Do you "name"your bonsai??

[bonsaiboy50]

Was just wondering if anyone else name there Bonsai. The fig in the pic has been recently defoliated and is called Father , why?? well it was found by my late father when we were out on a collecting trip. He was not into Bonsai but was glad to take me out into the bush to collect figs. The tree is 25'' high overall and 29'' wide overall and has been trained for about 25 years (on and off).
I have other trees called Fallen Giant and The Ghost.
Hope you will reply with some weird and wonderfull names you have for your trees
Cheers Bonsaiboy50

[Bougy Fan]

Not really - but I do have trees I have bought that I refer to as being the previous owners - for example I have a "James's Fig"

[kcpoole]

I have several Azalea Name "Faye" ( differnet sizes) eg "Faye big one", "Fay with the bent trunk"
She was the next door neighbour where i dug them

I also have dads Azalea

Ken

[stymie]

I have named trees according to their characters. For instances I have a 'vulture', 'load of balls', 'Lofty', 'Corin' (because he styled it), 'Big Ulmus', 'Swampy' of course and 'Rusky' to mention a few of the mature ones. Pre bonsai don't get named until they are baptised.

animated tree.gif

[Rowdy]

I have named half my collection, I guess I name them as I become attached.
My first fig is called typhoo because of a typhoon that was influencing my life at the time. And I also have a green island fig that I call chilli because of all the red fruit it produces.

[Steven]

G'day BB,

I don't name my tree's other than using a descriptor like big, ugly etc. I do however really like Father and all he stands for. He has a lot of character and grace about him not to mention the memories of when you collected him. I'm sure your Dad would be very pleased to be remembered with such a great tree.

Regards,
Steven

[walko]

g'day

i dont name my trees, but i am very interested in knowing what sort of tree ' the ghost' is?

[Gary Bee]

I am afraid that I am guilty of naming a few in my collection.

To name a few:-

Sapporo, Kirin, and Fosters - the 3 Liquid Ambars
Esta Beth - Bougy
Meatloaf - Fig
BHP - Variegated Chinese Elm Root over rock (BHP Slag rock from Newcastle)
Gumpo - Azalea
Adelaide - fig purchased in Adelaide ($$..ouch!)
Railyard - Peppercorn (from where I dug the mongrel)
Goulburn - Hawthorn
Watto - Hawthorn (One of Watto's)

They all have notoriety somewhere in their history. Behind every tree there is a story

[GavinG]

Most of what I call my trees is unprintable.

Gavin

[bonsaiboy50]

g'day

i dont name my trees, but i am very interested in knowing what sort of tree ' the ghost' is?

The ghost is my largest fig and when defoliated ( as it is now) it looks like a ghost

[Pup]

I do mainly so when I am talking to Mrs Pup she knows which one I am talking about. Also for my self to recognise where I collected or who I traded for it.

We have one we call B.C.I. the one that won the award in 2001 the Spirit of the lake where it was collected. Dragon flying though the clouds. After one of my favorite Japanese tree's, Dragon rising though the clouds. Notice mine is flying and the Japanese one is rising.

Lomond after the lady friend I traded with, then Mrs Pup's Tenterden clump and the Logo, just a few.

Cheers Pup

[Grizzly]

I have 'Lazarus' the maple Bonsai currently in 'intensive care' - (thanks for your online help with him)

The first Bonsai I potted - cute little fig, was nick-named 'Little Dick'. A gift for a friend, she still calls him by that name even though he apparently is now well endowed!

I'm reluctant to name any newbies until they look like they'll survive the ignorant battering from my Grizzly paws.

[daiviet_nguyen]

Hi bonsaiboy50,

I like Father too. I wish I had one like that...

My dad names only one of his, loosely translated into English: Those Whom Forever Remain at Charlie, in memories of his friends who never made it back from one of the battles in 1972.

[Jan]

Somewhere in Deborah Koreshoff’s Bonsai book (I had a quick skim to locate it and, naturally can’t find the passage to quote it), Vita Koreshoff is quoted expressing the opinion that I remember as something like, “if you can’t “see” the tree’s story (in the mind’s eye, I presume), you will have trouble telling that story through the tree’s styling”.

For me the tree’s story usually leads to them either being named when they come to me (for the previous owner, location purchased or collected, the reason that I was in that location or a distinguishing feature) or developing a name as their character/personality emerges over time. I keep records of individual trees (I’m trying to learn and record keeping is part of that) by filing progression images and locating their care/styling records in their individually named files on computer.

“Father” is excellent on a number of levels, bonsaiboy50, and “Lazarus” tells its own story in the name, Grizzly. Most of mine are not that inspired; I have a series of trees named for the location collected (sometimes multiple trees of that name differentiated by the growing style e.g. Adams Prunus domestica semi cascade, Adams Prunus domestica slanting, Old Shed Callistemon sieberi korabuki – they are filed under species) but others develop personalities like “Ballerina”, one of my walnuts. I agree with Pup that it makes it simpler when talking to others who know the trees by name.

Jan

[Ash]

Yes I do have names for two of my trees. There names just sort of came somehow. One is 'Venus' which came about because my bonsai mentor said it looked like Venus reclining. A few years latter when talking she said you know Venus and the name then stuck. The other is 'Mary Banyan' named after her (who originally collected and grew the tree) and its style. The third was the 'testicles tree' named so by my mum. Ever after she first made the comment I could see nothing else and could no longer abide the tree so I gave it to mum.
Ash