only true if you take bonsai for very serious, for art. If it is just a hobby then what you are seeing here is good enough.

When I started with this tree bonsai was just a hobby for me. Interesting to see the development of an artist with this series.

best regards
Walter Pall

Carl_Bergstrom

Walter,

Thanks for an incredibly interesting and informative series of posts.

I see your point - and I'll go out tomorrow and look with new eyes at a maple I have growing in my growing beds, so as to avoid the mistakes that you mention, even though where I am today, I'd be terribly proud to have a tree remotely similar to your last few images.

I think that's really the point - when I design my trees, I do it so that the end product in 10 years will be a tree that I would be proud to own today....but will they be good enough to satisfy me once they gets to that stage, a decade on down the road? After all, the tree is not the only one of us growing...

A question well worth asking.

All the best,
Carl

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In love with trees

Jay

Walter, Thank YOU!!!!

It is possible to learn from you without even being in the same country.

I think I am guilty of a negative trait that may be one others also have. The negative trait is 'purchase price'. I must try and refrain from obtaining stock that does not have the potential of becoming something special. Now I realize, just because the potential is there, I may never be able to bring it out, but if it isn't there, I surely will not be able to do it!

How is price related to this? Well I go with the thought of possible purchasing something, if I do not see anything I like in the price I can deal with, I will probably pay within my means for something that is OK at best. I think in the future I need to stop myself and either pay the higher price, buy something far less advanced that is in my price range or DO NOTHING.

This goes for collecting as well. When out to collect from the wild, or from Urban Yamadori, I must try and realize that it is OK to come home with nothing! Picking out the best I've seen is not good enough! Hopefully I will listen to my words or I will drawn in too many trees of very limited posibility.

Does this sound right?

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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

Walter_Pall

"Does this sound right?"

Jay, this is music to my ears!

Yes, this is the frame of mind of a very advanced bonsai enthusiast. This might make you lonely though, like the guy who was too picky when it came to choose a woman and finally no one would want him anymore. :-)

best regarsd
Walter Pall

David Chauvin

When starting bonsai, it seems I couldn't pass up a nursery without picking up some kind of tree that I was sure could be a bonsai. Even though I still have a few of these, they will never get the time and effort to develop into "nice" trees. The time I do have for bonsai is spent on the trees I feel have the most potential. But for a novice like me, these trees are valuable for the knowledge gained in learning to grow trees in pots. It seems that like most things in life, timing is everything, and this is best learned through experience. I will take chances on these trees that I wouldn't on my "real" bonsai and some valuable lessons have been learned. Choosing material is a skill learned through practice and this skill develops just as styling and growing skills advance.

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"With the death of the Shamen, artists are the last interpreters of the Divine." Joseph Campbell

Jay

Walter, again....THANK YOU!

I will try and 'DO' what I am saying!

As for the wife..... I already have one.... made the right decision and am VERY happy. We are married 30 years, and she still puts up with me!

If I am as picky (and Lucky) with my trees I'm set!!

As for my abilities, now that is another story!

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

Jose_Alberto

Walter:

You make me feel BAD, really BAD, since that Maple should be my best buy.... I usually buy really cheap trees and of course get really bad material, the most expensive tree costed me an equivalent to $6.

Well, perhaps you placed it in a pot too early? Well, who am I to ask? But, I followed the growth in the pics, and the trunk remained almost the same during 20 years!!!! Maybe a box, or a shallow trainning pot would have helped

Finally, if you don't like the tree, we like it so, I am with OMC the tree is no the only one who is growing, so we do... Right now as a beginner I am working for my trees to be nice in some years, but as OMC, in that amount of time, I maybe won't like it... Bu, hey, that's what makes Bonsai so addictive... !!!

Great thread, and great tree, even if you don't like it... We, begginers, like it... thanks for that advice, and I have a solution, why don't you sell it? hehehe... just kidding...

Bye...

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Jose Alberto Franco
Guatemala
Central America
http://www.doschivos.com