So Whats Your Bonsai Story?

[coachspinks]

In the 80's, I was in college at UGA and managing a restaurant in Athens, GA. The owner of the restaurant was an artist and had recently started dabbling in bonsai with a friend of his. Having worked at a wholesale plant nursery in high school, I had an interest in plants so I asked questions and tagged a long when they went to the Monastery. There I met Brother Paul and was hooked. Since I had experience in growing plants, I spent a good deal of time helping him keep up with some aspects of running the nursery at the Monastery. Eventually, I graduated, got married and moved. However, my new home was actually closer to the Monastery. I stayed with bonsai for another 10 years or so but eventually my work schedule (coaching) started to take up too much of my time and I stopped. I still made time to visit Brother Paul until he passed away. About six or seven years ago I retired from coaching and started with bonsai again. Two things I still have that I really cherish are plants that I currently own that came from cuttings taken from Serissa and Kingsville Boxwoods at the Monastery.

 

[michaelj]

I watched the Karate Kid and wanted to do what they were doing. I asked for a bonsai for Christmas, and I think it was my grandmother who bought me one. It was a mallsai "indoor juniper" with glued on rocks, styled like a hockey stick with the edge slammed into the ground and the growing tip was where the edge of the handle would be, running parallel to the ground. It had wire, and I bent the wire every day to make a new style. The instructions were to keep it near a source of sunlight, and to water it by submerging it in water once a week until bubbles stopped coming up. So I did that. And I killed it immediately. And about 3 months later, it began to show signs that I had killed it. So I wanted another one.

To get a replacement outside of mallsai season, I had to find a bonsai nursery, so I went to Murata Bonsai Gardens in Westminster, California, which had everything from dwarf pomegranate seedlings to large, show-worthy shimpaku trees and foemina forests. I was immediately hooked. I started going to club meetings and shows and spent the next 15 years growing shitty trees that sucked. I never found a teacher, didn't interact much at the meetings, and barely improved. Eventually, my growing family and time-consuming business left me with little time to care for and work on my trees, plus my dog liked to eat my trees, apparently because of the blood meal and bone meal I used to fertilize. So sometime around 1998 or 1999, I took my last couple of trees - round, bushy boxwoods - and planted them on my backyard hill as landscape pieces.

For a dozen or more years, I did nothing bonsai-related.

On July 21, 2012, we went to the Orange County Fair, and Kofu Bonsai Kai had an exhibit with a couple dozen trees. My younger daughter was fascinated by them. Her first assumption was that it was impossible for normal people to do this, and you needed to be some sort of artistic genius to make a tree like that. When I told her I used to grow bonsai trees, and I still had the tools and some pots in the garage, she wanted to try to grow her own. The guy watching the exhibit for Kofu Kai - who I remembered from way back when - told her that their club met every third Saturday night, and it just so happened to be meeting night, so she decided that she wanted to go there rather than staying late at the fair. So we went. It became something I did with my kids together. To help teach them, I had to learn the art of bonsai a lot better than I did the first time around, so I found a teacher and now, ten years later, I have hundreds of trees, I've shown my trees quite a few times, I've won a bunch of ribbons at the fair, and I now make my own pots, too.

 

[mj_barb]

Great to hear everyone’s story! I’ll try to keep mine brief:

• ~2000 (10 years old) I saw a display at Epcot and was hooked
• Sometime in the early 2000’s my mom got me a book (Ken Norman) and I read it cover to cover multiple times
• Eventually got a Jaboticaba, which sat on my desk in a state of half deadness for a few years.
• 2012 - 2018 (post college years) I really tried to dive in, but it’s incredibly difficult living in apartments. You have restricted sunlight, watering is difficult, you can’t mix soil or repot easily. During this period I even brought all of my trees on vacation once. I like to remind my wife that she still married me after that.
• 2018 we bought a house and I quickly expanded my collection. This quickly turned into a very stressful time, as the house was falling apart, and I was commuting over 3 hours a day. We sold in 2019, but ended with us being away for 2 weeks in summer with no rain. Everything died besides one larger JBP, and 2 that I started from seed a year or so before (still have these today!)
• 2019 - 2021 back in an apartment, but much more stable (short commute). I kept my pines alive, albeit with less than optimal sunlight.
• Fall 2021 we bought a great house and I started buying trees again. This spring was the first time I was able to mix my own soil, do some repotting, and get some stuff in the ground. I’m super happy with how 2022 went, nothing died and it’s cool to see trees improve!

