Your Hardest Kill

[HorseloverFat]

@LanceMac10 is responding DIRECTLY to the thread..

Saying, “Most of them are ‘hard’”



Acer Ginnala... lived indoors first winter.. Yup.
After some “post-mortem” investigation.. I ACTUALLY killed it during my first repot.. by leaving clay-soil in “the heart” and surrounding with aggregate.. Root-Rottus Incognetus.

 

[LanceMac10]

...probably some more somewhere....but look how upset I've become....

 

[leatherback]

View attachment 350877 View attachment 350878 View attachment 350884 View attachment 350885 View attachment 350891...probably some more somewhere....but look how upset I've become....

You killed that kid too!???

 

[LanceMac10]

....just his dreams....

 

[Carol 83]

View attachment 350865 View attachment 350867 View attachment 350869 View attachment 350870 View attachment 350871 View attachment 350872 View attachment 350873 View attachment 350874 View attachment 350875 View attachment 350876

The Wisteria is gone?

 

[jeremy_norbury]

It's hard to know where to start sometimes...

DSC03278 by Jerry Norbury, on Flickr

07087969 by Jerry Norbury, on Flickr

DSC08648 by Jerry Norbury, on Flickr

This - not because I liked it but because I had managed to keep it alive for 30 years prior to this...
Japanese larch by Jerry Norbury, on Flickr

DSC00563 by Jerry Norbury, on Flickr

All of these - everything in the photo even in the background
DSC01604 by Jerry Norbury, on Flickr

DSC08064 by Jerry Norbury, on Flickr

DSC05033 by Jerry Norbury, on Flickr

I can't type through the tears...

Not true - I have hundreds of better bonsai now.

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

Woah @LanceMac10, you been at it HARD!

 

[LanceMac10]

Some are my colleague's...but we worked together on a lot...sooooo.....2017 he re-potted WAY too early and killed his best material. Nearly begged him not to do it, but he is more experienced than me.....

Most deaths for me were early efforts....Cork-bark pine, JWP were $500 or so, losing those sucked, two Chinese Quince that I wish I had back...meh...

Been a bit since I've lost anything, 3-4 years....but haven't really bought anything either.

Woah @LanceMac10, you been at it HARD!

Things have gotten better. A lot of thanks for your helpful threads laying out the skills you've acquired.

.....ummm...maybe I'm not the "best" spokesman for you....heheheee.....

 

[LanceMac10]

The Wisteria is gone?

Yeah, that was a bad day! Pulled it up and the trunk came up sans roots. Too early with the re-pot. Temps below freezing about 4-5 days later for an extended period froze the tender rootball...adios!!

Shame, too. I remember him buying it at a BonsaiWest open house for $125-175 or so. Might have even gotten 20% w/sale. Pricey, near a decade ago. It was white, maybe a little less commonplace. Michael was miffed as it was mis-priced and scurried off to stash the rest. It flowered that spring and we tried hard for the next 3 or so years to get it to flower again. Finally figured it out and then promptly killed it!!

Think I have one from the same batch that I've "killed" twice, so I'll see if we can do it again.

Needless to say, brother Johnny "bonsai's" a lot less these last few years...

 

[Underdog]

Dang... the thread I avoided may in fact be my healing thread.
I looked for my Azalea beast pics to find I deleted all evidence. Good thing but...
https://www.bonsainut.com/threads/azalea-beast.30182/ please no comments.... let it also die a slow death...

 

[leatherback]

A 175E lesson in patience..

 

[Nybonsai12]

Killed a lot of crap trees. This is probably the nicest of what I’ve killed. My first JBP, lol.

 

[Carol 83]

Killed a lot of crap trees.

Me too.

 

[ShadyStump]

I do appreciate everyone sharing. In my mind this is sort of the funerary thread. (Maybe I could have named this better?) After all, funerals aren't for the dead, they're for the living.

In the past my wife has made the whole family dress up and attend funerals for people we didn't personally know just because we have kids, and, "there should ALWAYS be a baby at every funeral," she said.

That, and it's good to know that it ain't so easy for anyone else either so we don't give up too soon.

 

[clem]

A nice "zig zag" scott pine from the wild. :/
i lost it because i tried to do some holes in the soil, in order to increase the draining. Doing that, as the tree wasn't very well attached in the pot (only 2 shrouds while 3 or 4 are needed) the rootball was weakenad, and the roots moved in the rootball. The tree was also weak.

 

[Shima]

For starters. Satsuki from rain forest extremes and shohin pyracantha from borers.

 

[sorce]

It's hard to know where to start sometimes...

On the right sir. Surely on the right!

Couple of really great people coming back around, and I'm glad you're one of them!

Sorce

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

Here are another few that were tough to lose.

Japanese Red Pine (which I am currently in the process of “replicating”) from 2009:


Collected pyracantha from a family home in Pass Christian MS. Won best in show at our local club a few years before it declined and died.


Sold to me as a Japanese Red Pine, from Lone Pine Gardens in Sebastopol CA (think it was a worker selling their culls) back in 2005 or 2006. I think it was actually a pumillo mugo. It died almost immediately upon receipt with almost no root ball. The replacement died almost as fast. Never bought from that guy again.

That tree hiding behind it in the green round pot is my Chinese Quince. Man, has that thing changed In 15 years.

 

[chicago1980]

Imported Japanese White pine. $2000 from Brussels in 2010.
View attachment 350791
Collected Rocky mountain Juniper I found and dug in South Dakota.
View attachment 350792
Imported yamadori tosho.
View attachment 350793

These have all passed on?

 

[JohnS]

My most difficult loss was a Chinese elm that was started from a seedling, dug from a sidewalk crack around 1977. It lasted over 35 years through many beginner mistakes and a move from Michigan to Tennessee.