Developing Professional Bonsai

[Jeff]

In Japan, pre-bonsai are bought with anywhere between 10 to 30 years training, most bonsai artists there would never consider starting stock from seed or cutting, the skill for these people is to be able to select the finest starter trees and then put the years into developing them into beautiful refined trees.
All pre-bonsai require further development maybe some root grafting to fill the gaps in nebari, certainly branch development but the long slow job of growing a well tapered trunk and a flat root system designed for a life time of pot cultivation has been done.
These deciduous trees have been grown from seed or cutting with bonsai in mind from their inception. The initial training is done in a pot, they have been wired from a very young age so as to develop curves low down on the trunks and the root work begins when the trees are only 1 year old. Once the lower part of the tree is developed then they are transferred to raised garden beds for 8 to 10 years. The trees are lifted and root pruned every year, the underside of the trunks are scarred so only the radial roots can grow, this in combination with well place sacrifice branches pulls the base of the trees out creating taper and giving the trees a very settled feel in the bonsai pot.
These are never supposed to be finished bonsai but provide the customer with an excellent foundation on which to develop first class bonsai, come repotting time the new owner will really appreciate the skill with which your new tree has been grown.

https://www.facebook.com/chojo.featuretrees

[fae]

Thanks for sharing Jeff.

Interesting Facebook page with lovely bonsai.

I can see that you really work the tree from the base up.

Fiona

[k2bonsai]

How much does stock like that go for in Japan?

[kcpoole]

Very thoughtful post and thanks

We have some growers of good stock in Australia that work along similar lines too.
Craigw, Shibui, Ray, Leong to nam just a few and I am sure there are others.

Well worth spending the money to buy a well developed starter.

Ken

[lackhand]

Thought provoking post Jeff, and a good thing to remember. Things like the shohin comp are great, but true world class trees take a long time to make. I've been thinking about making my first serious stock purchase after playing with regular nursery trees for so long.

[craigw60]

After many years of growing bonsai I would recommend any 1st timers to spend money on this kind of material in conjunction with growing your own stock. If you spend another 10 years on these trees of Jeff's they will be really outstanding.
Craigw

[Jeff]

Thanks Fiona, Ken, Karl and Craig.

Most trees are sold after 20-30 years of development. The reason this is possible is because most Japanese nurseries have been running for 3-5 generations. Starting a nursery with this business plan would be very challenging.

Cheers,
Jeff
https://www.facebook.com/chojo.featuretrees

[Matthew]

I have a few of those trees from a particular grower and rest assured they are top quality. i believe one in particular will be quite special in 5 or so years. I'm quite picky these days with what ill buy. Well worth spending that bit more .

[lakepipes]

I started in this pastime like most of you all, by buying trees that i probably shouldn't have.
Trees that had telephone pole trunks, limited branching and poor root structure, hey i took them along to my classes and was shown/learnt that the best option for the tree was to chop it low and regrow. Spend some time working on trunk development rather than the showy stuff. Lets face it you can have nice branches and make good pads, but without the right trunk and root system, it will always be an average tree.
As time has gone by, i have come to understand what it is to have the best starting point you possible can, when working towards producing a tree to that will be of a high quality.

Whats being offered here is something that up until now has been out of my reach, a quality starting point from which to create a tree worthy of being called bonsai.
Great nebari, awesome movement and taper and a root system that is not like i've ever seen on a pre bonsai. The roots are evenly placed and radial. The underside of the trunks are clean and free of downward moving roots forcing the fine feeders outward from the nebari.
I picked up a couple of these trees and with 5-10 more years spent developing the branching and ramification i will have something that will hopefully be something quite special. These are trees that dont come along as regular as maybe we would like them too but i am very happy that the grower took the time and the care that they did.

This is one very happy bonsai enthusiast - thank you for making them available .....
Mike