So how many bonsai "materials do you have?

As earlier mentioned in my previous posts, I''m a newbie. I have been lurking around this website for about 2 months and there seemed to be a lot of people working on a lot of non-finished trees. I hope to share a lot more but my materials are just too few. In fact it has been 2 weeks already that I am just watering my bonsai trees without anything else to do. My objective now is to get MANY materials to keep me busy and perhaps a few finished trees to keep me inspired.

My inventory: 10 work in progress and 2 finished.

How about you?

10 in progress 0 finished.

Too many!!!!!!!! Most of them sleeping now.

I don't try to count my "material" because i don't want to know, or have to admit to my wife how many I have.

However, I am in the process of reducing "material."

I retired (for the second time) about two years ago. I have/had a lot of "material" that I said, "When I retire, I will work on that." Well, two years in I still haven't worked on it, so much of it is going to our club raffle table each month.

I lost count...probably close to 200 of unfinished. around 50 finished keeping me inspired to do more.
that's a good decision to get few finished trees, but not too much. It's part of the starter kit.


these trees will pay for my retirement. hehe

regards,
jun

Prior to the summer four. After the summer one...

Two years ago, 3,000 bonsai in pots with price tags on them. Approx. 10,000 in training. This year, 20 bonsai, none in training.
Herb Gustafson

About 200. 150 raw material, 50 in training, 10 near exhibition and 3 I will never sell.

well i have just 5 because i have only just started i think this is enough for now,if i make mistakes it will not cost me loads,once i get confident i will spread my wings and buy and source bigger tees.

Herb Gustafson wrote:Two years ago, 3,000 bonsai in pots with price tags on them. Approx. 10,000 in training. This year, 20 bonsai, none in training.
Herb Gustafson

It must have been a happy ending for you Herb!$$$$$$

regards,
jun

jun wrote:

Herb Gustafson wrote:Two years ago, 3,000 bonsai in pots with price tags on them. Approx. 10,000 in training. This year, 20 bonsai, none in training.
Herb Gustafson

It must have been a happy ending for you Herb!$$$$$$

regards,
jun

Sorry to be candid,but is the love of BONSAI all about DOLLARS & CENTS???sometimes people should be guilty to get trees(yamadori)illegally by the "DIGGER" so called in our COUNTRY and destroy the forest.No offense Jun,i have been here longer than you & i'm sure of it.just my two cents of thought
Alex

"Sorry to be candid,but is the love of BONSAI all about DOLLARS & CENTS???sometimes people should be guilty to get trees(yamadori)illegally by the "DIGGER" so called in our COUNTRY and destroy the forest.No offense Jun,i have been here longer than you & i'm sure of it.just my two cents of thought
Alex. "
Alex, I hope you were speaking in general terms and not implying Mr. Gustafson was an example of illegal and unethical activities. For those not aware, Mr. Gustafson is a bonsai professional and prolific author of Japanese gardening, sakei and bonsai books, including one of my favorites, The Bonsai Workshop.

ogie wrote:

jun wrote:

Herb Gustafson wrote:Two years ago, 3,000 bonsai in pots with price tags on them. Approx. 10,000 in training. This year, 20 bonsai, none in training.
Herb Gustafson

It must have been a happy ending for you Herb!$$$$$$

regards,
jun

Sorry to be candid,but is the love of BONSAI all about DOLLARS & CENTS???sometimes people should be guilty to get trees(yamadori)illegally by the "DIGGER" so called in our COUNTRY and destroy the forest.No offense Jun,i have been here longer than you & i'm sure of it.just my two cents of thought
Alex

No offense made Alex. It's perfectly ok, we have a lot of discussion of this type here before and issues are mostly settled. collecting assorted trees is one the best option, lets say a dozen of its kind rather than several hundreds of phempis alone per person...this type of collection is so destructive as I have personally seen.
p.s. I have no personal problem with your national club in fact im thinking of joining your club...but most of your club members got thousands upon thousands of phempis in their collection combined. my question is simple,,,why on earth did this destruction of the environment happens if there are responsible people especially older officers of the club?. up to now things of this sort were not being addressed by all your affiliated clubs (pls correct me if I'm wrong).you can actually put sanctions on your club members if you wanted to.

I'm not that old in this craft, that I know for a fact. but I'm glad that I was not part of the years where phempis were hunted down to extinction.


p.s.2

just discussing the root cause of the problem and I mean no offense to other people, specially my fellow Filipinos. I wish we can all work together and reverse the mistake of the past...while still enjoying the art.

oh. I think on Herb issue, he is I think a legal bonsai plant supplier.

regards,
jun

John Quinn wrote: "Sorry to be candid,but is the love of BONSAI all about DOLLARS & CENTS???sometimes people should be guilty to get trees(yamadori)illegally by the "DIGGER" so called in our COUNTRY and destroy the forest.No offense Jun,i have been here longer than you & i'm sure of it.just my two cents of thought
Alex. "
Alex, I hope you were speaking in general terms and not implying Mr. Gustafson was an example of illegal and unethical activities. For those not aware, Mr. Gustafson is a bonsai professional and prolific author of Japanese gardening, sakei and bonsai books, including one of my favorites, The Bonsai Workshop.

