The problem with that approach here is that many who come to the Internet have never read a Bonsai book and think they can accomplish it all off the Internet. They read one article that says one thing, and another article that says something else but they fail to recognize that they are looking at two different things meant to accomplish different outcomes on perhaps different trees. Half the time you find yourself trying to untangle misinformation, misinterpreted information and flat out myth before you can approach anything akin to reality. Those are the serious growers who are seriously wrong, and then there are those who think a Bonsai is a special kind of tree that grows inside the house and never needs water or fertilizer or light.

And there are those who walk into the store and after looking at nearly all of the 400 trees I have in stock, ask me, "but do you have any real bonsai trees, like in the karate kid movie."
Thats when you know you have a lot of explaining to do. Makes me feel like pulling my hair out, (what little is left).

Hector,

You should keep a supply of those Bonsaiboy faux junipers on hand for those special customers.

Over the years I have often wondered how much more successful my shop would have been had I sold those "real " bonsai. Would it have made a difference.

Could the money I made selling those "real" bonsai have made a difference in how much more I could have spent on my personal collection. Not to mention the extra lessons I could have afforded to take from the established bonsai artists.

Did I cheat myself.

One could make the argument that at least I didn’t cheat those uninformed customers. But then they just went elsewhere and bought their “Karate Kid” bonsai. That is after all what they really wanted.

Wonder how many of those other shop owners had a successful career simply because I sent them those customers and they filled their needs.

Something to think about while I am setting on my porch in my rickety old rocking chair. Could those “real” bonsais have made me a better bonsai artist. Something to at least ponder while drinking my cheap domestic beer )