How old were you when you started bonsai?

[whfarro]

Four years ago (at age 50) is when I would say I "committed" to bonsai. I have always been interested in it even as a kid, but never had the time, money or space to devote to it in any meaningful way. It was a trip to the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens for their annual Sakura Matsuri / Cherry Blossom festival that re-kindled my interest. They have a wonderful Japanese Hill and Pond gardens and an outstanding Bonsai pavilion. Since that time I cannot get enough. I would also like to thank everyone on this blog for being such a great source of knowledge, experience, advice, inspiration, honesty and humor.

 

[KennedyMarx]

I can't remember the first time I was exposed to bonsai. I suppose it was the Karate Kid, but I have had a mild interest in Japanese culture since a young age. When I was 26 or 27 I was living in an apartment with a balcony and saw a random picture of a terrarium online. This led to a fascination with terrariums and container gardening for a bit. As I read about different plants I saw people putting succulents like jades in glass terrariums with no drainage holes. Ugh. But I came across pictures of Jim Smith's portulacaria afra bonsai and decided to try my hand at crafting a bonsai out of my jades. They've been relegated to house plant status since I got some real woody plants to work on, but I still enjoy succulents as well.

 

[mj_barb]

I had a few young trees when I was in high school. I didn't do much research. I was amazed when I saw finished trees on the internet. I wanted one so bad, but there was no way I could afford one, and to put years into it seemed insane. Now, ~6 years later, I'm giving it another shot with a completely different mind set. What drew me in this time was the fact that there is no instant gratification. I've been researching every day, and can't wait for Spring to get here!

 

[M. Frary]

. I was 23. I saw some pics of bonsai in a National Geographic magazine. Got the one book from our county library. Had trees for 6 years and lost them. My fault. Started back up 4 years ago.

 

[tmmason10]

When I was in college I would work with my cousin doing tree work during the summer, which made me realize I liked some sort of gardening or landscaping. He also had a few bonsai trees and I had him stop at NE Bonsai one day after dropping some stuff off at college for my senior year. That tree died one when left outside the following fall (ficus). I started back up seriously when I was 25 and I'll be turning 30 this year.

 

[choppychoppy]

Just a couple years ago but I have a buddy that owns a landscape co / supply nursery and I already have 300+ trees and over 100 in shallow pots in some form of training. My friend is also thinking we should be taking it even more serious and really plant stock etc. since there is nothing in our area at all.

 

[bonsaiBlake]

First tree in a pot was a baby pine when I was in 6th grade, so 12ish. Then not again until a year ago at age 23.

What inspired me to begin messing with potted trees again was 2 things. one my love of gardening and being outside, but having nothing to do all winter, solution begin growing plants that grow all year(potted trees) turns out you leave most of them alone all winter anyways but whatevs. The main reason I wanted to grow miniature trees was my adolescence being spent living in rural vancouver,wa in the foothills of the cascade mountains, then at age 20 moving to Tri-Cities,wa. Tri-Cities is classified as a dessert less than 10" of precipitation per year. Nothing but sage, sand, sun, and wind in these parts. Needless to say I began to miss my trees. . . . BADLY. I am a lemur and we live in trees. So one day I was net surfing and ran across one of Kimura's forest plantings, made the decision right then and there, "I don't care how long it takes or how hard it is, I will create a mini forest/learn how to make beautiful tree art." The rest. . . all goes well. . . will be history.

My grandfather also had a good sizws potted tree collection somewhere around 25 trees. However I was very young when he had this collection and have no conscience memory of it. Who knows, maybe my toddler brain was so impressed that it stuck with me.

 

[Bon Sai]

When I was 8 (I think) I visited a show with my parents. I was so thrilled they bought me a book about bonsai sold right there. I read it more than once, which I think is quite remarcable for that age. Well, I know Mozart composed operas but still... I was trying things that ended up with death every time. An uncle gave me a very nice boxwood bonsai that died too. I'm still sorry about that at age 38.

 

[milehigh_7]

Which time?

 

[Guy Vitale]

I must have been around 17-18 when I stumbled across a bonsai kiosk at th local mall, it grabbed my attention pretty hard. I went back and forth to the kiosk a number of times soaking in what I could. I started a Cottoneaster from landscape material, repotted, pruned, and wired it all at the same time, my guess, the wrong time. Kept it behind a west facing window and watched it bud out, made me so happy to see, then just as soon as it leafed out, the tender foliage shrivelled and died. Got upset and moved on. Wasn't until 6-7 years later ~25 years old, a conversation with a then girlfriend inspired me to start the wisteria in my avatar as well as an EWP. 16 years later I still have both as well as over 150 other trees, so I had a bonsai birth at 17 and rebirth at 25. Glad I started when I was younger.