 

[BonsaiNaga13]

Always liked trying to save yard seedlings in cups and bringing them inside since I was old enough to plant seeds. Those all died but I never stopped trying. Started a few apples from seed back in high school. One survived 2 years in a nursery pot with organic soil and then died from being pot bound in 2012-2013. Lost steam for a few years then around 2015 i was going through an Extremely dark time and I came across Nigel Saunders willow bonsai vids and others, started studying and realized why all my trees died. Started a few willow cuttings dug up a few eastern red cedar (all dead now) and collecting seeds which i would anxiously watch over.. Whenever things got a bit darker a seed would sprout. Now my days are full of sunshine and necessary rain but that darkness was a necessary part of my journey cuz I'm hooked . Bonsai has entirely helped change my outlook on life, my thought process, and my relationship to nature and the world around me. In the famous words of Joe Dirt "Life's a garden, dig it"

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

I got caught by my parents after smoking weed at age 14.
We then decided together that if I was going to do it, it shouldn't come from drug dealers or unregulated coffeeshops.
So we planted a whole bunch of hemp.
The year after that we planted a couple more potent cultivars.
The year after that I got into gardening, built a bog and focussed on carnivorous plants.
Then it expanded to grow whatever people told me they couldn't grow, just to flex on them.
It went on for a couple years like that and I started making my own cannabis strains.
I also switched studies to life sciences because plants are cool and I wanted to do something with that.
Then in my final year of studies, I was working for a big plant related Evilcorp™ and some dude told me that I couldn't do bonsai.
He was right.
So I decided to do small plants in pots instead. Then I found out people were actually growing P. afra and calling it bonsai. I got angry and decided that maybe I was doing bonsai too. I guess.

 

[chicago1980]

Exposed to the little trees by my karate teacher at age 5. Father and aunt enjoyed Japanese culture. Lots of small trees around.

Tried my hand at bonsai in elementary school.

Unfortunately during a road trip for a tournament most of the trees died.

Bought my house, gave it a go again.

 

[Underdog]

Best Dog Ever died after 14yrs. Had dogs my whole life and loved them but, they are a responsibility. Wife wanted another one. Kids had moved out and I retired from fire service and wanted to travel/play more. Old white van on the side of the road w/Bonsai spray painted on the side sold me a little Procumbins I named Fido. Told the wife this is our new dog.

I thought Bonsai would be less trouble/responsibility that another dog! What an Idiot! LOL Now I have 50 pain in the asses requiring more of my time than a dog ever did.

 

[HorseloverFat]

Best Dog Ever died after 14yrs. Had dogs my whole life and loved them but, they are a responsibility. Wife wanted another one. Kids had moved out and I retired from fire service and wanted to travel/play more. Old white van on the side of the road w/Bonsai spray painted on the side sold me a little Procumbins I named Fido. Told the wife this is our new dog.

I thought Bonsai would be less trouble/responsibility that another dog! What an Idiot! LOL Now I have 50 pain in the asses requiring more of my time than a dog ever did.

Haha! Nice Christmas tree, Mark!

 

[Cmd5235]

I grew up spending most of my time outside, exploring the woods around my parents house. I fell in love with trying to understand trees and gardening. Living close to Longwood Gardens introduced me to bonsai at a very young age. After my dad died when I was young, my mom encouraged any hobbies of mine that weren’t destructive that would keep me focused on things, with bonsai being one. It gave me a sense of control over something in my life, and I ended up just reading as much literature as possible while experimenting on native trees I encountered around the neighborhood. I was gifted a serissa from a now closed garden center (if anyone remembers Waterloo Gardens) that I managed to keep alive in two apartments and two dorm rooms at Penn State. Fortunately I have a supportive wife that allows me to keep benches of trees in the back yard and an indoor setup as well.

