Hello,

I would also go in the same direction of opinions already exposed here. I do believe that a bonsai is never finnished. In some way because of our human nature of achieving perfection and being allways with the feeling that something can be a bit better than "this we have now". At the same time, our minds explore new meanings of life, new perceptions, new emotions, or more intense as the years go by. If we evolve and develop ourselves in Bonsai we will notice in fact everything changing all around us. Understanding this, is in some way, in my opinion understanding the spiritual meaning that is inside of this art and links so well to some of the Zen budhism concept of impermanence/transition of things. Denying this, is what i think, denying Bonsai as a "DO", a way.

Best compliments and congratulations for the opinions,

Gustavo

Is a bonsai ever finished? Here’s my take on it…

A bonsai is dynamic…and as such, it is always moving…as in growing…changing. Endlessly in need of trimming, watering, and on, and on…

A bonsai that is no longer dynamic is…dead….finished.

In bonsai we work with two general, very broad phases (very simplified, of course), development and maintenance. When we finish the development phase, we move on to the maintenance phase, which, by the way, is never finished…until it is dead.

To me, “…the only finished bonsai is a dead bonsai…”. But, I guess each of us has to decide what the definition of “finished” is.

Pat

The way I see it is, when we as bonsai-ists begin work on a tree as a future bonsai, we have some idea as to what style/form we want this tree to take, and from that we pull ideals as to how this tree will eventually look, when the tree attains this ideal form, or as close as it will get to that ideal, it is for all intents and purposes "finished" or complete in the sense that it has attained the image of the tree that we set out to attain in the first place. Otherwise, why prune, wire, plant on tiles, trim, pinch, etc. at all.
Just my 2 pence.