Trimming makes me sad

Not a joke. Tonight I was pruning my Ficus, and decided to clip one of the growing branches off. It was a very slim and still green branch, but was long. I always feel bad trimming off long peices, but know it is for the better of the tree. Anyone else have this trimmers remorse?

Hey, I like your signature
and bear your trimming your tree in the appropriate time
I was so enthusiastic about bonsai, when I got some new bonsai 3 weeks ago
I started trimming way to much, especially in a dormant period
most people recommend you prune or trim more in the growing period like spring or summer
but, it differs from species to species
and so you should get a book or research when a ficus should be trimmed
but, as far as remorse for trimming
I feel remorse if I accidentally trim something wrong
but, with bonsai there's a lot of pruning and trimming needed to be done
many larger bonsai, people even use saws to saw of large branches
so it's just something to realize that's for the beauty of the tree

Justin

I can understand what you mean. I often think about the "torture" I put my plants through and how it would probably be better off somewhere it would never be disturbed. Then I realize why I do it. Everyone has their own connections with their trees and sometimes it is hard to make certain decisions due to fear of loosing that tree. And this is why we try to learn all that we can before we make that mistake. That being said, mistakes hold the most valuable lesson to be learned.

I would take Sitar's advice and do some homework on the ficus. It's cold by us and the tree isn't ready for any real trimmings.


Do you have a pic of this ficus?

Anyone else have this trimmers remorse?

No. Do you cry when you mow your lawn?* Or pick a flower for your girlfriend?

Trees (plants) have no nervous system. They are NOT sentient (Tolkein to the contrary notwithstanding). They don't give a damn. A tree's only "purpose" in life is to reproduce itself, and we seldom allow our bonsai to complete that job.

Bah!

Grumpy Jim . . .

* Yes. But only because I have 10 acres to mow.

JimLewis wrote:

Anyone else have this trimmers remorse?

Do you cry when you mow your lawn?* Or pick a flower for your girlfriend?

I cuss when mowing the lawn. The lawn has to absolutely be the most useless invention of mankind.

I did cry the last time I picked a flower for my girlfriend... my wife about beat me to death!

Jay

HAHAH Jay

Jim maybe you need to a lawn robot.
Or an apprentice willing to do anything to learn your wisdom.. 1st order to the apprentice would be lawn care.

Actually, my horses "mow" the lawn. I just have to take care of the weeds.

JimLewis wrote:Actually, my horses "mow" the lawn. I just have to take care of the weeds.

My folks do that as well, to an extent. A couple of the older horses get let out onto the yard to graze but they have such a huge amount of lawn space that even they can't keep up.

Red bull for horses.

At my previous club one of our lady member’s offered one of her trees as a demo tree for a visiting ‘Master’. This guy really got into the tree and re-styled it completely making large cuts on some branches. I must say the tree looked much better after the re-styling. The drastic cutting of the tree made our lady member feel so sorry for the tree that she actually cried at the meeting. How attached can you become to your trees?

well idk if i would cry persay haha. but my trees are both 9 years old, and have been in my posession for a short period of time, however when i cut one of the very young limbs i still felt bad. Like...how would I feel if a limb was cut off of me haha. Granted that a tree can grow them back. I don't know. It is a strange thing.

BonsaiBoy wrote:well idk if i would cry persay haha. but my trees are both 9 years old, and have been in my posession for a short period of time, however when i cut one of the very young limbs i still felt bad. Like...how would I feel if a limb was cut off of me haha. Granted that a tree can grow them back. I don't know. It is a strange thing.

i feel the same,
yesterdayi pruned and cut the hard branches od the boug i never touched in last 15 years... sometimes its depressing , but for boug it may nice as the angels say it with have more growth after it is pruned