What is on your bonsai benches?

Peter L asked an interesting question on a recent thread about who has only shohin and/or mame trees on their benches, so rather than speculate, let's try to find out.

There's a series of questions below (okay so it appears to be above) for you to answer. Please base this on the trees you actually have in your collection rather than general areas of interest. Many thanks in advance. It's not exactly going to be precise research but who knows - the results might just help show whether a separate shohin/mame convention-type event is merited or not.

Parameters: as the exercise is to find out whether people favour shohin and/or mame over larger tree sizes, I have grouped all other sizes under "Larger bonsai". Not ideal, but it prevents hours of debate over other sizes.

Not just restricted to those in Europe.

Some interesting replies so far.

following on from the running thread i have large trees that have been exhibited and others that are planned for future shows but the potential shohin trees i have are all being developed from small to medium trees that i have pruned hard this year and they will take 5-10 years to develop to show standard. I am planning my shohin collection for 25-30 years time when i cant move the big trees or cope with them properly.

For this reason i voted only large trees, as the others arent even good enough for a picture yet, let alone a clasification as shohin

This is very valid point but as the poll system on here isn't sophisticated enough to do multiple questions, I think we'll need to settle for a general response first. Then I may ask a second question about how ready for showing people feel their shohin trees are.

Um, maybe ask a second question about how ready for showing people feel any of their trees are.

That would indeed be interesting too, Russell. On this occasion the poll has been sparked by a couple of threads specifically about shohin and the feasibility of some major shohin events. That's the reason why I suggested asking about show readiness of shohin trees as opposed to larger ones in this instance.

Truth told,, A lot of bushes and chopped trees I wish were bonsai !!!! most nursery stock and some trees that were bought from bonsai nursery in mississippi..that is why i love to look here..take care john

By actual count I have more shohin trees (60%), but also many medium and large ones too (40%). By value I believe my medium and large trees greatly exceed the shohin, so I suppose that size does matter.

That too is interesting, Rob. I probably have a similar balance (maybe erring slightly more on the side of shohin) but I should imagine the value of the shohin collection far exceeds that of the larger trees.

But probably not a good idea to discuss tree/collection value on a public access section of the forum.

85% of my collection (about 70 trees in bonsai pots) are shohin or mame. Of those, 60% shohin and 40% mame. Maybe a half dozen mame can be shown and 3-4 shohin.

fiona wrote:That would indeed be interesting too, Russell. On this occasion the poll has been sparked by a couple of threads specifically about shohin and the feasibility of some major shohin events. That's the reason why I suggested asking about show readiness of shohin trees as opposed to larger ones in this instance.

Yes, I'm aware of your reasoning. I was just pointing out the obvious.

Anyway, I'm fairly new to shohin. Figured I'd start filling all of those pretty little pots I've had sitting on shelves for years now, but don't have a thing I'd be willing to show off. As much as those little guys blow my mind, I seem to gravitate to bigger bonsai - for now anyway!

R

The bonsai-balance is about 95% shohin/mame and 5% larger bonsai in my collection.

Interesting poll. Good idea Fiona.

Regards
Morten

Fiona
Interesting poll. I must admit I too gravitate towards larger trees, but deeply admire shohin bonsai. I have about 25 bonsai and semi bonsai. Out of those I would say there are 10 trees that are show ready for our shows we have and maybe one that is competition ready. The size of my collection kept to this size by design. My ultimate goal is to have 25 near finished bonsai with 10 show quality.

Mitch

The interesting thing about amassing a shohin collection is the number of trees in a collection required to build and regularly show a decent shohin group display.
If for example, one were to decide to put together a 7 point shohin (a 5 tree stand with a side tree and an accent), and one follows the traditional Japanese style of display where as the trees have to all be different species, they have to flow together, they have to work for the season they are in, and they have to be all in showable shape at the same time, having 6 trees is not going to cut it. Then if you place a rule on yourself of not showing the same trees show after show within a couple year period, and you can easily have the requirement for 50 to 75 shohin trees and probably more. Once while visiting Mr Kato's garden, one of his apprentices was organizing a shohin display for a major show and he easily had 35 trees around him as he was figuring out which made the best display. It was fun to watch.

