AusBonsai

As I've been into bonsai for less than a year & a half, my bonsai trees haven't progressed a great deal. But my shelves, ah that's a different story! So I thought I'd do a short shelf progression series. From humble but proud beginnings to the latest functional set of shelves finished today.
After looking at the final result today I've come to the conclusion that I'll have to stop acquiring bonsai for a while or move into a house with a larger garden. My better half would prefer the latter
Cheers and good luck to anyone with the same dilema.
Frank.

I definitely have the same problem, with not enough room. I suspect there's a graph somewhere that shows how the newbie starts off with one or two plants, then acquires a few more after reading about different species, then goes to a bonsai exhibition and finds a stack of 'bargains....."

Before you know it, there are so many trees to look after, you wonder what on earth happened!

From here, I'm hoping my graph starts going down again, so that I clear out the too small plants I bought, that'll probably never grow large enough to do anything with in my lifetime, and I keep only those that are suited to my climate, and will reward me with good growth and behaviour patterns...

I'll still hanker after those autumn colours though.....

melbrackstone wrote:I definitely have the same problem, with not enough room. I suspect there's a graph somewhere that shows how the newbie starts off with one or two plants, then acquires a few more after reading about different species, then goes to a bonsai exhibition and finds a stack of 'bargains....."

Before you know it, there are so many trees to look after, you wonder what on earth happened!

From here, I'm hoping my graph starts going down again, so that I clear out the too small plants I bought, that'll probably never grow large enough to do anything with in my lifetime, and I keep only those that are suited to my climate, and will reward me with good growth and behaviour patterns...

I'll still hanker after those autumn colours though.....

I followed the same path - acquired trees from everywhere in the early years. Some died (white pine in northern NSW? ), then over the years as some trees and species started developing nicely, I started to jettison stuff I knew would never amount to anything so I could focus my time and attention on the good stuff - gave some away, even threw some in the bin.
What hit me this year is that 30+ years on, not one of my current collection originated from nursery stock. My current collection and trees in development were all grown from seed, cutting or tube stock, or collected.

Mel, I live not far from you, and have found tridents still give me good colour. Over the years I have grown hundreds of seedlings (mainly for grafting purposes), and about 5 years ago I stumbled across a strain that germinated in a batch of seedlings that loves the weather up here - it flourishes like a tropical in spring/summer and gives good colour in autumn.

Nothing different about my journey either. I started quite young 5 years ago. I started of with 2 trees and in 5 years have almost 100 trees. Most purchased or acquired free from gumtree. I've figured I prefer figs more than others mainly banyan style so am always chasing figs with aerial roots. I do have a few natives, maples and crepe myrtles. Still finding it difficult to let go but am at a stage where I need to cull harshly. My bonsai group members are almost twice my age but I feel so connected to them through our mutual interest in bonsai .

@wrcmad I also have trees I started 30 years ago, also only from seeds, cuttings and tube stock. They survived 25 years of my giving them nothing but the occasional watering... figs, umbrella trees and one qld bottle tree. Plenty of other plants went into the garden to grow on, but kids and other commitments got in the way. It's only now I'm starting to dig them up and work on them...but meanwhile I have hundreds of seedlings, cuttings and other plants that I really won't ever see come to anything!

Thanks for the info on the tridents, that gives me hope I might see some Autumn colour one day.

Sorry for highjacking your thread Frank... hope we don't turn you off acquiring more plants! My only suggestion would be look for well grown proper bonsai stock, or grow from seed, cutting or tube stock!

Thanks for your contributions fellow bonsai tragics.. errr enthusiasts. I'm pleased to know I do not stand alone. I've lately taken more to collecting seeds and digging seedlings that have popped up in all sorts of places rather than buying nursery stock. The nursery stock I buy are usually the half-dead ones from the "specials" table that I try to coax back to life with quite a good success rate. But I think I'll take the advice offered here and start to be more selective and choose those that will do well here. But when I saw the Canadian white spruce out for $5 I just couldn't resist. (But in Queensland?? )
Cheers, Frank.

I love that every bonsai hobbyists has a very similar journey, feel like mine is the same as well


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