What We Learned About Bonsai Since John Naka

[amcoffeegirl]

I'm sorry!

">----(^_^)----<"

I totally misinterpreted that...

I thought you were making a joke to cheer up Al!

Sorce

It's ok
I know it's your nature- and what I love about you.
It's not boobs!
It's a hug.
This is boobs
( . ) Y ( . )

 

[Andrew Legg]

This is boobs
( . ) Y ( . )

Girl.......you look like a fun kinda person. You keep a catapult between ya pups!

 

[amcoffeegirl]

I just ruined a perfectly good thread

 

[Smoke]

So far I let my wife read the whole thing, I let her start with the part when Adair tells me he will see me next month at Boon's. She reads all that then scrolls to the beginning and reads ALL of the thread and tells me I'm an ass hole!

So on her behalf, I must apologise to anyone I have offended in this thread. I mean that, no bull shit. but... in the spirit of Smoke, my wife and her BFF shopping at Walmart. Yes that's really her tongue!

She also says that she is going to do everything she can to go to the exhibit at Boons just so she can hear Adair's dreamy southern accent. Oh puke!

 

[Smoke]

I just ruined a perfectly good thread

I don't think so, your part made my wife cry. That was a good thing. Thank you

 

[michaelj]

Having a wife to hit the reset button for you once in a while is a great blessing.

 

[amcoffeegirl]

Well she made me cry too.
You guys are so cute!

 

[fredman]

Smoke you're confusing me...first I liked you.. then I didn't...now I'm starting to like you again. Hope it lasts this time....
Takes a real man to apologise, even when sometimes we don't exactly know why we do...
Its something like crying...heals the soul...
Anyway good onya !!!

 

[Anthony]

Toldya he was a big sofftee -
Good Day
Antonio

 

[sorce]

I just ruined a perfectly good thread

Now that's funny!

tells me I'm an ass hole!

Your wife knows what we all have learned since Naka! (phone changed to Napa, ok phone close!)

All this was good Smoke....don't get soft!

Hope it lasts

It will......we are defined by the small things....like this Smoke. This big hearted, sexy thong ass Smoke....
The real Character definers.....
That should help people read the "asshole" posts differently. Like the not-so-asshole posts they are!

Sorce

 

[Adair M]

So far I let my wife read the whole thing, I let her start with the part when Adair tells me he will see me next month at Boon's. She reads all that then scrolls to the beginning and reads ALL of the thread and tells me I'm an ass hole!

So on her behalf, I must apologise to anyone I have offended in this thread. I mean that, no bull shit. but... in the spirit of Smoke, my wife and her BFF shopping at Walmart. Yes that's really her tongue!

She also says that she is going to do everything she can to go to the exhibit at Boons just so she can hear Adair's dreamy southern accent. Oh puke!

View attachment 89836

Lol!

That's the first time that anyone has said anything about me is "dreamy"!

Smoke, you don't deserve her! (just kidding of course!)

 

[Andrew Legg]

Don't worry Smoke. Everyone is an asshole from time to time. That's the problem with forums. You can only read, and if someone is not a good writer, there is plenty of scope for misinterpretation. Shit happens. Onwards and upwards I say.

 

[JoeR]

I didn't say I did crappy bonsai before Boon. I did pretty good bonsai. At least relative to what we have around here. The bonsai in California are much better than what we have here. We're way behind you there.

But, I couldn't get over the hump of getting my trees to look as refined as those I had seen in the Japanese magazines. How to refine. How to "cut back" rather than "pinch". How to properly use needle pulling. How to position pine buds using wire.

In fact, I didn't know what I didn't know. Working with Boon has let me learn things I didn't have a clue about before.

Maybe you know it all. I know I don't. I am willing to listen and learn from those who are better at bonsai than myself. And there are plenty! Doesn't matter where they learned it.

Yes, Al, I guess from the outside, my "Toyota" looks pretty much like anyone else's "Toyota". It's what inside that counts.

Same thing here. I dont care how I do it or who I learn it from, I just want those amazing very very refined twiggy masterpiece trees you see in the magazines.

 

[Dav4]

Adair, you know you are SO dreamy!!

Al, screw the spots on the liver! Positive thoughts!! Here's to you laughing and crying together with your wife for years to come. We're all pulling for you both.

 

[ghues]

Al, we can all appreciate that news like that would put any of us in a funk.........however many of us who have been on here for a while DO understand the knowledge you have at growing little trees and appreciate your diligence in calling BS..........however Andrew was only trying to share with us all something he found of interest and we can take it or leave it.
I for one, can see your basic points but I do believe that even some of the basics have changed over time..... yes the mechanics might be the same but the tools and basic knowledge has transformed themselves through continual improvement. We cant grow Cali Juni's up here, as you cant grow Mtn Hemi's (successfully) down there and I can assure you that my soils are much different than those that are used for Juni;s .....based on my knowledge of Mtn Hemlock requirements

This is the time to be grateful for all we have for many have so little.

I send my sincerest regards to your wife and wish her the very best......stay strong
from the great white north.
Graham

 

[coh]

The info about Naka doing different things with his own trees than he put in his books was interesting. I guess he probably figured most weren't ready to make the jump to aggregate soils, akadama? Plus most likely akadama wasn't widely available.

It's been a while since I read through his books, maybe time to borrow them from the club library again.

 

[Vance Wood]

I think a lot of people forget: This stuff just didn't jump fully formed from someone's mind. Naka most certainly had a learning curve. He may have had a skill/knowledge level far above us mere mortals but, he did not know everything, else why would he have changed some things that he did? How did he learn what he learned and from whom? Or;----did he learn as I have had to; by the lessons the material teaches you and the circumstances and the time spent doing this stuff. I understand at one point he went to Japan but I don't know what that entailed or if it actually happened. I have the two books, they're OK but not masterpieces. probably the most significant book IMHO was Yoshimuras book.

 

[coh]

Right, learning is (or should be) a continuous process. People seem to use Naka's books as a reference point of sorts (at least, Hagedorn did in his video), a marker for where bonsai knowledge was at a particular time. Obviously the actual level of knowledge varied among different areas and practitioners, just as it varies today. I think the comments Hagedorn made were probably reasonable for many people in the U.S., but not all.

 

[Djtommy]

I dont really understand the negative vibe towards people who studied in japan..
Perhaps they could learn the same in us but if you want to be a pro thereis a timelimit and no doubt you can work on a lot more trees in japan learning much faster.
Its probably getting less and less necesarry as opurtunitys in us itself seems to be on the rise, also thanx to the people who studied in japan,

 

[Adair M]

I think a lot of people forget: This stuff just didn't jump fully formed from someone's mind. Naka most certainly had a learning curve. He may have had a skill/knowledge level far above us mere mortals but, he did not know everything, else why would he have changed some things that he did? How did he learn what he learned and from whom? Or;----did he learn as I have had to; by the lessons the material teaches you and the circumstances and the time spent doing this stuff. I understand at one point he went to Japan but I don't know what that entailed or if it actually happened. I have the two books, they're OK but not masterpieces. probably the most significant book IMHO was Yoshimuras book.

Naka was a Japanese gardener before he got into bonsai. So, a lot of his horticultural background came from gardening. So did some of his views towards pruning.