Rob
I wish I had the time and skill to keep that many trees alive and kept up to show quality

Mitch

Another good point, and you could factor seasonal interest into the aspects already mentioned. I have about ten shohin that I use for displays in shows (either as 6 tree + accent displays or as individual displays + accent and often + scroll) The rest of my shohin are in development so I can expand the display options but a number are easily two years off show-readiness.

FWIW that was one the reasons behind why we had a fallow year in the BSA in 2011. The previous exhibitions ahd featured fairly much the same trees and the idea of having a development event so that there was a pool of new trees coming through seemed to us a sound move.

So it is Rob, and that makes it both a challenge and interesting. Some of the guys in Japan have more than four of the same size and same specie like the Japanese Black pine, to be able to switch each season.
I do not cope with that but smaller displays and other ways of changing displays also works. But a good number of trees are necessary, even for us not doing it the Japanese way all the way.

Regards
Morten

Peter's original question re those who have exclusively shohin also answered, but it seems we are fairly all-embracing in our bench choices. Let's see what the rest of the week brings but it's looking good for shohin being fairly widely represented.

Hi Fiona,

You missed a whole category, that being the medium sized bonsai. I really can't handle the large brutes anymore and many of my shohin winners have morphed into the next size. It would be interesting to see if there are others with this type of collection.

Best wishes,
Norma

Mitch Thomas wrote:Rob
I wish I had the time and skill to keep that many trees alive and kept up to show quality

Mitch

Mitch keeping all ones shohin trees in show quality state all the time is tough. One gets a fungus or insect, a pot breaks, or a branch withers, stuff happens. Therefore there is safety in numbers. If a tree is not ready, you need backups. Yet a great thing about shohin trees is they don't take as much maintenance as larger trees. You can wire trim and do what you have to do in a lot less time, less space and usually less money. The only tricky part is watering but an automatic sprinkler system helps solve that. I have 95 F days in the summer and my shohin have no problem getting watered.

Precisely Rob.

And it is not healthy to have trees trimmed and neat all the time. Trees need restoring time and let to be growing freely for shorter periods to develop healthy branches and root system. So one have to have a good number of trees on the benches to have enough to select from, also to be able to make a fair display at different times of the year with conifers, flowering or fruit bearing trees when available.

The fun thing with shohin is, as Rob says, the ability to prune and wire in a fair time. I have one larger juniper who want me to needle pluck it, and it will take hours to do, and I resist it because it is a major job (I will do it this week I promise). had it been a shohin I would have taken it in the shadow with a cup of coffee and done it right away

Maybe one day my very few last larger trees are replaced with shohin and mame.

Regards
Morten

Good work Fiona, my collection mainly consists of large tree's but will probably change with time/age, the big stuff is hard to handle sometimes

Norma wrote:You missed a whole category, that being the medium sized bonsai... It would be interesting to see if there are others with this type of collection.

Hi Norma. Welcome back - it's nice to see you again.

Actually what I'd said at the beginning of the thread was that I was lumping all trees that were not shohin or mame under the broad category of "larger trees". This was first and foremost because this poll was kick-started by a question about who had only got shohin/mame on their benches as opposed to other sizes. But it was also because, as we already saw in a couple of posts, there is significant confusion (argument even) over size classifications and their names and it would have taken way too much explanation.

It could be the basis of a further poll at some point though.

Hi Norma,
The Kifu category was created for Shohin Bonsai that out grew that size. Although its easier to classify Bonsai as Miniature, Medium and Large the Japanese terms are more defined and accurate. I find them helpful although it would be more so if more people knew them.
There is a certain charm and wonderment that small Bonsai can possess that larger Bonsai don't in my opinion.
Regards,
Mark

Hi Fiona

In my garden do I only have a handfull of large, fairly new bonsai. The rest is smaller bonsai.....For many years, I only had Chuhin/kifu. Then about 8 years ago, I saw shohin displays, and wanted small trees kept small, for display in a shelf....I cut back all my chuhin, usefull for future shohin. And began to collect material, and some japanese prebonsai.
Most of my bonsai is still chuhin. But shohin is the trees for me.

Not that I want to step arround in the shohindisplays at "Noelanders Tropy", and I do not expect a reply from anyone.....
But I see it as a matter of, what people want to exhibit....I dont think a shohindisplay will be turned dawn at the trophy, unless the shohins or the display are not good enough.

Kind regards Yvonne