The reason

[AaronVh]

The question is quite simple: what is the reason you started with bonsai in the first place?

For me it was my interest in the Japanese culture. Watching anime and Japanse movies sparked my interest in the Japanese culture. One thing let to another and I started watching YouTube videos from Bjorn Bjorholm and Peter Chan. Shortly after that I bought my very first three and got hooked ever since.

I looked for a similar thread, but found none. If a similar one exists, please tell and I will continue in that thread.

 

[just.wing.it]

Just another artistic outlet.....good clean fun.
Fell in love after seeing world class azalea bonsai from Japan online.....I remember wondering if they were even real ......they are.

 

[HorseloverFat]

I had cared for houseplants AND did outdoor “container gardening” for years...
Then I started getting quite ill...I knew the cause(s), and they needed “taking care of. So, after an agonizing, tumultuous battle I emerged, clean/dry.... only to CONTINUE getting more and more sick (third trimester-esque belly, scrawny everywhere else, and yellow as a sponge ( )... fast forward some months later and I am finally checking out of the Froedert transplant center (no transplant.. just WHERE i was taken... for the specialists).. to find a China Rose (Hibiscus Rosa-sinensis) gifted to me by my children’s mother as a “welcome home, glad you didn’t die”-type of thing....

...It was THREE individual trees braided.. so I ran a basic search on unbraiding trees.... and...

Snared!

 

[Paradox]

I saw the Karate Kid when I was a teen and got interested that way.
My older sister bought me a nicer mallsai a year or two later I had no idea how to take care of it and it died.

Fast forward 25 or so years and I have my own house and some books and the internet to learn from and I found a little mallsai juniper in a grocery store, felt bad for it and bought it. Almost killed it but managed to save it. Still have it and too many other trees lol.

 

[BonsaiDTLA]

Small living trees in containers that look like old majestic trees -- appealed to me since I was young. But didn't start until much later when I had the room and the means necessary for my interests.

 

[0soyoung]

I was in my yard, looking at bunnies.
Suddenly a wild hare [sic] flew up my ass.

Next thing I know, I'm gonna try to make bonsai!

 

[HorseloverFat]

I was in my yard, looking at bunnies.
Suddenly a wild hare [sic] flew up my ass.

Next thing I know, I'm gonna try to make bonsai!

I thought that was just an “Old Wive’s Tale”

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

Got bored with houseplants.

 

[JoeR]

Parents bought me a red venus flytrap for my 10th(?) Birthday. Only watched nature documentaries growing up, marine life was the first obsession. Then when I was 13 or so my brother bought me a juniper and calamondin orange. Been growing since then, 7 years almost 8, and has now become an artistic outlet and brings me endless joy and has a calming, grounding effect to it.

 

[Carol 83]

My interest in bonsai goes back to high school, when I bought a cheap little juniper and promptly killed it. Then life got in the way. College, marriage, kids and all that goes with those things. I finally have the time to indulge in something just for me.

 

[casun]

I’ve always loved gardening/horticulture and art and I hope to have lots of free time in a few years.

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

A guy living a block away always had bonsai on display in his window sill. As an 8 year old kid I was cheeky enough to ask if I could have one. I got one and I killed it.
I never had the guts to tell him.
But I got real good at keeping plants alive.
Started growing weed, breeding fruit, collecting rare plants, figured it wasn't that challenging.. Then I found pictures of bonsai and figured why the hell not.
In 10 years I'll be doing bonsai.
For now it's trees in tiny pots.

 

[Cadillactaste]

Mine stemmed from...lack of space. I laugh now as I have two grow benches in a space I felt I couldn't keep another house plant tropical tree. Bougainvillea...pulled me into the hobby. Now 7 1/2 years later...and 30 trees in. Thinking about your question. I am amused. Most winter in a cold greenhouse for winter, dormant.

Bougainvillea is a reminder...our work in Honduras as missionaries isn't done. A huge Bougainvillea tree grew at the guest house. I was drawn to the colorful bracts. I wanted one for a reminder of the roots we started there. Building a facility to allow medical teams to come into a very remote area known as the frontier.

 

[penumbra]

I just plain love plants. No one else in my family had any interest except in Christmas trees. I planted radish seeds when I was 8. Transplanted trees from woods when 10. Worked at a nursery when I was 13.
It never ends. Don't remember when I first saw a bonsai but I started bonsai when I was about 23 -24.

 

[Lumaca]

I tried growing a gifted bonsai kit (japanese black pine) and failed. Two germinated but died shortly after.

If they hadn't died, I'd probably just have that little pot, but their death started the research that led me here. Saw that people were growing JBP successfully in tropical climates, so there's no reason I couldn't.

 

[Cable]

Karate Kid in the eighties.

 

[BobbyLane]

started from houseplants and balcony plants.

 

[Starfox]

I realised I couldn't realistically plant all or really any of the types of trees I wanted to when we brought the house because there really wasn't the space to have huge trees. Then I happened upon a pic in google images of one as a bonsai and that started the journey for me.
Lots of small trees in pots is certainly a better option that foundation cracking roots.

 

[AZbonsai]

I ran our schools garden club and liked to introduce kids to different ways of gardening. Bonsai was one form of gardening, of many, we practiced. It stuck with me (and a couple of my students). Sure glad I picked it up!

 

[HorseloverFat]

Parents bought me a red venus flytrap for my 10th(?) Birthday. Only watched nature documentaries growing up, marine life was the first obsession. Then when I was 13 or so my brother bought me a juniper and calamondin orange. Been growing since then, 7 years almost 8, and has now become an artistic outlet and brings me endless joy and has a calming, grounding effect to it.

Hang on a minute.. (About the numbers) so that would mean...