I Quit

Years ago, when in my teens I had 40 or more tanks of killifish. Gave them up when I left home for university. Today I scratch my nostalgia itch for killies by watching YouTube videos on aquarium hobby. This has kept me from putting water in any of the handful of empty tanks stored in the basement.

Keeping my hands dry.
 
It is a labor of love for sure, if you don't mind that part of it, it is for you, if not, find something that brings joy to your heart without much labor needed. Personally, I enjoy the labor, being active constantly is just in my dna, so I get joy out of the hard work and serenity that bonsai brings for me. Also, I am a nursery guy and running one of those by definition is a lot of work. Good luck in what ever makes you happy!
 
one_bonsai said:
I've sold all my trees and I feel better already. I no longer have to worry about watering, fertilising, the weather, the general welfare of the trees and the stress of being away from home for a period of time. I never realised what a burden bonsai had become. Now I'm free and it's great!
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Yeah, I personally don't think the goal of the practice of bonsai is the accumulation of trees. We were considering moving to a place with no yard and I told my wife I'll just sell all my trees. She expressed how sad that was considering all the time I put into them. I had the exact opposite reaction. I reminded her how every tree I have will die someday anyway and that I took up bonsai as a hobby to learn how to do it and find joy hile doing it. Like most people who take up painting or photography or whatever...it's usually not done so that the person can end up with lots of paintings at the end of it. You sell all your paintings or give them all away, you still know how to paint and you still had the experience: not a tragedy. Developing Alzheimer's or dying would be the real tragedy, even if all your trees lived on...unless you were able to pass on your knowledge some how before that happened. You still know how to do bonsai even if you don't have a single tree (all the workshops attended, books read, etc.) and it sounds like you kept your tools. So you came out ahead on both accounts.
 
Sansokuu said:
This post is why I don’t do bonsai. If all it takes is one inattentive day to wipe out years of work, no thanks. Now orchids, I can do. Water once a week, great blooms. 😂
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The stress of slugs and snails eating roots, shoots and flowers killed the joy in orchids for me. So I‘m going for bonsai fully, now of to kill the snails destroying the flowers on my Chaenomeles.
 
rockm said:
Don't really know what the intention is here, but posting that you've gotten rid of your trees, then going on a bonsai discussion board to say that, seems a little obsessive... 😁
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I don't know. I've quit hobbies because they weren't providing what I was looking for. That doesn't mean I stopped interacting with the people I met on the way. Nor does it mean I lost the desire to learn more about them.

In my view, the obsessive ones are those who don't have the self awareness to realize they are NOT getting value out of their hobby but feel compelled to continue on because, what, they can't admit it's not a skillset that aligns??

I applaud @one_bonsai for making a decision they feel is in their best interests and for stating such. I know others here have quit the hobby for a time and have come back...
 
This brings up a good topic. How to pass on your collection, especially if you have some rare trees, before you pass on. I hope when that time comes for me,and I'm able to, that I will be able to find good homes for my trees.
 
Scorpius said:
This brings up a good topic. How to pass on your collection, especially if you have some rare trees, before you pass on. I hope when that time comes for me,and I'm able to, that I will be able to find good homes for my trees.
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Join a club--invaluable when it comes to this issue. Provides contacts, resources to sell through (like auctions, etc) when the time comes and you're downsizing.
 
I find bonsai not stressful at all.
OK, I am semi-retired, so I can fiddle with my plants almost every day.
And I do some planning ahead too; winter will be here in 3 months? Set the mini greenhouse up and prepare some benches inside the unheated garage. Summer will come? Set up the shade cloth.
I see all this "work" as fun.
I really enjoy it all.
 
Got out of doing Bonsai twice and ended back in now almost everything is for sale and will be replaced by something upon sale.
The key to doing bonsai is not so much quantity but more quality.
 
Scorpius said:
This brings up a good topic. How to pass on your collection, especially if you have some rare trees, before you pass on. I hope when that time comes for me,and I'm able to, that I will be able to find good homes for my trees.
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My fear is... will I sell or give away to good home. In the back of my mind, I always feel like I will never be able to recoup all the costs I have put in them. There really isn't an easy way....
 
Clicio said:
I find bonsai not stressful at all.
OK, I am semi-retired, so I can fiddle with my plants almost every day.
And I do some planning ahead too; winter will be here in 3 months? Set the mini greenhouse up and prepare some benches inside the unheated garage. Summer will come? Set up the shade cloth.
I see all this "work" as fun.
I really enjoy it all.
Click to expand...
Yeah, it boils down to mentality.
I was only taking care of a few trees that my dad gave me when he 'retired' from bonsai hobbying about 8 years ago, we had a few deaths in the family in the past 2 years, and I just went all in on tree related projects around April of last year with whatever I can get my hands on and it helped me deal with the grief. The seasonal challenges, developmental goals, discoveries, experimentation, losing trees, cloning/air layering new ones are all part of the enjoyment for me.

If I lose trees, it's no big deal, it's not like losing a friend or family member, but it's still nice to know that it's possible to keep a tree alive almost indefinitely and that you can do many things to enhance its beauty and make an artistic statement that is constantly evolving, and on display in one's backyard.
I don't even care about having 'world class' quality trees either. The process of watching something develop and playing a role in that process for better or worse is fun, progression pics alone are fun to look back at.

If it looks more interesting to me than what it looked like a few months ago, that's good enough for me.
 
Clicio said:
I find bonsai not stressful at all.
OK, I am semi-retired, so I can fiddle with my plants almost every day.
And I do some planning ahead too; winter will be here in 3 months? Set the mini greenhouse up and prepare some benches inside the unheated garage. Summer will come? Set up the shade cloth.
I see all this "work" as fun.
I really enjoy it all.
Click to expand...
Agree 100% Clicio. Difference is I’m not retired. But for me also, the work is half the fun!
 
Clicio said:
I find bonsai not stressful at all.
OK, I am semi-retired, so I can fiddle with my plants almost every day.
And I do some planning ahead too; winter will be here in 3 months? Set the mini greenhouse up and prepare some benches inside the unheated garage. Summer will come? Set up the shade cloth.
I see all this "work" as fun.
I really enjoy it all.
Click to expand...
On a side note:
I don't show (exhibit) my trees, only here.
I don't sell bonsai.
 
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