How’s a beginner get a break?

Simple, he does what he wants to! How many times have we read on the forum to not buy a plant because you don’t have the experience, or a you need a few years' experience before you try to collect something? How about collecting a few crappy pieces first, and get your feet wet, and then come back and take the good stuff?

There are no guarantees in life. Everything we do is based on practice. We don’t get better by waiting until someone says we are ready. We make it happen ourselves. There is a lot to be said for the “school of hard knocks” and the “I found out the hard way” methods. Those of you that have been at bonsai for a few years seem to forget that all of us have been in this same place before. Did we listen to all those that spoke? Hell, no! We did what we wanted and made mistakes. These mistakes come at a cost yes, but to each mistake, we are able to put a price tag on it: Yes, the stock cost 50.00 bucks. It died. Loss, 50.00 bucks. Take dead plant out of pot, rotten roots, air pocket, no roots, bugs, you name it. Cause of death identified. Will we do that again? I expect not, price…50.00 bucks. So now, our loss is a wash and we can sleep at night.

eBay. I see beginners ask these questions all the time about stock on the net. Miss Vicky recently brought up a good point about beginners seeing all sorts of possibilities in every plant they see. Why put a damper on this enthusiasm? Let these people be and stop trying to teach them bonsai in one week. Most people given a few years will find out soon enough what to look for in material and will smile when they look back at their purchases.

Yamadori stock. It is not always something that can be taken in any part of the year. Sometimes the material is available for removal now, but our expertise may be two years away. Take it now and take a chance. I think we do not give enough credit to beginners and their tenacity to adapt to something that is rather easy to do. Removing a plant from the ground is not that difficult a thing to do. Sure there are things that will make it easier and there are things that I might do that a beginner might not do, but so what. I am very experienced and have had my share of failures too.

Last July I wrote a parody about Walter Pall. I reversed the roles to make me the professional and he the eager bystander looking for crumbs of knowledge about building stands. As far as I know, this might be something that I do better than Walter Pall. Big deal! Walter had written about whatever it was that Walter thought was over this particular person's head. Walter went on to say to not do this at home; "these procedures are really for professionals.” What kind of hogwash is this? There are no professional techniques. There are techniques used by professionals, but they hold no lock on them. They are there for anyone to try at any time. While I respect the work and teachings of Walter Pall, I’m surely not going to let him tell me that I can’t work on a Rocky Mountain Juniper because they are reserved for professionals. Bending large branches with boiling water or fire are strange techniques to some, but they're available to those that wish to give them a try.

I’m not saying that everyone might have the same success that Walter has at any given technique, but I am nearly sure that when Walter decided to try something new, he just did it with little regard to what anyone else said or warned.

So… for all you newbies out there, get thy pruning shears, get thy boiling water. Get thy fire and thy kitty litter soil and just do it!

Post it here, we’ll laugh and tell you did it all wrong, but who cares. "You" did it, you have no reason to apologize and I am sure that the second effort will have fewer mistakes and will be a good deal better than the first one.

Yours in bonsai, Al Keppler

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

Bravo Al!!!!!

Irene

Here, Here!!!!!!You go Al!!


Libby--a perpetual beginner

Al--I remember the thread you're talking about and the juniper was potted in a wooden grow box; the trunk was butted up against one side of the box and the box was long and narrow. The root system of the tree was collected from a crack in rock, thus the awkward look to the potting. Walter was referring to the challenge it is sometimes to get the trunk of such an awkward situation to be more centered in the final bonsai pot. It would probably take a gradual whittling away of the long root over a span of years to properly pot the thing. I think that's where the "professional" thing came in. But I agree that if a beginner took such a project on and they really cared about the tree, they would research about how to do it while they waited for the tree to regain its vigor.

When I started bonsai, I lived in the middle of nowhere in the Ozarks of Missouri. One of the guys in the cabinet shop where I worked turned me on to it by showing me the article the Smithsonian magazine ran on bonsai in the U.S. that featured Dan Robinson. That article caught my imagination and I just dove in--no clubs, no internet, no books yet, just Kenny Green's advice to open the tree up so you could see the trunk. I really had fun even though I didn't know what the hell I was doing. All my first trees were collected and I still have two of them--a winged elm and a pig-nut hickory. That was 18 years ago and if I had to do it over, don't think I'd change a thing. I collected my first manzanitas totally ignorant of the problems others had had trying it. My approach to digging them, acclimating them was not the way everyone else was doing it and may have lead to my success with this species. I doubt I would have ever tried it if I knew what the "collective" experience had been.

