What tree have you kept for the longest amount of time ?

[badatusernames]

As an adult and paying more attention, my first five years ago is still alive, a willow leaf, but it’s recovering from being chopped in half due to wire scarring, a poor chop, etc. Should make a nice triple trunk mame tho.

long enough that I’ve noticed how much it has changed, how the bark improves, and to see it as a living thing. I still chopped it. With 18/6 lights and heat pads it seems this is possible if not ideal. The root cuttings I took hung on awhile but are drying out, so I’d say that’s a step too far.




the ones I kill I TYPICALLY well know why when I’m doing the thing that kills it, and am willing to take the risk. I figure if it’s strong like Ox I’ll get a head start, if not, I’ve still learned something.

 

[KiwiPlantGuy]

Myoporum or something?

Hi,
No, Metrosideros umbellata (a variegated cultivar) or Southern Rata
Charles

 

[leatherback]

The tree I started bonsai with, give or take, in 2010/2011 ish

 

[fredman]

Hi,
No, Metrosideros umbellata (a variegated cultivar) or Southern Rata
Charles

I have a young one (about 20yrs old) in my back yard...not the variegated. Saw some monsters down the west coast recently....beautiful..especially when in full flower.

 

[just.wing.it]

The tree I started bonsai with, give or take, in 2010/2011 ishView attachment 418798

It looks really cool!
How about a "before" picture?

 

[Shibui]

The trees I have had the longest are definitely not the first, many died before I managed to learn enough to keep a few alive.
They do go quite a way back to pre digital age so no early photos available and exact years have been lost in the mists of time so I can only give best guesses on years.

Deodar cedar. From a pencil thick seedling given to me by one of my early mentors sometime in mid 1980s

Crabapple. The same mentor showed me how to graft crabs. She grafted flowering spurs onto seedlings then sold them when they flowered in spring.

Wisteria from a small seedling acquired mid 80s This one took 20 years to produce its first flowers.

European hawthorn. My first collected tree to survive. Mid 80s again.

JBP purchased as a 1 or 2 year old seedling mid 80s

Trident group assembled at a workshop with Tom Yamamoto. I could find the date for this one in old club newsletters but sifting back through would take some time. mid - later 80s?

 

[badatusernames]

I almost forgot, this is also my first tree haha

I know it should be in a grow pot but I figure it’s doing just fine for now. Nice to have some color in winter.

 

[Hartinez]

2018

2021

Close second on this tree. Acquired in spring 2015 or so? Don’t have any early pics or a current. This is from this summer. It’s at my dads sunroom now and last I checked it’s VERY healthy. These ficus are so easy to care for so it’s no wander I’ve had it for so long.

 

[Eckhoffw]

I almost forgot, this is also my first tree haha

I know it should be in a grow pot but I figure it’s doing just fine for now. Nice to have some color in winter.

View attachment 419110

Cute. I like that pot too!

 

[Eckhoffw]

Not really a tree.. but I have had this Jade for over ten yrs. For the last few yrs I’ve been messing with it.
Here’s what it was 3 yrs ago
Currently.

 

[Wilson]

One of my first trees purchased for bonsai, a colorado blue spruce. Purchased in 2013

 

[Cmd5235]

Believe it or not- Serissa. I started with one Serissa back in 2003 from a garden center here in Southeastern PA called “Waterloo Gardens”. I had books on bonsai as a child and my mom let me get one tree. How I managed to keep it alive, I don’t know. Now, all of my Serissa are from cuttings of that original tree.
(Don’t mind the Brazilian rain tree and pomegranates in this photo)

 

[PaulH]

Interior Live Oak, Quercus wislizenii, I collected on my property around 1988. Just defoliated and repotted.

 

[amcoffeegirl]

About 10 years. It has hung on through my learning process.
I still have it and it is doing well over winter so far.
In an Iker’s pot.

 

[William N. Valavanis]

So what, you must be close to 60 yrs old then?

70

 

[Crazy Diamond]

70

I love your blog mister Valavanis!

 

[Marco B]

This Elm is one if my first ones: since 1995!

 

[ShadyStump]

2018
View attachment 419115
2021

DUDE.
I have this EXACT pot, with a ficus in it on my desk in front of me right now.

Well, almost the exact pot, but still, thought it was funny.
August 2021, and not dead yet. A tree or two at the house I've had slightly longer, but they're just waiting without even a thought of a plan yet, so they don't count.

 

[roberthu]

JBP of 10 or 11 years. Can't remember exactly which year I bought them.

 

[defra]

2016 i started my bonsai adventure so not a decade...
this is one of the first plant i bought a juniperus.

2016 after its first styling :


2020 after seccond styling: