Jcmmaple
Chumono
Same.
Culling the Herd
- Thread starter dbonsaiw
- Start date
I really felt the struggle this year moving everything back outside. Too much stuff. I gave away most all of my cuttings and am only going to do try some azalea cuttings this year to trade. Normally spring would have me itching to buy stuff. I need to concentrate on what I have, maybe get rid of some and buy 1 nice tree.
TrevorLarsen
Shohin
Bills are over rated. I’m very glad to hear your seeing light at the end of the tunnel addiction is a real bitch.I'll be there myself before long. I've made a habit of accepting whatever trees come my way. It's been great for learning - more trees means more experience in a short time - but there will soon be a time when I'm largely done with the endless experimenting.
More excitingly, I'm a recovering drunk and am feeling myself getting closer to that light at the end of the tunnel. I won't have to spend all my money on trees just to prevent myself from spending it on booze!
Crap. That means I'll have to spend it on bills.
Oh well.
TrevorLarsen
Shohin
Finally a reason to reproduce! Watch out ladies here I come!
namnhi
Masterpiece
Am glad I only have 1.
Cajunrider
Imperial Masterpiece
Bonsai are like pets. Once we name them, it is hard to get rid of them 
The great purge is over. I still have too many trees. Didn't have the heart to just off all the trees, so a bunch were planted in the ground in various places. With the flock "thinned", I treated myself to a new trident - see pic. This new tree will need plenty of work over the coming years, but I feel like I am much further ahead on the timeline with this one than one of the others I disposed of.
Victims of the purge -
3 junipers - they were dead or dying in any event.
1 Random juniper - never got out of its nursery pot and went into the ground.
2 Euonymus - I cut them too hard, they don't heal great and my neighbor was glad to have them.
1 small JM - went into the ground
1 small trident - neighbor's kid was happy to try his hand at bonsai
1 portulacria forest - uninteresting and a pain to care for in winter
3 Vachelia Caven seedlings - killed the 3 weakest of the 8 I grew last winter, perhaps more to come.
1 Chinese elm stick - went into the ground
1 rough bark maple - went into the ground
1 Saltbush - I returned this from where I dug it up.
2 large Kamacha Hime - Bad grafts, not worth layering. One went into front yard and the other will join it.
1 fat base JM - I butchered the trunk chop last year and it will now be a landscape tree in my backyard.
2 choke cherry - just no.
1 eastern red cedar - not something I will be able to bonsai.
1 Chinese elm - Butchered this one as well in the early days and just laid it to rest.
Victims of the purge -
3 junipers - they were dead or dying in any event.
1 Random juniper - never got out of its nursery pot and went into the ground.
2 Euonymus - I cut them too hard, they don't heal great and my neighbor was glad to have them.
1 small JM - went into the ground
1 small trident - neighbor's kid was happy to try his hand at bonsai
1 portulacria forest - uninteresting and a pain to care for in winter
3 Vachelia Caven seedlings - killed the 3 weakest of the 8 I grew last winter, perhaps more to come.
1 Chinese elm stick - went into the ground
1 rough bark maple - went into the ground
1 Saltbush - I returned this from where I dug it up.
2 large Kamacha Hime - Bad grafts, not worth layering. One went into front yard and the other will join it.
1 fat base JM - I butchered the trunk chop last year and it will now be a landscape tree in my backyard.
2 choke cherry - just no.
1 eastern red cedar - not something I will be able to bonsai.
1 Chinese elm - Butchered this one as well in the early days and just laid it to rest.
Attachments
Cajunrider
Imperial Masterpiece
Once you name them after superheroes like Hulk, Spiderman, or Batman, you are in for the long haul. You'll have to find the right people to place them.Bonsai are like pets. Once we name them, it is hard to get rid of them
I now like Walter Pall's method of naming the tree by number. Hmmmm.... mebbe I have a Mr Wresting Number 2 among my trees.
Cajunrider
Imperial Masterpiece
I have natural purges. They are called hurricanes!
Rita took my house and most of my belongings and trees
Laura & Delta teamed up to take the whole house and all my belongings and trees. What I had afterward were hurricane rejects.
GGB
Masterpiece
There's a perfect number. don't know what it is though haha. I have 10 and I'm getting rusty without the practice that a bigger collection gives. I think 25 to 30 might be it for me?
LOL, so true. Even the no-name runt seedlings were hard to part with. At the end of the day, it was just becoming a chore to care for 75 trees (between me and my sons). And it was only a chore because I didn't really care about sticks that need so many years to grow. I still have mostly project trees that are very far from a bonsai pot and some sticks that I am excited about.
I couldn't deal.
Cajunrider
Imperial Masterpiece
The perfect number lies between these:
1. Oh mah gawd. Repotting season is over and I still have half the trees to repot. I don't know when I last repot half of these trees either.
2. Dang it, I have a day free to play with trees but none of my trees need anything done. I can't just watch them. It's boring.
JudyB
Queen of the Nuts
Cajunrider
Imperial Masterpiece
GGB
Masterpiece
that's the goal then. If it's good enough for Judy, it's good enough for me haha
GGB
Masterpiece
Is it weird that I'm jealous of your tree purge? I think bonsai is exposing some neurosis I may have...
JudyB
Queen of the Nuts
I've just found the balance that is right for me. I can still have other interests, some horticultural some not, and I can still do all these other things along with still being actively working on a good collection. I found with too many trees, your life becomes too narrow to allow for other interests, or everything is stressful trying to keep all the balls in the air.
Wulfskaar
Omono
Man, I'm going to have problems in a few years when all my seedlings get larger. 
I do plan to plant many of them to let them grow to full-sized trees. Others I may try to trade for better material.
I do plan to plant many of them to let them grow to full-sized trees. Others I may try to trade for better material.
ShadyStump
Imperial Masterpiece
Same here. I have a list of natives I'm looking to propagate, but if I have any reasonable success with all of them, I'll be in over my head.Man, I'm going to have problems in a few years when all my seedlings get larger.
I do plan to plant many of them to let them grow to full-sized trees. Others I may try to trade for better material.
Many should also be great as landscape trees, so I'm looking at going that route.
I ended up putting a spool of ribbon in my bonsai toolbox that I keep there so it’s handy when I’m watering. When I notice a tree’s soil is slow to drain, I cut a piece of ribbon from the spool and tie it on a branch. The next spring, trees with ribbons on them are the ones I’m repotting. Cut the ribbon off when I repot the tree. When there are no more ribbon-marked trees in the garden, I know I’m done repotting. Now, I don’t need to remember when a tree was last repotted.