.....that I know for a fact John. and I personally respect the man and his work.

regards,
jun

Let me shed some light on the subject. Over the years, I was obligated by prudent book-keeping to track my sales. My average sale price was $38. It takes a lot of those bonsai to pay your mortgage, utilities, put your kids through school, put food on the table etc. I can safely say that Yamadori had absolutely nothing to do with that process. I never took a plant without a permit. I spent as much time as four seasons to safely take a plant. When I did, I never sold it. A yamadori was a gift from God. I never owned it. Sometimes I passed it on to a valued friend I admired.
Herb Gustafson

John Quinn wrote: "Sorry to be candid,but is the love of BONSAI all about DOLLARS & CENTS???sometimes people should be guilty to get trees(yamadori)illegally by the "DIGGER" so called in our COUNTRY and destroy the forest.No offense Jun,i have been here longer than you & i'm sure of it.just my two cents of thought
Alex. "
Alex, I hope you were speaking in general terms and not implying Mr. Gustafson was an example of illegal and unethical activities. For those not aware, Mr. Gustafson is a bonsai professional and prolific author of Japanese gardening, sakei and bonsai books, including one of my favorites, The Bonsai Workshop.

Hi Mr. Gustafson/John
Oh no John im not referiing to Mr. Gustafson,i had his book as one of my refernace always,I;m just refering to our place,hope people don't misunderstood me.Here in the Philippines so manu nearby asia country has destroy our forest by illegal digging,it really sadens me.Jun and others like me here knows about it,i hope it'll change & not worsen,I apologize to Mr. Gustafson who i has high respect.I know other countrys has high regards to the trees & forest,which i envy so much.
I hope i didn't cause any ill feelings to which i have no intend.I just dream that here in our place will be more responsible.I'm glad if Jun follow his conscience and my respect to him
your kind understanding,
Alex

Herb Gustafson wrote:Let me shed some light on the subject. Over the years, I was obligated by prudent book-keeping to track my sales. My average sale price was $38. It takes a lot of those bonsai to pay your mortgage, utilities, put your kids through school, put food on the table etc. I can safely say that Yamadori had absolutely nothing to do with that process. I never took a plant without a permit. I spent as much time as four seasons to safely take a plant. When I did, I never sold it. A yamadori was a gift from God. I never owned it. Sometimes I passed it on to a valued friend I admired.
Herb Gustafson

Dear Mr. Gustafson,
My apology sir,my comment was not meant for you Sir,i made a brief explaination.I was just refering to our country,just reacting to Jun because here in our place most yamadory are illegally gotten.I know others like in your country,you really has to secure permits,thats why i envy you guys for such RESPECT to tree and enviroment.
As my earlier reply to jun / ?John Quinn,Your book is one of my first few books i got started with bonsai.Sorry if i send the wrong message which was not intended
My apology.
Alex

I would suggest we draw a line under this entire thread before someone says something that WILL be offensive. So far we've skated on the thin ice of unintentional misunderstanding and I think we're not far off that ice cracking under the strain.

I'm also personally a wee bit wary of discussing how many trees I have on the basis that this is a public forum (i.e. non-IBC members can see the posts and the posters' location). Maybe it's different elsewhere, but there have already been too many instances of UK bonsai collections getting stolen for my liking. While that is not in any way meant to imply that the thieves got their information from this forum, I believe that we should be cautious at all times of how we "advertise" our collections.

Must go: the alligators in the pit surrounding my bonsai garden are getting hungry. Anyone got any spare tea leaves for them?

I have about 300ish ranging from starters to semi mature trees, none complete to my satisfaction.

I am one of many thousands who got our basic education(and beyond) from your books, have several and still refer to them often (after 26yrs growing). Before this thread does get shut down I thought i might try and be a reasonable voice for once

I am a yamadori wh*re, I admit it, I also admit that on occasion I have taken trees wihtout permits or permission. I have only ever done so when the tree was in the path of a bulldozer or other such sort of threat of destruction. I never collect a wild tree unless there is a very real & definite risk to its continued existence. In the case of collecting native material from the wild, I only do so with permission from the landowner and always replant several of the same species to aid in regeneration. I also only collect what I know I can succesfully keep alive.

I dont think I am alone in this regard, every bonsai person I know that loves & collects trees does so responsibly. Both here in my own country of Australia and also around the world, from the phillipines with some spectacular phempis to Europe with many of there own local trees and also the America's and back to our arts home of China & Japan. All of the newer collected trees have been obtained responsibly, the bad old days are for the most part long gone when it comes to any serious yamadori hunter.

Here in Australia we have a huge problem with many species that have decided to call the place home, this is not a unique situation anywhere around the world & it is these species we should focus our collective collecting efforts on.

Matt

When is a Bonsai finished? ha ha ha

Number reaching peak of design varies, and number being researched also varies. I don't sell, if something is not fully up to standard, I may just replant it somewhere safely or give it to someone who can properly look after it.

It's a very satisfying hobby, lot of continuous learning. Because I can make pots, my cost factor stays low.
Alex, this is what normally brings on the sales to justify expenditure. You see the same in moulded hobby Ceramics.

Have fun with all those finished bonsai - chuckle.
Khaimraj

I have 21 outside on my lanai at my condo and 5 in the ground at a friends place. And my "Miss Kitty" said that's all I can have!!

A Hui Hou,
-Tim

Khaimraj Seepersad wrote:When is a Bonsai finished? ha ha ha

Number reaching peak of design varies, and number being researched also varies. I don't sell, if something is not fully up to standard, I may just replant it somewhere safely or give it to someone who can properly look after it.

It's a very satisfying hobby, lot of continuous learning. Because I can make pots, my cost factor stays low.
Alex, this is what normally brings on the sales to justify expenditure. You see the same in moulded hobby Ceramics.

Have fun with all those finished bonsai - chuckle.
Khaimraj

A bonsai is finished when it is dead. hahaha!


seriously...for me a bonsai is finished when the artist feels that he or she has achieved his initial idea or targeted design.
like building a house, when all the plans are done and the house built, it is finished. however...this house might still undergo maintenance, extension or renovation. the same thing can be applied to bonsai-IMHO (i almost forgot).

regards,
jun