Strategic approach to bonsai development

[dbonsaiw]

Excellent idea for a thread.

It took me 3 years of total immersion with one species to finally look at a tree, find my vision for a finished tree, have a solid plan on how to do your 1,2,3,4, and 5, and last but not least know how to pivot if the tree tells me it doesn’t like my plan.

This. Of the many dozens of trees I’ve acquired and worked with, only a handful are moving in a direction to my liking. Hard way to learn, but I try to view these initial years as a learning experience (and also to just enjoy the process of being with the trees). I’ve made the same mistakes so many times. For me, this time was needed to learn things hands on and then try to re-review the advice on bnut and go back to the “beginner” videos to see if I’m really doing things correctly.

Compared to the number of trunks built node by node there’s a big discrepancy.

I would like to adopt more of a cut and grow approach in development. It took me many years, but I find that trunk chops on larger nursery stock and blindly growing trunks for girth is not giving me what I want.

 

[Gabler]

It took me 3 years of total immersion with one species to finally look at a tree, find my vision for a finished tree, have a solid plan on how to do your 1,2,3,4, and 5, and last but not least know how to pivot if the tree tells me it doesn’t like my plan.

I sure hope I learn other species faster.

There's definitely wisdom in your approach. I have an impulse to collect 'em all like Pokemon, but I'm trying to focus my efforts on a small handful of species, and that's definitely helping me to keep track of all the information available for each species.

Do you know what your next species of interest will be?

 

[Desert O'Piñon]

It is often the best case to keep one part of the tree as "refined" while letting another part of the tree grow free with sacrifice growth. Once again, you can graft on branches if necessary, but many times it is not.

This is one of the more advanced aspects of bonsai and is exciting for me. But skipping ahead to this step puts me so far ahead of what I'm ready for that I would end up (or my tree) three steps back. Aside from finding the right soil balance for my climate and ability to water, tempering my patience is the hardest part of bonsai for me. I know I can learn every step. But I also know I can't learn every step at once.