Who are you? The Human side of Bonsai

[BunjaeKorea]

Bonsai is not just about trees but also people who love trees. I am pretty much fascinated with the array of people that are attracted to this art.
I want to know your stories. Why did you start etc.

In my case I moved to Korea and worked as a teacher. This was pretty stressful at times and seeing as I needed to vent some of that stress , bonsai was the way to go.

Later, I started to think seriously about doing it professionally and while teaching at University I had more time to focus on it.

Finding someone willing to teach was a whole different matter. I had some polite refusals. Some rude refusals. And one guy who looked at me and said ' I can teach you but...... you have to be serious about it'.

And thats where my journey started with Master Kim Young Jong. I learned how little I knew and had a good laugh along the way. He is serious but light hearted.
This is us.



What is your story? Please share.

 

[KillerButts]

High tolerance metal manipulation, a green thumb, boredom and love of nature, led me to applied tree biology and then soil science.

Fired my landscaper not much later and began a journey in itself of structure restoration, plenty would have sued. Reading on restricted growth methods lead me to bonsai and now I am hooked.

 

[BunjaeKorea]

High tolerance metal manipulation, a green thumb, boredom and love of nature, led me to applied tree biology and then soil science.

Fired my landscaper not much later and began a journey in itself of structure restoration, plenty would have sued. Reading on restricted growth methods lead me to bonsai and now I am hooked.

Awesome

 

[AZbonsai]

I am a teacher as well. Started an after school garden club with the goal of introducing as many different gardening techniques as I could find: raised bed, hydroponics, African Bag Garden, aquaponics...etc. etc. In my research I found bonsai and became hooked. I share my trees with all students at school once a year. Joined a bonsai club PBS and really enjoy it.

 

[BunjaeKorea]

I am a teacher as well. Started an after school garden club with the goal of introducing as many different gardening techniques as I could find: raised bed, hydroponics, African Bag Garden, aquaponics...etc. etc. In my research I found bonsai and became hooked. I share my trees with all students at school once a year. Joined a bonsai club PBS and really enjoy it.

Thanks for sharing. You know in Korea bonsai is considered to be 'a classical art of scholars and academics'. So many teachers do bonsai.
This is probably because in the culture teachers are highly esteemed and because they are historically the only ones with the time and money (in the middle class anyway) to practice the art.

 

[Dav4]

Long time lover of nature/biology. Grew up helping my dad in his vegetable garden. Started collecting cacti when I was 12. I was a botany major in college a long time ago but don't remember much about it. Briefly considered landscape architecture as a career but went into retail management instead.... After a few years of being overworked and underpaid, I decided to become a veterinarian... I'm still overworked and underpaid, but I'm a doctor, so there's that. I never lost my love for plants, though, and when my vet school girlfriend got me my one and only mallsai for Christmas, I was hooked... the rest is history.

 

[cmeg1]

When internet became accesible for me about 20 some odd years ago....one of the first pages dial-up let me access was a Bonsai page!
Soon later found Walter Pall pages and Wolfgang Putz,Morton Albek,Harry Harrington.....Was amazed at Autumn colors of trees.
Dad tought me the will to learn Music!
Though Dad did love gardening and growing.Mom too!
Bonsai was always secondary to my hobbies.

 

[cheap_walmart_art]

I had a couple little mallsai when I Was a teenager, think I got them in Gatlinburg or somewhere touristy like that. Killed them, didn't think about Bonsai again until my 1st anniversary with my wife, we went to Asheville and they were featuring the Bonsai exhibit at the Arboretum that year. We were fascinated, I bought a video and a couple of books with real intent to start the hobby but then real life got in the way with a new marriage, new jobs, new house, etc. Then in 2017 I was driving down the road and saw a Bonsai Van setup and bought a $25 "Indoor" juniper for my office. On a whim that night I sat down online and began reading about how to care for it and then went down the Bonsai rabbit hole. Joined Reddit and B'nut, got some videos, joined the Nashville Bonsai society and still going strong. Just started working a new career back in the 1st part of 2018 which has allowed me more time and a bit more $$ allowance for the hobby and I'm looking forward to all the learning to come!