 

[Cajunrider]

Introduced to bonsai when very young. Took a half century break from it and returned about 4 years ago.

 

[bluesky]

My first love was full-size trees, then photography. In college years in the 80's I travelled round Europe and Africa taking photos of beautiful big trees.


Then in the 2000's we went to nurseries and garden centres and I always found myself attracted to the bonsai section like an infatuated teenage idiot in love! (I was in my 30s) The sheer pleasure of having a real, beautiful tree in a small pot in front of me was irresistible, so I got my first bonsai in 2005, a serissa.

It died of course, but that was me hooked, the tree pleasure just increases year on year. Guiding their growth and admiring them as they mature.

 

[Frozentreehugger]

My first love was full-size trees, then photography. In college years in the 80's I travelled round Europe and Africa taking photos of beautiful big trees.


Then in the 2000's we went to nurseries and garden centres and I always found myself attracted to the bonsai section like an infatuated teenage idiot in love! (I was in my 30s) The sheer pleasure of having a real, beautiful tree in a small pot in front of me was irresistible, so I got my first bonsai in 2005, a serissa.

It died of course, but that was me hooked, the tree pleasure just increases year on year. Guiding their growth and admiring them as they mature.
I’m sure there are lots of people here . Like myself that would love to see some of your pics . Of full size trees . I started a thread called . Treabeards children The intention wax for interesting ideas special full size trees . You are more than welcome to post there or start a thread I’m sure there would be interest

 

[FreshAirSunshine]

I’m with @Brian Van Fleet - I got bored with houseplants of which I have maybe 60 or so in my 1-bedroom apartment and decided I wanted something I could interact with more. Had always found bonsai neat when I’d see them at arboretums, conservatories, etc. Started watching a bunch of bonsai YouTube and loved the appreciation of and attention to the tree’s character. Jumped in over the summer and started going to NEBG for club meetings and general exploration/inspiration. We’ll see where it goes from there and how many of my starts survive the winter

 

[bdmatt]

I got into bonsai 4 years ago after I watched this video about bonsai scissors.

No special story to it, I just found the idea of a pair of scissors costing 35k to be interesting. Did some research, thought bonsai looked fun, so I bought my mother a Chinese elm from a local nursery as a "gift" (really, it was for myself). Ending up killing it with some insane chops, but everyone's destined to kill a few trees.

 

[JPH]

The earliest memory I have of something bonsai related were photos of a trip my mother and aunt took to Europe (unsure of the country). They had visited this exhibit of a miniature town (it might have been lego...). What stuck out to me however were the trees. All around the miniature village were small trees that were trimmed to emulate large forests. She called them bonsai trees. I was very young but the image stuck with me. Some time later (few years maybe?) my mother and I were at the mall and there was a little kiosk selling odds and ends. I noticed some pouches of seeds with pictures of tiny trees in pots. Again my mother said they were seeds for "bonsai trees".

I grew fond of trees as I got older and they were (still are) my favorite subject to draw.

When I was 14 my parents divorced and we moved to a new city. On a shopping trip we stopped at a White Rose garden center. I found a kiosk of small Junipers in plastic pots and bought one. When I got home I fired up our old Compaq Presario to do some research on how to care for it. It was then that I discovered that bonsai was a technique, not a type of plant. Once I realized that ANY tree could be made into bonsai, I was fascinated. I kept the little juniper alive for a year until it turned brown over the course of a few weeks.

What followed was a scramble to find out anything I could about bonsai. I bought every book I could find. There were no clubs in my area so it was difficult to find practical knowledge this way. I experimented here and there but ultimately they all ended in failure.

