Why do you love bonsai?

justBonsai

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I've thoroughly enjoyed bonsai as my favorite passion for the past few years. I tend to easily pick new hobbies but bonsai outshines the rest by far. Working on trees give me a lot of gratification and I'm happy to see them develop over time.

A lot of times when people ask me why I like bonsai not understanding the appeal. Granted, this is because not everyone has the time, money, or space to explore it. I thought I would make another post on my blog talking about why I enjoy bonsai:
https://bontsai.com/2017/01/07/why-i-love-bonsai-and-my-trees/

I'd like to hear why other people enjoy and invest so much time into this art too.

Julian
 
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fourteener

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From the time I was a kid, miniatures stirred my imagination. Race tracks, model planes/cars/ships, etc. It wasn't just about having them, but creating them. Making spark plug wires for cars, making a plane look like it was riddled with bullet holes.

Designing stuff is part of my DNA, stirring the imagination of people, the life lessons that living art offers are all reasons why the bonsai hobby has stuck when other hobbies came and went.
 

Nybonsai12

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Because the majority of the time I don't have to leave my house to do it.
 
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Your blog is nice, I like it. At first I thought the stone was a fish. What did you plant on it?

I'm not sure why bonsai, but in the past (and for a bit present) it's been weird hobbies like gemstone collecting, building miniature christmas villages too, so I guess I'm just weird. When I look at my trees I find myself happy, and for now that's enough.
 

justBonsai

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Your blog is nice, I like it. At first I thought the stone was a fish. What did you plant on it?

I'm not sure why bonsai, but in the past (and for a bit present) it's been weird hobbies like gemstone collecting, building miniature christmas villages too, so I guess I'm just weird. When I look at my trees I find myself happy, and for now that's enough.
I think because it is a fish!! I didn't post the rock up haha.:D
 

aml1014

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For me bonsai is a lot of things. In the 3 years I've been practicing bonsai, I've learned patience, and to really appreciate nature more then I ever have. I used to have horrible OCD, and anxiety (yes I am diagnosed) and since I've began practicing bonsai, I've become far more relaxed about everything in life and don't worry about tiny pointless things as often. I guess your right in your post, its difficult to explain why, but I know that it has changed me for the better and will continue to do so.

Aaron
 

Zach Smith

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This is a wonderful question with an unobvious and even difficult answer(s). Who doesn't love a miniature tree that produces the impression of a full-grown mature tree in nature? I've never met anyone who, when viewing bonsai (say in a bonsai show), remarked, "That looks stupid" or "I don't get it." Oh, I'm sure you could find someone dismissive, but the point is that creating a miniaturized version of a full-grown tree is a unique art, hobby, pastime, pursuit, passion. It's deceptively simple and complex all at once. You can take a plant and, with appropriate and judicious pruning and potting, make it look like a hundred-foot-tall tree in minutes. You can make that same tree look even more mature and stately in a year and two years and ten years and a hundred years. Bonsai involves horticulture, design, composition, nature, aesthetics, proportion, forced perspective, age, physical manipulation, short- and long-term care, love, pride, and planning. There's really no other pursuit that requires more of someone than maintaining a small living organism in a captive space for an extended period of time. What else could feed the soul like bonsai?

The ultimate answer to the question is not so much why do we love bonsai, but rather that if you look at this product of love and care and all those other things the last thing you'd want to ask is why. It speaks for itself.
 

justBonsai

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This is a wonderful question with an unobvious and even difficult answer(s). Who doesn't love a miniature tree that produces the impression of a full-grown mature tree in nature? I've never met anyone who, when viewing bonsai (say in a bonsai show), remarked, "That looks stupid" or "I don't get it." Oh, I'm sure you could find someone dismissive, but the point is that creating a miniaturized version of a full-grown tree is a unique art, hobby, pastime, pursuit, passion. It's deceptively simple and complex all at once. You can take a plant and, with appropriate and judicious pruning and potting, make it look like a hundred-foot-tall tree in minutes. You can make that same tree look even more mature and stately in a year and two years and ten years and a hundred years. Bonsai involves horticulture, design, composition, nature, aesthetics, proportion, forced perspective, age, physical manipulation, short- and long-term care, love, pride, and planning. There's really no other pursuit that requires more of someone than maintaining a small living organism in a captive space for an extended period of time. What else could feed the soul like bonsai?

The ultimate answer to the question is not so much why do we love bonsai, but rather that if you look at this product of love and care and all those other things the last thing you'd want to ask is why. It speaks for itself.
Well said. Most people can see the novelty and appeal of a "miniaturized" tree but most of my friends and family don't understand why I find it so gratifying. Your post is right on the money.
 

GGB

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I became obsessed with pine trees at the age of 23 but was bouncing from apartment to apartment, usually with no backyard. I wanted to be near pines but lived in the city, keeping them in pots was the only option. I actually resisted bonsai because I didn't want rules but my trees demanded dwarfing and better care. So here we are, my miniature botanical garden.
 

justBonsai

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I became obsessed with pine trees at the age of 23 but was bouncing from apartment to apartment, usually with no backyard. I wanted to be near pines but lived in the city, keeping them in pots was the only option. I actually resisted bonsai because I didn't want rules but my trees demanded dwarfing and better care. So here we are, my miniature botanical garden.
I get that. I live in an apartment and don't have a lot a space on my patio to put trees. Most of my trees are kept at my parent's home. I do have an automatic water system installed employing spot spitters but I probably couldn't have all these trees without their support and yard space.
 
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thumblessprimate1

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My trees, bonsai or prebonsai are like my own children. I take care of them. Shape them and get to watch them grow. As I train them, I think I train myself. I have something nice to look forward to each season.
 

GGB

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@bleumeon things are good for me right now but its cool to know that in a worst case scenario we could grab our 3 (5?) Favorite trees and make it work
 

abqjoe

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Why do I love Bonsai? Well, I've been a Martial Artist for most of my life and images of Bonsai have always been present in the aesthetics of the Asian cultures in which most of the art's I've studied come from. I'm also a serious outdoors-man and nature lover who's always found a certain kind of peacefulness in tree's in general. More recently and specifically though, the art of Bonsai has given me a positive channel to help me keep my sanity during the hard days that I've been facing in the last 6 months that my wife has been very ill. I love how these little tree's continue to grow and change and I look forward to turning mine into the best representations possible.
 
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