workshps with collected stuff at Nature's Way Nursery

Walter_Pall

I will be at Nature's Way Nursery in Harrisburg, PA at the beginning of
April. This time we will offer very special workshops. There are more
than 30 outstanding collected trees that we work on. These are Rocky
Mountain Junipers and Ponderosa Pines of exceptional quality. Some of
them are clearly material for world class bonsai.

We will do with the trees whatever need to be done at their stage. This
will be lifting form the container, examining roots. taking out old
debris from the root ball, cutting branches, deciding about future
shape, reducing foliage, cleaning trunks, potting into bonsai pots. The
participants will actually work with these trees hands on. I will
explain every step, what, how and why. I will go into the horticultural
side at length and certainly also into the artistic side. We will not
style a single tree, but participants will get a good picture of the
future of each tree. I will also make professional photographs of the
trees during the sessions. Folks who are interested will get my advice
about how to make professional bonsai images.
Most of the trees are available for sale by Jim Doyle. They are
certainly not cheap though. It is not required that someone purchases
any tree. Prices can NOT be quoted at this point in time. Trees will
have a price tag at the beginning of April though.

Dates: general workshops with several participants: Friday , April 4
(9am to 5pm) and Sunday, April 6 (10am to 5pm). I am also available on
Saturday, April 5 and Monday, April 7 for individual sessions if required.

Contact Nature's Way Nursery, Jim Doyle for the workshops and Jim or
myself for the individual sessions.

See the trees here

http://walter-pall.de/American_Pines/


http://walter-pall.de/American_Junipers/

http://www.natureswaybonsai.com/

__________________
best regards
Walter Pall
http://walter-pall.de
I don't design bonsai, I design trees.
Tradition is not the custody of ashes but the propagation of fire.
NEW: The endless bonsai diary
http://walter-pall-bonsai.blogspot.com/

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Vonsgardens

Walter,
Looks to be a great opportunity, I hope that you get a good crowd. Look forward to seeing some photos of the gathering and work. I'd be there but have to be in Germany and Denmark that week.

Thanks for posting this,
John

__________________
"Wiring is simple; However, it is not easy to do it right" Boon

_gonzo_

It seems more than a bit odd to me that a “professional” cannot provide potential consumers with prices for his material. In other threads it has been stated that the “trained eye” can solve “very quickly” if not “immediately” how to approach some fairly sophisticated, difficult, or even risky work on other people’s very old and valuable trees. How then, is it that the same expertise cannot be applied to finding a relatively simple solution to pricing them?

I have nowhere near this level of experience yet, am able to display priced plants for my customers easily. Is it just me? Am I somehow exceptional?

In any event, since I was not granted the courtesy of a reply to a private Email sent to the nursery mentioned, I will ask here:

Will there be any response at all as to why the merchandise could not be priced PRIOR to requiring and accepting deposits for this workshop?

Cheers,

_gonzo_

Walter_Pall

gonzo,

that's quite simle. Jim and In have to see the trees together in person to come to an agreement about prices. It is an outlandish notion to believe that someone can figure out easily whether a tree costs 2,000 or 10,000 US$ from a poor photograph. The margin of error is a couple grand!! And then with this sort of material the problem is not to find buyers. They are already lined up. The problem is to have heathy established trees of this quality.
Prices will be available as soon as I arrive. It's that simple. We are not in a hurry.

__________________
best regards
Walter Pall
http://walter-pall.de
I don't design bonsai, I design trees.
Tradition is not the custody of ashes but the propagation of fire.
NEW: The endless bonsai diary
http://walter-pall-bonsai.blogspot.com/

_gonzo_

Walter,

Thanks for the reply.

As I explained in the Email, I would have to book a flight, hotel, probably rent a car pay for the workshop ect. all more or less in the dark due to your exact same "margin of error". Having no alternative except to pay out these (perhaps unnecessary) amounts without the slightest idea if buying a tree is then even feesible seems equally outlandish to me.

In any event, glad to hear things are going so well for you that you "are not in a hurry" to address the valid considerations of an interested consumer.

I guess this time, I got an answer.

