So Whats Your Bonsai Story?

[PerryB]

In architecture school in the early 70's, my college roommate did a project on Japanese residential architecture and focused on tokonamo and bonsai displays. After college, I started exploring the culinary arts and herbal medicine and was soon growing all things vegetable and herbal...but not trees.

In 1984, I needed to get sober but since I rejected the religion I grew up with, I needed to find a different spiritual path. I had read a lot about Shinto and Taoist practices and decided that bonsai would teach me patience. Boy Howdy was that right!

There was a little nursery in town owned by an Asian man that had pots, starter trees, soil, wire, sifting screens, and few paperback books. I bought a pomegranate nana, but never took any classes so that was the first of many pomegranates. From another nursery I bought a great miniature rhododendron that lasted a few years. And I dug up a bunch of trees.

When I met my husband in Washington_dc and moved into his condo, I parked the 8 or 10 trees with a friend in New Jersey who managed to keep them alive in his backyard for a few years until we moved to the suburbs.
All along, I have added a few trees, lost a few, but with a busy career and little spare time or cash, I never joined a club or took a class.

I now have about 25 trees, but truthfully most are just "sticks in pots". I retired last year and have more time (and money); so I joined our Northern Virginia Bonsai Club and will maybe, finally, get a real bonsai!

This website has been an eye-opener.

 

[NaoTK]

I guess it's in my blood! My grandfather was Tokutake Kazunari and his hobby was bonsai. He was actually a lumberjack of sorts so he would collect trees from the mountains around Nagano


This is me on the left in 1991 maybe. Around this time he started teaching me about plants and bonsai and I would drive around the mountains with him in that white Nissan Sunny collecting plants. I watered his trees in the summer.


He died in 2018 but kept doing bonsai until he was 88 and I guess I need to continue the legacy. His trees are being cared for at a monastery in Nagano. My daughter doesn't have a choice she will need to learn bonsai soon!

 

[JackHammer]

I had a red maple seedling when i was a kid. I liked it but it dried out on a hot day. When I got my first apartment, I was given a fukien tea. I kept it alive for 11 years and killed it during a february repot(I know better now). I later found out they were hard to take care of and that gave me some confidence.
Now I have a lot of tropicals and sticks in pots. I do pretty well with the figs and BRTs. I still manage to kill every juniper I touch. I have around 60 sticks in pots at the moment.

 

[ZombieNick]

I took some time off between jobs starting at the end of 2018 through 2019. During this time, I had moved into a new place and bought a few houseplants for decoration. A few turned into a lot, and in the spring of 2019 I started to branch out to other plants - I started a little garden and began growing cannabis. I had planned to return to work at the end of the summer, and had the bright idea that I should get a bonsai for my desk. I quickly found out that wasn't a thing, but I was hooked and started immersing myself in bonsai things - I found this site, a number of channels on YouTube, and subscribed to Mirai. Covid hit, but luckily for me I already had a new hobby, so I didn't have to learn to bake bread.

I twisted and killed a bunch of nursery trees and stumbled around on the internet, until I found a local club in 2021, when they started meeting again after Covid. A few months later, a member here introduced me to the Chino club when they posted about the club's annual show. I was blown away by the quality of the trees in the show which lead me to joining the club in 2022. I began taking classes with the club's sensei around the same time, which brings us to today, in 2023, where I am still learning but now with a lot more guidance.

 

[JPH]

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)

I'd have to agree haha. I used to work at a Zellers back when that was a thing. Not a lot of love for HBC or the Northwest Company up here.

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 .

I should have mentioned him, he was also instrumental in my personal bonsai "renaissance". He gets many (most?) of his collected Larix from up around where I live, and I can see why. Even the stuff at the side of the highway is pretty. I can honestly say that I feel lucky to live in an area with such an abundance good, freely available material. It may cost more for me to have soils and tools shipped to me, but the cost is offset by the fact that I don't have to pay for yamadori. I just have to improve my collection/recovery techniques. I'm currently sitting at a dismal 33% success rate. But armed with better knowledge and experience (and pumice!) I'm hoping for more success this season.

Come to think of it, David Crust as well. Though Crust isn't necessarily active on the web, I've tracked down old forum posts and interviews which helped shed light on many things for me. His larches are inspiring. He works most of them in the winter which was HUGE for me. Winter takes up about 7-8 months of the year where I live, so being able to work on trees during this time keeps the tree withdrawals at bay.

 

[KateM]

I first got interested in bonsai when I was about 11 years old growing up in Ukraine, Ukrainian republic of former USSR at the time. I am no match to Tatyana though…

I read a magazine article about bonsai and wanted to try. My Dad fully supported me. We went to the woods, found some small interesting trees and he built some wood boxes to keep them on the 7th floor balcony. Well, it did not end well for the trees… It was hard to keep watered that high up off the ground on the southern side of the building in Summer… and summer camp… and vacation...

Moving on to now…Spending second and just a bit longer than fist half of my life in USA, being married to a plant lover who delved in bonsai a little bit when he was younger, the interest that was always there started to come to fruition somewhat.

At this point of my life, I think I have everything that will allow me to try and succeed – certain mindset and patience, house, yard, woods, grown up son, supportive husband, not hurting for money… still have to work though.

Dear husband had some bonsai when he was in high school. They were left behind at his Mom’s house when he went off on his own and ended up put in as landscape trees. But he kept the pots and they are very nice, too. He jumped in with encouragement. Bought me more pots! Naturally, I do not have anything to put in them, but all in good time… He’s got opinions though – the nerve!

My Son’s neighbor is doing bonsai and lets us look at his trees. My Son is expressing interest, too.

Fertile environment, I’d say.

So, I am just starting up. Have a few collected last year trees, can’t wait to see how they’ll do in the Spring. Scouting woods for more possible collection prospects. Looking at the tropicals we had for years (we are the crazy plant people) thinking why did not I think of bonsai’ing them before. Starting seeds.

Oh, and searching Goodwill and thrift shops for containers and drilling holes in them.