A few years afterwards we took a trip to visit family in Montreal. My aunt took us to visit the Jardin Botanique and for the first time I saw real bonsai up close. As an added bonus, we also took a trip up to Bonsai Gros-Bec north of Montreal. I got to talk to the owners for a bit, and purchased my first bonsai tools. However, over the next decade or so, bonsai gradually fell to the wayside. There just weren't enough resources available. It was frustrating. Eventually I grew to accept that bonsai wasn't likely to be anything more than a curiosity to me. I focused on other things. For a while I wanted to be an animator (the only people more insane than bonsai professionals ).

Fast forward to 2018. I moved to my wife's hometown on the James Bay. It's an extremely remote town nestled in the taiga. On walks with my son I started noticing that even the small trees had tons of character from being crushed under snow for most of their lives. This piqued my interest again. I didn't want to regret not giving it a proper try, so I decided to see if I could find any good information online. Once I discovered Niel, Bjornholm, and Chan I was hooked again.

 

[HorseloverFat]

The earliest memory I have of something bonsai related were photos of a trip my mother and aunt took to Europe (unsure of the country). They had visited this exhibit of a miniature town (it might have been lego...). What stuck out to me however were the trees. All around the miniature village were small trees that were trimmed to emulate large forests. She called them bonsai trees. I was very young but the image stuck with me. Some time later (few years maybe?) my mother and I were at the mall and there was a little kiosk selling odds and ends. I noticed some pouches of seeds with pictures of tiny trees in pots. Again my mother said they were seeds for "bonsai trees".

I grew fond of trees as I got older and they were (still are) my favorite subject to draw.

When I was 14 my parents divorced and we moved to a new city. On a shopping trip we stopped at a White Rose garden center. I found a kiosk of small Junipers in plastic pots and bought one. When I got home I fired up our old Compaq Presario to do some research on how to care for it. It was then that I discovered that bonsai was a technique, not a type of plant. Once I realized that ANY tree could be made into bonsai, I was fascinated. I kept the little juniper alive for a year until it turned brown over the course of a few weeks.

What followed was a scramble to find out anything I could about bonsai. I bought every book I could find. There were no clubs in my area so it was difficult to find practical knowledge this way. I experimented here and there but ultimately they all ended in failure.

A few years afterwards we took a trip to visit family in Montreal. My aunt took us to visit the Jardin Botanique and for the first time I saw real bonsai up close. As an added bonus, we also took a trip up to Bonsai Gros-Bec north of Montreal. I got to talk to the owners for a bit, and purchased my first bonsai tools. However, over the next decade or so, bonsai gradually fell to the wayside. There just weren't enough resources available. It was frustrating. Eventually I grew to accept that bonsai wasn't likely to be anything more than a curiosity to me. I focused on other things. For a while I wanted to be an animator (the only people more insane than bonsai professionals ).

Fast forward to 2018. I moved to my wife's hometown on the James Bay. It's an extremely remote town nestled in the taiga. On walks with my son I started noticing that even the small trees had tons of character from being crushed under snow for most of their lives. This piqued my interest again. I didn't want to regret not giving it a proper try, so I decided to see if I could find any good information online. Once I discovered Niel, Bjornholm, and Chan I was hooked again.

AMAZING story..

I just chimed In to say, "F*CK the Hudson's Bay Company!" (At least at first, I have no clue how the company conducts business these days)

 

[Frozentreehugger]

The earliest memory I have of something bonsai related were photos of a trip my mother and aunt took to Europe (unsure of the country). They had visited this exhibit of a miniature town (it might have been lego...). What stuck out to me however were the trees. All around the miniature village were small trees that were trimmed to emulate large forests. She called them bonsai trees. I was very young but the image stuck with me. Some time later (few years maybe?) my mother and I were at the mall and there was a little kiosk selling odds and ends. I noticed some pouches of seeds with pictures of tiny trees in pots. Again my mother said they were seeds for "bonsai trees".

I grew fond of trees as I got older and they were (still are) my favorite subject to draw.