Cheers,

_gonzo_

Walter_Pall

gonzo,

is it so difficult to understand that prices ar NOT set without me seeing the trees in person. And I will be there at the beginning of April. We have never stated anything different. I can understand that some are quite eager ot know prices, but this is only feasible in three weeks. Nobody is in a hurry because one cannot style any of these trees anyway. Such material has to rest for years before it can be styled. The overwhelming majority of outstanding Rocky Mountain Junipers which were sold in the past ten years are all dead because folks were in a hurry.
Not being in a hurry has nothing to do with courtesy towards customers but with practical considerations.

__________________
best regards
Walter Pall
http://walter-pall.de
I don't design bonsai, I design trees.
Tradition is not the custody of ashes but the propagation of fire.
NEW: The endless bonsai diary
http://walter-pall-bonsai.blogspot.com/

_gonzo_

Walter,

No, I have understood from the onset that you are setting up a workshop from overseas. I also understand that you therefore, cannot price the trees until after the consumer has already made a substantial investment which then may or may not pan out at all.

In my estimation the consumer is being asked to bear the burden (financially) for limitations created by an obvious choice to conduct business in this manner.

Does that about sum up the situation?

Cheers,

_gonzo_

Walter_Pall

Thank you gonzo for giving me the chance to explain this again:

The workshop is set up by Nature's Way Nursery and it mainly consists on working with precious collected trees, mainly Rocky Mountain Junipers and a couple of Ponderosa Pines. Some of them are around 1000 years old. The aim is to teach what can and what has to be done with such material hands on. The contents are horticultural and artistic aspects. The aim is not at all to style these trees as this would be much to early. The aim is to show what can and should be done to get them one step further. The purpose is to hand on my experience that I have gained over ten years working with these species. For someone to sign up for these workshops there is no risk involved as the trees normally are not owned by the workshop participants. The tree will stay at Nature's Way Nursery. It is not at all essential that a participant purchases a tree before or after the workshop. It is, however, possible to purchase some or most of these trees right there. Folks who are interested should know that such trees are not cheap at all. Most of them will have price tags just before the beginning of the workshop, but this will be after April 2 or April 3. The reason is simply that I was commissioned to evaluate the trees. I can only do this in person right there. Since the workshop is not directly connected with a possible purchase of these trees there is no risk involved for the participants. We have never asked someone to fly in on the hope to get a bargain before someone else gets it. We have not asked someone to risk high travel expenses on that hope. The workshop has no direct connection with the possible sale of these trees. Some may well be reserved already and some may not be for sale. I do understand why someone wants to know the prices earlier, but it is simply not possible. And I have to repeat, the workshops have nothing to do with price tags on the trees or no price tags. So any connection is purley speculative and was not intended. Nobody has the 'right' to get a quote for any of these trees.

This all sounds to me like we are making this up as a marketing gimmik to boost the workshop.

__________________
best regards
Walter Pall
http://walter-pall.de
I don't design bonsai, I design trees.
Tradition is not the custody of ashes but the propagation of fire.
NEW: The endless bonsai diary
http://walter-pall-bonsai.blogspot.com/

Walter_Pall

added later: Another major reason for not quoting prices before my inspection is to avoid tempting folks into purchasing a tree which does not have a high chance of survival. In fact in the past too many collected trees were sold from various sources very soon after collection and the buyers took all the risk - and were very sorry afterwards. While the buyer always will take some risk the idea with this batch is to have them established over at least one vegetation period or even two as a minimum before a sale is even considered. And I will have to decide right there on the spot whether a tree seems to be ready or not. Mind you, even then folks who purchase them are taking the normal risk of a piece of material diying on them for whatever reasons.


And then to come back to the question that started this exchange of ideas: Yes, it seems that it is not so easy even for a professionl to make the right decison here and he may well ask for very experienced help,.

__________________
best regards
Walter Pall
http://walter-pall.de
I don't design bonsai, I design trees.
Tradition is not the custody of ashes but the propagation of fire.
NEW: The endless bonsai diary
http://walter-pall-bonsai.blogspot.com/