Growing Bonsai TreesA Word of Warning-- A Lesson LearnedIt’s been over 30 years since I began growing bonsai trees. During those years I found it necessary to buy many plants (just to make sure I didn’t miss out on anything). . . species I had never tried, specials I saw at garden centers, bargains at club auctions. It was seemingly endless. Somewhere along the way, I also decided I should have one of every tropical with any bonsai potential and I expanded my hunt. Of course, not all the plants I bought were even beginner bonsai trees, but I could grow them on. After a few years, I started selling some of the plants I had gathered and rejected. The selling became a business. It grew and so did my habit of buying. I sold lots of the ‘stuff’ and watched others make decent bonsai out of it.
It took about 15 years to discover I had lots of plants, I had very few bonsai. The Tamarind shown here (Tamarindus indica) was one bonsai I managed to style and maintain for many years. (Eventually, I removed the first branch.) Where did the time go? After 30+ years of supposedly growing bonsai trees, I finally figured it out. I had so much ‘stuff’, I had no time to develop it or even take care of it properly.
I began to use one of the bonsai how-to-lessons I teach ... taper, taper, taper ... and cut off the huge branches on an old Bougainvillea. I root pruned several small Ficus and placed them in the shallow pots I always recommend. I tossed or sold everything without a decent trunk as per bonsai lesson number one. I also narrowed down the number of plants. (Ask any of the old timers about my auction and sales.) I cleaned up the dead wood and painted lime sulfur on my favorite Conocarpus (buttonwood). Even the weeds are almost under control. For those of you just getting started in bonsai - and some of you old-timers who have similar buying habits - discipline yourselves! After 25 years of neglect your ‘stuff’ will be nothing but ‘old stuff’. ‘Old stuff’ does not go to shows or end up in magazines. It's still just ‘stuff’ no matter how old it is.
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