A chuckle at work

[bonsai barry]

I frequently bring a bonsai to the middle school where I teach and it sits on table of four lucky students. Today I had this exchange with a student:

Student: Nice Olive tree.
Me: Thanks, but actually it is a ficus.
Student: Ha! I knew that it really wasn't a bonsai tree.

 

[bonsai barry]

Another Comment:

Student: "That is so cool. A bonsai tomato plant with tiny tomatoes."
Me: "Ah, no. The plant with the small red berries is called pyracantha."

 

[Bill S]

Shhhhh take credit and let them believe.

 

[MattB]

At least those are children making the funny comments. It is amazing some of the perceptions people have about bonsai. When I first started reading about bonsai a year ago, I was speaking to someone about it and they had no idea that you could bonsai many different types of trees/shrubs.

Come to find out, they thought bonsai was a miniature specie of tree in Asia...not the art of "tree in a pot." Needless to say, they were amazed at some of the pictures I showed them online and in books.

 

[rockm]

"Come to find out, they thought bonsai was a miniature specie of tree in Asia...not the art of "tree in a pot." Needless to say, they were amazed at some of the pictures I showed them online and in books."

Very common belief and one that some unscrupulous or clueless nurseries sometimes capitalize on. My parents lived lext to a guy in N.J. who had a pathetic-looking poodled mugho he "paid alot extra for" because "it's a banzeye."