So, I guess the idea is to let everyone do what they want, stop providing any guidance as no one's advice is any better than anyone elses? Sorry. I don't think that washes completely.

I made a ton of mistakes when I first started. Killed a VERY large number of trees, including a $400 piece of stock (I would have given my first born not to have had to explain to my wife that I managed to kill it by overwatering). Yeah, I learned the "hard" way. This was, however, before I had the technology to instantly query experts around the globe on what to do and wehre I might be goign wrong.

I began taking advice from local collectors (and not disregarding experience as showing off ), I also sought advice from people like Vance Wood online as the Internet rose. I dug some trees, lost some very nice ones that--had I had someone to help me out-- I shouldn't ten or twenty decades to become what they were. They haunt me still.

The school of hard knocks is a great teacher. It can also be a dead-end path to Palookaville, if you have no one to tell you what you're doing wrong and/or the stones to believe no one can teach you anything.

I can say I started slowly, reading all I could and trying it on the trees growing wild in the yard. When I saw that what I was doing really did work like the books said.
I took the next step and put them in pots. Thats when my troubles began.
Taking a step back and taking some lessons from people much more experienced than myself, my success began.
I think its a good thing to try new things but not without guidance of some sort.
To rush in blindly is foolish.

"Just do it smart" seeking the knowledge with passion will get you there in the end.

Hector

Gentle people.... I think that it depends on the individual who is trying to learn. Some think they can re-invent the wheel and need to find out for themselves that something is done one way for a reason. They kill a few trees and learn. Others, can benefit from the experience of those who have been there and done that.

And...when you think about it, it depends on the topic. An individual may fall into the first group when it comes to say collecting and into the second group when it comes to watering techniques... etc

I think Al may have been saying that if you feel the need...do the deed!

Jay

Ok, so why would I point out that some techniques are 'used by professionals', implying that the general reader should probably not dare to use them?

As an example take my techniques with using fire to treat deadwood. I use fire much more than most others do and lots of people have seen me on stage and try to do the same. I never fail to tell them that this is DANGEROUS. Mainly dangerous because of the risk to kill living parts of the tree. One would think that in general bonsai folks are reasonable people and would understand this. Well, I travel the country and I find trees that have been burned to death, I find people who blame me to show dangerous methods etc. I now have come so far to say that this is 'for professionals', meaning it is NOT for you, general bonsai crowd!

The same applies to radical bending and braking techniques. These are quite spectacular and lots of folks are so intrigued that they want to do it themselves. Often these are people who do not yet even know how to create a decent bonsai in general. Often they do to know much or anything about plant physiology. They are bound to kill trees left and right.

The same again applies to ancient collecte trees which are terribly complicated. I tell people that soem trees are not for them. To protect the trees from the fools!

So what is wrong in making it clear that certain methods are not for the general crowd? Call me an elitist jerk, as someone did on another forum, and was NOT corrected by the moderators. Would you call a surgeon an elitist jerk who tells people that the brain surgery or heart surgery that they had just watched is NOT for the general household to do at home?

Nice opinion piece Al. Some great responses too.

As far as the 'professional only' techniques that have been mentioned I can see Walter's point - to an extent. We must admit that however difficult the relationship of these techniques seem to be they are by far not brain surgery (or heart surgery or rocket science).

I'm sure a lot of people have killed trees trying these 'far out' styling techniques. I would venture that these same people have difficulty keeping things alive on a regular basis. As Walter pointed out so well "these are people who do not yet even know how to create a decent bonsai in general". Well put.

I agree with Al in the spirit of his opinion - get out there and do it. In my business we have a saying - the difference between a professional and an amateur is that the professional knows how to fix his mistakes. I would like to add that a professional knows when they have made a mistake and an amateur for the most part is clueless in the error.

Walter, as I was trying to say. There are those who will understand that they do not have....and may never have, the ability to do what is done by others.

Then there are those who feel they can do anything. It is a shame that they will kill many trees before they learn. Some will never learn. When I say learn, I do not mean to do it correctly, but learn that they have to learn to crawl before they walk. They need experience and can not jump into advanced and extremely advanced techniques without the knowledge... the background to do it.

And yes there will be those who call you...many things. They are wrong.

respectfully
Jay