Tentakelaertje
Omono
I'm sorry about your moms situation. MS is fucked up. It sounds like she's lucky to have you taking care of her.
What is the title of your book? I'd be interested in reading it.
The most valuable tree that you know died...
- Thread starter Bonsai Nut
- Start date
I'm sorry about your moms situation. MS is fucked up. It sounds like she's lucky to have you taking care of her.
What is the title of your book? I'd be interested in reading it.
JoeR
Masterpiece
I typed a long response, but I don't want to continue derailing the threadYou are not that old either, right Joe?
Most young people in the bonsai hobby I know of do have worth a lot of money of trees. I only know a couple of dudes about my age, but they have a collection worth a few bucks as well. I know mine is.
Maybe because young people are rare in weird hobbies like bonsai and that young people in general have holes in their hands and pockets so we have the reputation of being poor, we get a lot of stuff cheaper than old people (yup, that's you) as a stimulator or something so to say. Thanks!!!!!
We (most of us) don't have a mortgage/college bills (they come when the education is finished) and stuff either yet. Add still living with parents aka no rent to that and your spendable income is (almost) as much as the whole of your income.
If you have a (saturday) job and no kids that is a bonus too.
I have a car together with my little brother that costs a lot of money, but that deducted my spendable income still is about 200 euros a month because I have a saturday job and tiny handholes.
I'm about three years into bonsai now = 36*200 = 7200 euro that could've been spent on bonsai.
Which isn't, but still.
I've dug a couple of trees from hedges and gardens and stuff which all would be around 100 euro a piece if I'd sell them coming fall. That's a boxwood, three yews, a firethorn, two squamata junipers and a hornbeam, on the top of my head. That's almost a grand of trees, while they have cost me about 10 litres of diesel (3 gallons or so). I can't be the only one who digs up stuff, so building a multiple thousand dollar collection that way shouldn't be very difficult. We have no mountains or whatever close to home in the river delta, so no 'real' yamadori over here, but gardens and hedges can be and are a huge resource
And although pots are expensive, they are not so if you buy them in bigger amounts. Sometimes I buy collections of pots for about one or two euros a piece. If a couple of those are handmade or at least have some chop or look good the value of those few mostly exceeds the price I paid. Not that I'm selling those pots, but those that I don't want do go in the selling box.
Last summer I bought 105 or so pots for about 150 euro. At least 20 of those were proper quality = 7.5€ a pot. You simply don't pay that little if bought one by one.
If you can get larger amounts of decent pots, do it, if the budget permits. It pays off. Seriously.
I may be talking a lot, saying not so much but the point is that with not too much money (relatively of course, but 'not too much' for me is about 500/600 € a year) and a fair bit of luck one can come quite far in building cool collection in a short time.
High spendable income + low costs of living + free/cheap stuff = cool bonsai collection pretty quickly
Sorry about the long offtopic story, but I wanted to make clear youths these days in general don't have lives that tough. And many thanks to everyone who is enabling that!
Edit: I forgot about tools and wire and such. That shit is not cheap either. Those are the things that really take a chunk out of your wallet. Even old secondhand tool collections cost a lot of money (cheap yes, but still). But if you got pots and garden 'yamadori' anyway; trade! Trading stuff for stuff has it perks. Most of the time for both traders!
. But yeah, I'm one of or the youngest here for sure. And I was in no way saying youths nowadays have hard lives, because we probably have the easiest lives in human history. I was just saying it's harder for young people to get involved in bonsai for several reasons other than their demand for "instant gratification".
justBonsai
Omono
You're right on with this post. I qualify for financial aid and various grants so my college cost is greatly reduced. The area where I rent has probably among the lowest housing costs in Southern California which helps a lot. Because of this I have more disposable income than others and I'm able to invest in trees. After I graduate next year my living conditions will probably change and I may not be able to keep trees. So for now I just enjoy them as much as I can.You are not that old either, right Joe?
Most young people in the bonsai hobby I know of do have worth a lot of money of trees. I only know a couple of dudes about my age, but they have a collection worth a few bucks as well. I know mine is.
Maybe because young people are rare in weird hobbies like bonsai and that young people in general have holes in their hands and pockets so we have the reputation of being poor, we get a lot of stuff cheaper than old people (yup, that's you
We (most of us) don't have a mortgage/college bills (they come when the education is finished) and stuff either yet. Add still living with parents aka no rent to that and your spendable income is (almost) as much as the whole of your income.
If you have a (saturday) job and no kids that is a bonus too.
