Stages.....in wich are you now?

[Shogun610]

I actually GUESSED... THEN checked your age...

I just rolled through that same state, myself.. not sure if it’s REALLY a “Saturn’s Orbit thing”... but it’s DEFINITELY a “Human Thing”

Haha yeah , 30 in October … making big life changes soon like buying a home , regretting past financial practices, but did a lot of other stuff right too , especially picking up Bonsai and my dog when I was 24. I always get in more morbid moods during turn of the fall, which shows up in the music I listen to… a lot of metal and death metal lol.

 

[Cajunrider]

Haha yeah , 30 in October … making big life changes soon like buying a home , regretting past financial practices, but did a lot of other stuff right too , especially picking up Bonsai and my dog when I was 24. I always get in more morbid moods during turn of the fall, which shows up in the music I listen to… a lot of metal and death metal lol.

Now I feel very old. You are younger than my youngest child. You have so much time for bonsai ahead of you.

 

[Joe Dupre']

I basically started in the yamadori stage and never left. Oh, I'll pick up the odd nursery plant or take an air layer, but yamadori is it for me. Mine normally come from the roadsides or disturbed areas. I've gotten so many great yamadori that I've basically gone to only getting another tree of the same species if it's a totally different style or better than what I have. That's getting harder and harder to do. I still walk 50 miles a year on the roadsides looking for that "better" specimen.

 

[badatusernames]

I basically started in the yamadori stage and never left. Oh, I'll pick up the odd nursery plant or take an air layer, but yamadori is it for me. Mine normally come from the roadsides or disturbed areas. I've gotten so many great yamadori that I've basically gone to only getting another tree of the same species if it's a totally different style or better than what I have. That's getting harder and harder to do. I still walk 50 miles a year on the roadsides looking for that "better" specimen.

I have a hunch I'm going to play with it next year but it seems like an easy floodgate to open and end up with a lot of random stuff. But I have a lead on pitch and red pine from a friend who seems to indicate harvesting is acceptable (maybe even on his own land) and that seems like a great way to get solid material while putting some guardrails and direction on it.

 

[Joe Dupre']

I have a hunch I'm going to play with it next year but it seems like an easy floodgate to open and end up with a lot of random stuff. But I have a lead on pitch and red pine from a friend who seems to indicate harvesting is acceptable (maybe even on his own land) and that seems like a great way to get solid material while putting some guardrails and direction on it.

Almost anyone that lives up against a wooded area will have trees that have been hacked back at one time or another. Some great material can be found in such places.

 

[hinmo24t]

Haha yeah , 30 in October … making big life changes soon like buying a home , regretting past financial practices, but did a lot of other stuff right too , especially picking up Bonsai and my dog when I was 24. I always get in more morbid moods during turn of the fall, which shows up in the music I listen to… a lot of metal and death metal lol.

big underoath, killswitch engage, we came as romans, bring me the horizon, and punk/emo fan here

 

[Shogun610]

big underoath, killswitch engage, we came as romans, bring me the horizon, and punk/emo fan here

Nice, I go in phases through the year. I listen to a lot of Chillhop as a lot of the music is Japanese artists and they remind me of Bonsai ( Dokkodo Sounds,Elijah Nang , Nogymx & SamuW are my top) , Trance, Anything on Slam world wide official playlist it’s …grindcore & slam (Spotify), Harms Way, classic As Blood Runs Black , Slayer , Exodus, Suicidal Tendencies, Parkway Drive , Thy Art is Murder , 80’s Metallica, anything MF Doom and his aliases , Wutang .. to name a few

 

[hinmo24t]

Nice, I go in phases through the year. I listen to a lot of Chillhop as a lot of the music is Japanese artists and they remind me of Bonsai ( Elijah Nang , Nogymx & SamuW are my top) , Trance, Anything on Slam world wide official playlist it’s …grindcore & slam (Spotify), Harms Way, classic As Blood Runs Black , Slayer , Exodus, Suicidal Tendencies, Parkway Drive , Thy Art is Murder , 80’s Metallica, anything MF Doom and his aliases , Wutang .. to name a few

i used to like some rza gza, but its been a while. ive heard some parkway drive

 

[Mikecheck123]

Took me three seasons to get skilled at growing things. (Otherwise known as killing things and taking notes.)

At the start of this year, the fourth, I realized I had to start over on almost everything. So did a lot of hard chopping fugly stuff in the spring. And purging dead end species and other lost causes.

Now that I'm back in the saddle on the other coast, I'm again in acquisition mode. Choosy acquisition mode. Only stuff with potential.

 

[Wood]

A few in-between stages to add…
Online expert after a week of binging online videos.
Moments of understanding, while still trying to rationalize out of season work.
Went to first show and need to go home and burn everything.
...

I feel attacked

 

[berzerkules]

I basically started in the yamadori stage and never left. Oh, I'll pick up the odd nursery plant or take an air layer, but yamadori is it for me. Mine normally come from the roadsides or disturbed areas. I've gotten so many great yamadori that I've basically gone to only getting another tree of the same species if it's a totally different style or better than what I have. That's getting harder and harder to do. I still walk 50 miles a year on the roadsides looking for that "better" specimen.

