Best Retirement City for Bonsai Enthusiasts

[ForThemWhatCare]

As we start to put together a list of where might be a good place to relocate to as we move to our final (retirement) home one of the considerations has to be where would be a good place that checks all those other boxes (cost of living, taxes, not in Florida, etc.)...

...but also would be a good location to continue developing one's bonsai collection.

I figured a number of us in the US might have already performed these calculations and have recommendations. With that in mind are there cities that you'd recommend to be on the short list for retirement?

 

[WNC Bonsai]

Had I been on the west coast when I retired I would have considered Portland OR. Beautiful town, vibrant community, a great bonsai environment, and Ryan Neil close by.

 

[Tieball]

Just my thought as you search: I think your range of locations might be influenced by what types of bonsai trees you’ll want to maintain.

 

[Tieball]

You may find in retirement that you want fewer and specific trees….and find other retirement hobbies that will occupy a lot of your time. Buying a house is one way to give you bonsai growing freedom. Some apartment and condo areas don’t have grow-your-own spaces.

 

[PonderingSage:]

Portland would be a good place but you have to come to terms with the fact that it is cloudy or raining for 8 to 10 months a year. I lived there for a dozen years and the weather was challenging. But the lush landscape can make up for that.

 

[NaoTK]

Portland OR, and really anywhere west of the cascades, has climate very close to Japan and its one of the few places you can grow pretty much any bonsai outside without difficulty (except tropicals half of the year). No need to shelter anything in winter.

We have more bonsai professionals than any other city and the largest bonsai club in the country. You can collect trees in our various mountains and pumice and lava is dirt cheap because it comes out of the ground haha.

 

[actionflies]

Had I been on the west coast when I retired I would have considered Portland OR. Beautiful town, vibrant community, a great bonsai environment, and Ryan Neil close by.

Portland (Pacific NW) is a great place to do bonsai due to the wet/cold/sunny weather. You can grow anything except tropical and we have the best bonsai club in America (BSOP) with a lot of resources and an opportunity to meet bonsai people. We also have abundant amount of pumice and lava rocks for cheap. Lots of local bonsai professionals and nurseries. Mirai is close by but does not mean you can show up anytime and visit his garden without paying unless you are his personal friend. You can access Mirai resource anytime with the internet. Portland sucks right now with homeless/drugs/crimes and many more problems. I don't think people move to Oregon to retired unless they already live in Oregon and just retired. It's freaking cold and wet in Oregon and it sucks waking up with aching joint and constant rain rain rain and more rain. Come retired to Oregon but bring a lot of glucosamine.

 

[NaoTK]

Then its settled. There's a house for sale down the street from me

 

[ForThemWhatCare]

I'm not sure I made the rules clear It has to be affordable!

Portland is the 12th most expensive cost of living city in the country and Oregon has the highest overall tax burden of all states. Sure they have good transportation hubs and hospitals not to mention a beautiful landscape to explore but Portland makes zero entries on any "places to retire" guides.

Any OTHER suggestions?

 

[NaoTK]

Not the CITY but find 10 acres 45min south. Or Washington if you care about taxes

 

[Mike Westervelt]

A crossed the Columbia in Washington, no income tax like Oregon does.
Lots of small towns within an hour of Portland north of Vancouver

 

[Dav4]

Soooooo... isn't Portland a bit on the expensive side? Most retirees aren't looking to spend more on housing than when they were working. Anyway, I'd have to give a shout out to the metro Atlanta area, and more generally N. GA. The winters are short but cold enough that you can also grow pretty much anything bonsai related without trying too hard and not too hard to source. Real estate has increased dramatically but is still affordable compared to other big metro areas (When I lived in Cobb County, people over 65 didn't have to pay the school tax portion of their property tax, a 60-70% savings iirc). There's a fantastic club in Atlanta... one of the best in the country imo. There's lots of other clubs in the SE and MANY enthusiasts down that way. There's a plethora of bonsai pros in the SE... Bjorn, Tyler S., Rodney Clemons... I think Kathy Shaner moved to AL.? There's also some pretty good regional shows. Any way, I miss that bonsai scene tremendously.

 

[Mike Westervelt]

What Nao said, you beat me to it.

 

[jandslegate]

If we could ever afford it, my wife and I love Tennessee. Mt. Juliette is very nice which also happens to be where Eisei-en is located. Plus it helps that Bjorn is super awesome.

 

[Shogun610]

Then it’s settled. There's a house for sale down the street from me

Im moving there actually

 

[Sansokuu]

When Nao says Portland, he means Portland Metro. It gets affordable the further out from the city you go but also more conservative if politics is important. Portland proper has century old lead paint covered tiny houses for a million dollars, but the house down the street from us is a 1960s ranch with a real yard big enough for bonsai, bbq, and a lawn, and 3 beds 2 baths for 500k. Is that affordable? Depends where you come from. If you’re from Texas, that sounds like a rip. If you’re from California, that is definitely a steal.

if you live in the PNW though prepare to have a Winter home somewhere else, a happy lamp and daily vitamin D. Seasonal Affective Disorder hits some people really hard here and for others they don’t even notice. That said, we have a very fantastic bonsai club and community, a lot of bonsai greats (Rakuyo, Michael Hagedorn, Matt Reel, that Mirai guy), a lot of prebonsai material (yamadori collecting, Left Coast Bonsai, many tree nurseries in general) and many retired bsop members also volunteer at the Japanese Garden, which has a prominent bonsai collection they can talk visitor’s ears off about. Pumice is cheap.

If money is not a problem I would personally retire in the bay area. The whole West Coast is great for bonsai, and it isn’t too hot or too cold and just sunny enough. I used to live in Santa Cruz and the redwood trees were so nice. Monterey and Big Sur is gorgeous.

 

[penumbra]

For me its Virginia, Pennsylvania and North Carolina. Sure there are a lot of other places I'd like to visit, but this is home.

 

[Gabler]

For some reason, there’s a lot of bonsai stuff in Pennsylvania, at least compared to other eastern states.

 

[Potawatomi13]

I'm not sure I made the rules clear It has to be affordable!

Portland is the 12th most expensive cost of living city in the country and Oregon has the highest overall tax burden of all states. Sure they have good transportation hubs and hospitals not to mention a beautiful landscape to explore but Portland makes zero entries on any "places to retire" guides.

Any OTHER suggestions?

Most wise and diligent to see this. Living in Oregon lifelong was going to bring up COST to reside here as well as socialist politics of current portland and state house. Perhaps Eugene or nearby Cottage Grove, Creswell or Veneta? If not how about near Bjorn?

 

[Potawatomi13]

Im moving there actually

For real?