I have a car together with my little brother that costs a lot of money, but that deducted my spendable income still is about 200 euros a month because I have a saturday job and tiny handholes.
I'm about three years into bonsai now = 36*200 = 7200 euro that could've been spent on bonsai.
Which isn't, but still.
I've dug a couple of trees from hedges and gardens and stuff which all would be around 100 euro a piece if I'd sell them coming fall. That's a boxwood, three yews, a firethorn, two squamata junipers and a hornbeam, on the top of my head. That's almost a grand of trees, while they have cost me about 10 litres of diesel (3 gallons or so). I can't be the only one who digs up stuff, so building a multiple thousand dollar collection that way shouldn't be very difficult. We have no mountains or whatever close to home in the river delta, so no 'real' yamadori over here, but gardens and hedges can be and are a huge resource
And although pots are expensive, they are not so if you buy them in bigger amounts. Sometimes I buy collections of pots for about one or two euros a piece. If a couple of those are handmade or at least have some chop or look good the value of those few mostly exceeds the price I paid. Not that I'm selling those pots, but those that I don't want do go in the selling box.
Last summer I bought 105 or so pots for about 150 euro. At least 20 of those were proper quality = 7.5€ a pot. You simply don't pay that little if bought one by one.
If you can get larger amounts of decent pots, do it, if the budget permits. It pays off. Seriously.
I may be talking a lot, saying not so much but the point is that with not too much money (relatively of course, but 'not too much' for me is about 500/600 € a year) and a fair bit of luck one can come quite far in building cool collection in a short time.
High spendable income + low costs of living + free/cheap stuff = cool bonsai collection pretty quickly
Sorry about the long offtopic story, but I wanted to make clear youths these days in general don't have lives that tough. And many thanks to everyone who is enabling that!
Edit: I forgot about tools and wire and such. That shit is not cheap either. Those are the things that really take a chunk out of your wallet. Even old secondhand tool collections cost a lot of money (cheap yes, but still). But if you got pots and garden 'yamadori' anyway; trade! Trading stuff for stuff has it perks. Most of the time for both traders!
justBonsai
Omono
Oh yeah back to the thread. My most expensive tree is $200 and fortunately it is healthy and strong. Most everything else is far under $100. The most valuable tree I lost was a pomegranate that I cut off to many roots from. Should of tarped the tree and gave it special tlc but I didn't.
bonsaibp
Omono
Thats true people sure do act funny when 0's are involved.That bites never in all the time he committed to? What an ------- ------- . Easy to understand why a former friend. No excuse short of hospitalization . I had a client who easily lost 50-100k worth of trees cause he's so entitled that he thinks even tree will do his bidding. He'd not listen to anyone let people who shouldn't have working on them do so, had a guy who watered endlessly no matter what. Try to grow Larch and White Pine in L.A. etc.. I've killled a few of my own over the years that were up there in price. I know that there are many amazing tree that have died just because no one made arrangements for the tree after the owner died. Something anyone with a decent collection should consider. It's sad but its life everything runs its course sooner or later.
Anthony
Imperial Masterpiece
Maarten -
euros 1 = 10 TT$
seeds, cuttings, airlayers, make our own pots, concave pruner from China 8 US $, compost home made,
now designing a brick crusher, other than that it was free, 100 LB 5 mm gravel about 60 TT.
Cost Factor over all, very, very, low.
Average height of trees 38 cm high -------- 6 to 8 cm diameter trunk - ground grow 1 to 3 years.
Over all Bonsai is a cheap hobby.
Buying trees at 100 Euros, madness, never going to happen.
Passing on all of this to the Bonsai folk down here.
Went to a workshop yesterday, gave away about 60 trees [ Tamarinds / Sageretia t. / Cholorophora t ]
Next workshop --------- 60 elm cuttings that have been rooted.
Will continue to keep Bonsai as an affordable hobby.
Got them re-started on a Bonsai Garden, 2 to 3 lots in the Botannical Gardens or other.
Good Day
Anthony
* one basic lesson learnt by a few members, you can easily spend, but it is difficult to re-sell. and get back the $$$$
euros 1 = 10 TT$
seeds, cuttings, airlayers, make our own pots, concave pruner from China 8 US $, compost home made,
now designing a brick crusher, other than that it was free, 100 LB 5 mm gravel about 60 TT.
Cost Factor over all, very, very, low.
Average height of trees 38 cm high -------- 6 to 8 cm diameter trunk - ground grow 1 to 3 years.
Over all Bonsai is a cheap hobby.
