Scott,
That I can understand but owning a tree that is award winning and having someone else taking care of it to me is... wrong.
Are these people so afraid of killing their award winning trees that they have to hire a pro to take care of it.
My JBP tree didn't win an award, but it too resided at Boon's until just before the show. I live in Georgia. I study with Boon at his garden 3 times a year, and when he travels east, I meet up with him to work on my trees here at home.
Like MarkyScott, I figured out that it would be good to have a tree at Boon's of my own to work on, rather than always working on his. I was lucky to be able to purchase my tree at the end of my first year studying with Boon. So, every time I went to visit his garden for classes, 3 times a year, I would work on my tree doing the seasonal work. I was the only one who worked on it. Oh sure, Boon would check my work, make minor adjustments, or tell me that my wiring was unacceptable, and have me take it off and do it again! But in the end, it was all my work. This tree taught me how to refine JBP.
By the way, a tree when it develops the amount of ramification this one has takes a long time to wire. It took me a full year to wire it! Lol!! The first session, I got maybe the two lowest branches done. 3 moths later, I was able to wire a good portion of the middle. Finally, 4 months later, I was able to complete it.
And then, in subsequent classes, I had to start taking off wire that was cutting in, and rewire!
Also, I had to learn when to decandle. One year, I decandled the second week in June, and the needles were too short! The next year, I decandled the last week of May. Better needle length. Some of those needles were on the tree as shown at the Nstionals. This year, I decandled the first week oh June, as I wanted short needles for the show.
I paid Boon rent for bench space. He watered and kept fertilizer on, but all the work was my own
Did I miss having it at home? You bet! But there is also an advantage to only seeing it every three or four months: you really see the changes it made during the time I was gone! Trees in my home garden change so slowly, I don't notice that something is overgrown. They sneak up on you! Or, it's easy to say, oh, I'll do that task tomorrow. When I'm at Boon's that task gets done right when it needs to be done!
And then, there's the problem of transporting the tree from California to Georgia. Something that delicate you don't ship in a box!
So, I took advantage of the transportation For the Show to bring home not only this tree, but several others I've had at Boon's on the same program. One tree in particular we think will do better in my climate than at Boon's. We'll see.
Over the years I've been studying with Boon, I've seen trees come, and go, and return to Boon's garden.
I'm sure that Ryan and Hagedorn have similiar arrangements with their students.