I have a feeling I'll be the exact same way. I'm still very new to bonsai and in yamadori mode, I don't see that changing. I love just walking around looking for unique trees with potential that are collectable. I find that the hunt Is an enjoyable process and I don't get that experience when purchasing a plant. When I collect a tree I feel I have an obligation to do my best to ensure that trees survival and I get attached to collected trees. It was surviving in the wild and if I can't provide adequate care I shouldn't collect, this has prevented me from collecting many trees. I have collected some smaller unimpressive stuff just so I can learn the limits of the local trees I have to work with. I also don't have access to any quality nurseries in my area so generally the material I can pick up there is rather uninteresting. Collecting just feels like a natural progression of first learning to care for trees and then learning how to manipulate them.

 

[Wulfskaar]

Stage 1: Pfft! Billions of trees grow themselves every day. HOLD MY BEER!
Stage 2: My trees are dying! This is crazy. At least my beer is safe!
Stage 3 (current): I don't know jack squat other than knowing I don't know jack squat. At least I've kept some of my trees alive over the past year and I'm looking forward to spring! I could use another beer.
Stage 4 (future): I hope to have some bonsai trees a few years from now. Pictures of my trees next to my beer for scale.

 

[namnhi]

Been there, done that, but with time those sticks become the real thing. By 15 or 20 years in you look around and wow! there's lots of nice bonsai here.

Am at this stage. Did plant many seedling 15 or 16 years ago... all in pots. I did this because I was thinking of having a small side business to support the hobby but I hate to sell something that I have raised for 15 odd years for a couple hundred bucks. Am expecting more but I don't think I can get it so I end up with lots of trees. They ain't bad though.
Am at the stage of keep them growing until kids are old enough for me to practice true bonsai - styling.

 

[Joe Dupre']

A few in-between stages to add…

Went to first show and need to go home and burn everything.

s.

Take comfort in knowing that for most show trees, the weekend of the show has them looking their absolute best they've looked in 2-5 years.

 

[Carol 83]

Stage 1: Pfft! Billions of trees grow themselves every day. HOLD MY BEER!
Stage 2: My trees are dying! This is crazy. At least my beer is safe!
Stage 3 (current): I don't know jack squat other than knowing I don't know jack squat. At least I've kept some of my trees alive over the past year and I'm looking forward to spring! I could use another beer.
Stage 4 (future): I hope to have some bonsai trees a few years from now. Pictures of my trees next to my beer for scale.

I think we could be friends.

 

[badatusernames]

A few in-between stages to add…
Online expert after a week of binging online videos.
Moments of understanding, while still trying to rationalize out of season work.
Went to first show and need to go home and burn everything.
Rebuild.
Bored with everything now.
Want the big stuff with big price tags.
Want the tiny stuff with even bigger price tags.
Addicted to pottery, would rather have pots than trees.

I think I went through all of these stages last year

Finally at the point where I don't feel the need to chase every last thing and settling into focusing on what I do have, which is nice for my wallet as well as my trees haha

Still just as obsessed but material and pots don't feel quite as "this is the last chance you'll get for this".

We'll see how well that holds when I go to Nationals though... and I'm still a bit cutting crazy, but more for harder to find things like beautyberry. We need more beautyberries out there!

 

[Joe Dupre']

Always plant seeds. I've been in the hobby 8 years. A seed planted that first year could easily be a very nice specimen by now. Seeds grow while you have trees in other stages. Same goes for seedlings and "sticks in pots". For me, though, my weakness is finding gnarly, big trunks in disturbed areas. Pots? Meh. I'm a tree guy. I went to a first-year bonsai guy's house and he had probably 50 trees in varying stages , but mostly 1" or smaller trunks. I don't remember even looking at the pots other than the "too big" cedar boxes.

 

[badatusernames]

Always plant seeds. I've been in the hobby 8 years. A seed planted that first year could easily be a very nice specimen by now. Seeds grow while you have trees in other stages. Same goes for seedlings and "sticks in pots". For me, though, my weakness is finding gnarly, big trunks in disturbed areas. Pots? Meh. I'm a tree guy. I went to a first-year bonsai guy's house and he had probably 50 trees in varying stages , but mostly 1" or smaller trunks. I don't remember even looking at the pots other than the "too big" cedar boxes.

Kinda where I'm at. The stuff I started three years ago is showing progress, and I have enough older stuff to play with of ranges from ready to chop trunks to more developed material. Now that I've had practice here and there with a handful of seedlings and know more about what not to do, this year was more about properly setting up younger material for the future.

Noticing how quickly yard trees and shrubs grow, and how little I noticed that passage of time, made me realize the value of this. If I had planted an ume when I planted the sour cherry tree out front, I'd probably have already chopped it once, and the base of the (grafted) cherry tree is a beast - and I barely noticed the passage of time, because I wasn't itching to do something to it, it just was. Been wondering some of this cherry tree would be worth air layering, actually.

 

[Carol 83]

I might buy one tree this spring but it will be a nicer one. I need to concentrate on making the ones I have better. And no more cuttings except some azaleas. I will give away the other cuttings I have, there is only so much room in the inn.

 

[BonjourBonsai]

This is the way

https://preview.redd.it/fjkredhpe6x71.jpg?width=2546&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=254db9dc400b9db18055122044ae8861ca5514d7