Buying trees at 100 Euros, madness, never going to happen.
Passing on all of this to the Bonsai folk down here.
Went to a workshop yesterday, gave away about 60 trees [ Tamarinds / Sageretia t. / Cholorophora t ]
Next workshop --------- 60 elm cuttings that have been rooted.
Will continue to keep Bonsai as an affordable hobby.
Got them re-started on a Bonsai Garden, 2 to 3 lots in the Botannical Gardens or other.
Good Day
Anthony
* one basic lesson learnt by a few members, you can easily spend, but it is difficult to re-sell. and get back the $$$$
Tentakelaertje
Omono
I typed a long response, but I don't want to continue derailing the thread
My comment wasn't directly aimed at you, I now see the question at the beginning makes it seem that way. Sorry.
I know you weren't saying we got heavy lives, on the contrary even!
Rolling into a hobby like bonsai requires a lot, but once in, it is pretty easy livin'.
I'd love to hear your response anyway, if you feel like making that effort, please read your PM!
Tentakelaertje
Omono
Yeah same here. Next year it is university in New Zealand, and I'm planning on migrating there too, so the collection over here has gotta go
I remember you talking about your collection being taken care of by your mom, isn't that an option for next year too?
@Anthony you guys are part of the enabler group, I know. And thanks for that!
If you count only the basic stuff in, it is a cheap hobby, but then time is gonna play a way bigger factor.
To stay on topic: my most expensive tree was 50% discounted to 32€ and I almost killed it last year. Thank the lords it survived, along with various others.
Last december or so a gentleman gave me the restants of his collection. He hadn't got the time and interest for bonsai anymore, so they were pretty weak. So far only 1 died, but it was the nicest of them all and that hurt.
When you don't have very expensive plants the wallet isn't really going to feel them dying, but your soul does, and that is shit.
I think getting hurt in the soul is a big part of killing (expensive) trees, but tbh I can't imagine what it is to kill a really big buck tree. It must be hell.
Hearing those 'secret' stories about the whereabouts of 'famous' trees is pretty cool nevertheless, sorry for poking that one.
ajm55555
Chumono
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Walter Pall's Deshojo. This is my absolute favorite species and I still haven't understood if:
- it's a weak cultivar in general
- if it can live a long life or get to 20-30 years at most
- how easy it is attacked by Verticillium wilt or other fungus
- what you can do to avoid problems
jeanluc83
Omono
I was just looking at my copy of the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens Bonsai book the other night and wondered what ever happened to that tree.
namnhi
Masterpiece
Nice sculpture after its dead.
Smoke
Ignore-Amus
Vin
Imperial Masterpiece
Love hurts..
Tentakelaertje
Omono
leatherback
The Treedeemer
OK. I am done giving you trees. You made a solid argument.
my nellie
Masterpiece
my nellie
Masterpiece
So very sad!
They seem collected trees and this photo makes anyone wonder : Was it worth it removing them -unique individual long-lived trees- from their environment?
justBonsai
Omono
LOLOK. I am done giving you trees. You made a solid argument.
Yeah same here. Next year it is university in New Zealand, and I'm planning on migrating there too, so the collection over here has gotta go
I remember you talking about your collection being taken care of by your mom, isn't that an option for next year too?
@Anthony you guys are part of the enabler group, I know. And thanks for that!
If you count only the basic stuff in, it is a cheap hobby, but then time is gonna play a way bigger factor.
To stay on topic: my most expensive tree was 50% discounted to 32€ and I almost killed it last year. Thank the lords it survived, along with various others.
Last december or so a gentleman gave me the restants of his collection. He hadn't got the time and interest for bonsai anymore, so they were pretty weak. So far only 1 died, but it was the nicest of them all and that hurt.
When you don't have very expensive plants the wallet isn't really going to feel them dying, but your soul does, and that is shit.
I think getting hurt in the soul is a big part of killing (expensive) trees, but tbh I can't imagine what it is to kill a really big buck tree. It must be hell.
Hearing those 'secret' stories about the whereabouts of 'famous' trees is pretty cool nevertheless, sorry for poking that one.
Possibly but I'd probably have to sell off most of them. Right now the arrangement works out because I can stop by on weekends to give necessary care, fert, fungicide and my water system does the rest when I'm gone.
I'd never buy a super expensive tree until I have more established income and housing. I can't imagine losing a $500, 1k, 5k+ tree. It probably make take a (short, how could I stop
) break from bonsai.
chicago1980
Omono
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*****!
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