 

[Sansui]

As a young inner city kid I found the rare experience of being in absolute calmness in a forest setting quite moving. I've felt a kinship with trees ever since. My interest in bonsai and dwarf conifers came about twenty years ago as a means to rekindle that feeling.

 

[BunjaeKorea]

Great stories guys. Am I sensing something therapeutic in all these posts?

 

[Cajunrider]

I grew up in South East Asia and was exposed to bonsai and penjing when young. Love trees and have left groves of trees behind in all the places where I've been. There actually was a 1/4 mile section of a small street where I and my brothers planted a whole bunch of flowering trees 25 ft apart. That street was well known for those trees for 25 years until the government expanded the street and cut down all those trees. I still have a dream of leaving behind a public park with all the flowering trees I love. I'm not sure if I have the wherewithal to do that but still it is a may be. If that doesn't happen, oh well. At least my current 6 acre land will be filled with bald cypress, green ash, Medjool palms, and live oaks that I like.

I get into bonsai in the hope of continuing to enjoy caring for trees when I'm no longer able to handle those big trees. I don't really expect to have any great bonsai trees. I fully expect to have some bonsai trees that I will enjoy.

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

I'm from a small town in The Netherlands, after high school I did some art & culture studies and ended up as a youth worker trying to help kids get off the streets. The government decided to fuck that up by giving the derailed kids some extra fighting skills (free kickboxing classes) and loads of freebies while their well-behaved peers got nothing. After the fourth time of being almost beaten to death, I then continued studying psychology and after a neurobiology course I finally found out that biochemistry was more my thing, then life/bio science with a specialization in biotech.
Worked in animal genetics, then for the devil in the plant breeding department, now in (microbiological) pharmaceuticals.

I've been keeping plants since 23 years ago, mainly cannabis for the first 5 years. From there on forward mostly therapeutic and medicinal plants triggered my interest. Then I added fungi to the stuff I grow, because why the hell not? I've been on gardening forums for over a decade now, I have an advisory role at a communal garden to help people from low income areas get some fresh veggies. In the mean time I've been advising some restaurants on new ingredients and how to grow those for cheaps. We're now starting to do fermentation and brewing as well. I have a breeding line of strawberries I've been working on for 5 years and it's coming close to something economically interesting. In the US there's cotton candy grapes, I am making the strawberry equivalent to that.
My interest for bonsai is a natural evolution of my studies, work, hobbies and personal interests. It's just another excuse to fool around with plants to be honest, but I caught the bug for sure.

 

[coltranem]

Ok. So by trade I am a mechanical engineer. My parents had a vegetable garden growing up. I have had my own garden for the last 15+ years with an indoor growing area for a similar amount of time. In late 2016 I started getting interested in growing succulents indoors. While researching a good gritty mix I started seeing references to bonsai soil and started following the links to learn about bonsai.

My focus quickly moved from succulents to bonsai. I am lucky to have 2 bonsai nurseries within 45 minutes of my house. Once I saw the trees I was hooked. I bought my first tree in the spring of 2017 at a open house at one of the nurseries (an American Larch I am still growing out). I took a class later that summer and styled two more trees.

In the last 12 months I have joined a local club and took a workshop with Mauro Stemberger. I feel I have learned the most with those two moves. This forum has been great too.

Looking forward to my own further development as well as my trees.

 

[Paul G]

Another teacher here. 5th grade. Every year I cut the leaves off of "Jake", our class jade and create rooted cuttings for the kids. They bring them back to me every few years for a repot. It's cool to think that one tree has propagated so many memories. Didn't fall in love with Bonsai until I saw a show at Meijer gardens in 2013. I'm also a woodworker, and bonsai gives me an excuse to build new projects.

 

[jimib]

I lost a job, one that I loved, due to a new boss who wanted a new team. Unfortunately my wife, the one with the green thumb, was terminated with me. After a couple dark weeks with a bottle in my hand, my wife said we needed to get out of the house and she took me to the local conservatory. That’s where I first saw bonsai. The next couple of years I dabbled with it before really getting involved. Joined a local club, met some really knowledgeable people, taken some workshops...I’m hooked now..lol.
BTW, spent a year in Korea myself. Beautiful and interesting once you get away from the military towns..