When I was 14 my parents divorced and we moved to a new city. On a shopping trip we stopped at a White Rose garden center. I found a kiosk of small Junipers in plastic pots and bought one. When I got home I fired up our old Compaq Presario to do some research on how to care for it. It was then that I discovered that bonsai was a technique, not a type of plant. Once I realized that ANY tree could be made into bonsai, I was fascinated. I kept the little juniper alive for a year until it turned brown over the course of a few weeks.

What followed was a scramble to find out anything I could about bonsai. I bought every book I could find. There were no clubs in my area so it was difficult to find practical knowledge this way. I experimented here and there but ultimately they all ended in failure.

A few years afterwards we took a trip to visit family in Montreal. My aunt took us to visit the Jardin Botanique and for the first time I saw real bonsai up close. As an added bonus, we also took a trip up to Bonsai Gros-Bec north of Montreal. I got to talk to the owners for a bit, and purchased my first bonsai tools. However, over the next decade or so, bonsai gradually fell to the wayside. There just weren't enough resources available. It was frustrating. Eventually I grew to accept that bonsai wasn't likely to be anything more than a curiosity to me. I focused on other things. For a while I wanted to be an animator (the only people more insane than bonsai professionals ).

Fast forward to 2018. I moved to my wife's hometown on the James Bay. It's an extremely remote town nestled in the taiga. On walks with my son I started noticing that even the small trees had tons of character from being crushed under snow for most of their lives. This piqued my interest again. I didn't want to regret not giving it a proper try, so I decided to see if I could find any good information online. Once I discovered Niel, Bjornholm, and Chan I was hooked again.

Cool story . If you look on YouTube . David Easterbrook has a channel . David was the long time curator of the bonsai exhibit. At the Montreal botanical . Would be clearer to say the force behind it king time teacher . And lecturer and student of bonsai . Along with .knowledge and a impressive collection of all the expected . Bonsai trees . David has a great collection and knowledge of . North eastern North America wild collected trees . I’m sure you will find his channel rewarding . David is a great teacher .

 

[R0b]

I was working for a big plant related Evilcorp™

Are we colleagues? I am working for the one that loved Putin’s cheap gas too much and have worked for a few others (one now Chinese and the one that bough the ultimate evil).

My first exposure to bonsai was in my childhood when through school we visited a local nursery and something stuck about trees in pots and pruning their leaves to make them smaller. Did try a few Cotoneasters in pots and a Jade that I had for 20 years but it froze (who cares succulents are not bonsai anyhow (yes a bit of a purist). But my attention went to what young people are passionate about: beer, Lego and orchids. Finished my degree in horticulture and started working in plant breeding. Through my work I interacted with Japanese colleagues and customers which gave me the opportunity to travel to Japan that I missed due to changing jobs.

Then I met my partner who was into bonsai although at a low level. I almost killed her best tree when we just started dating and she was travelling. Guild ridden I compensated with several bonsai related gifts. As I was still passionate about traveling to Japan and she was easily convinced we went to Japan for four weeks in 2019 and visited a couple of gardens and nurseries. Early 2020 offered us the Trophy in Belgium where I bought my first real tree (a purist would say it is not a bonsai) and Covid lockdowns.

So a couple of trees, hours with Björn, many more with Ryan and a two days with Walter I am fully into the Mrs., wine and bonsai (the woody ones).

Bonsai is Lego with trees!

 

[dbonsaiw]

I love to learn new things and to dive deep down the rabbit hole, so when my son introduced me to bonsai I was intrigued. How hard could it possibly be to grow a bonsai? Much harder than I ever thought, but I'm a stubborn mule and glutton for punishment so I'm here for the long haul. At almost 50 years old, I figured it was also time to train myself that some things simply cannot be accomplished quickly and require a long term game plan. No better training than bonsai for that.

Bonsai allows me to spend a lot of time outside. Now my little guy is into it as well and me and my two sons get to spend a great deal of time bonding over trees.

The added perk is that my neighbors are annoyed as they can't seem to tell the difference between maple trees and weed, so I get pain in the ass value by just doing my thing.

 

[Mike Corazzi]

I think I'm still starting.