 

[Cable]

The details of my life are quite inconsequential... very well, where do I begin? My father was a relentlessly self-improving boulangerie owner from Belgium with low grade narcolepsy and a penchant for buggery. My mother was a fifteen year old French prostitute named Chloe with webbed feet. My father would womanize, he would drink. He would make outrageous claims like he invented the question mark. Sometimes he would accuse chestnuts of being lazy. The sort of general malaise that only the genius possess and the insane lament. My childhood was typical. Summers in Rangoon, luge lessons. In the spring we'd make meat helmets. When I was insolent I was placed in a burlap bag and beaten with reeds- pretty standard really. At the age of twelve I received my first scribe. At the age of fourteen a Zoroastrian named Vilma ritualistically shaved my testicles. There really is nothing like a shorn scrotum... it's breathtaking- I highly suggest you try it.

 

[Starfox]

Well I'm an Aussie who now lives in Spain. I originally made the trip to Europe to live with my French wife in Belgium.. Prior to that I lived and worked in the Barossa Valley, mainly out in the vines and on property. (mostly, abridged version)
We had a couple of kids and after a little bit in Spain decided the price was right and decided to buy a house here and of course with that comes the total redisign and me wanting to plant out an Aussie garden. I was researching plants I could grow here and it quickly dawned on me I wasn't going to be able to plant out a new Belair National Park but I stumbled across a few pics of Callistemon bonsai in flower, Eucs and many other trees I knew I had no room for. Well that started me off, I could.t plant 20 trees in our yard but could easily manage 20 in pots. This started my journey.

Funny thing is that the house we lived in prior to buying had the local bonsai club who met literally 2 doors down from us. I'm still a beginner and whilst I have messed about with numerous species it took a few years to rediscover that original spark which was Aussie natives, since I have made them more my priority I'm certainly happier and finding things going much smoother. It of course brings it's drawbacks, there simply is no(or very little that I have no idea about) pre or bonsai Aussie stock available out here so I'm in more of a growing out stage atm. Lots of nursery stuff available though but that takes time to grow out or develop but at least now I'm in my happy space. One day we'll get back to Oz and it's this time I am using to build up some experience so maybe i'll stand a chance when we get back.

 

[Housguy]

This is us. View attachment 262764



What is your story?
Going on 50 soon, but have only been serious with Bonsai for about a year now and absolutely love it! Dad got me into it though, he has been a vendor at many bonsai shows for years now and sells all kinds of pre bonsai material and or trees for his friends. Selling at my first bonsai show in SD at the end of this month, looking forward to that and the endless zen and peace I get from being around and practicing bonsai!
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[Sansui]

Great stories guys. Am I sensing something therapeutic in all these posts?

The details of my life are quite inconsequential... very well, where do I begin? My father was a relentlessly self-improving boulangerie owner from Belgium with low grade narcolepsy and a penchant for buggery. My mother was a fifteen year old French prostitute named Chloe with webbed feet. My father would womanize, he would drink. He would make outrageous claims like he invented the question mark. Sometimes he would accuse chestnuts of being lazy. The sort of general malaise that only the genius possess and the insane lament. My childhood was typical. Summers in Rangoon, luge lessons. In the spring we'd make meat helmets. When I was insolent I was placed in a burlap bag and beaten with reeds- pretty standard really. At the age of twelve I received my first scribe. At the age of fourteen a Zoroastrian named Vilma ritualistically shaved my testicles. There really is nothing like a shorn scrotum... it's breathtaking- I highly suggest you try it.

Gosh, when was the last time you had your drinking water tested? Fed from Lake Erie I'll bet!

 

[penumbra]

It seems I have always preferred the company of plants over that of people. There was no interest in my family from anyone else but I was transplanting trees from the woods into my parents yard when I was 8 or 9. I believe it was about a year before I talked my parents into buying me 25 strawberry starts. In just one season the freezer was full and my 93 year old mother still says it was the only time in her life when she had enough strawberries. At 13 I got my first job at a nursery and then I was hooked. Sometime later I knew that this was my calling and I practiced horticulture and design for almost all the rest of my working years. I messed a bit with bonsai but had no instruction or guidance. Then I was in PA and visited a Garden Center called Waterloo Gardens over 30 years ago and found my first copy of Bonsai Today. It was issue #2. Bonsai took a whole new meaning for me that day.