Did you kill your first tree? How?

[green_emi]

Im very new to bonsai and have my first lovely S shape chinese elm
Since Im waiting for spring to do major styling all i can do now is learn as much as possible and learn how to keep the tree alive and healthy.
Do you still have your first tree?
If it died, what went wrong?

 

[BrianBay9]

Im very new to bonsai and have my first lovely S shape chinese elm
Since Im waiting for spring to do major styling all i can do now is learn as much as possible and learn how to keep the tree alive and healthy.
Do you still have your first tree?
If it died, what went wrong?

Gift juniper that I kept on my coffee table.....didn't last long.

 

[Anthony]

First tree was a Yellow Poui seedling found in the backyard.
Was doing well. until a rooster pulled it up.
Good Day
Anthony

 

[WNC Bonsai]

Mine was a pine, possibly pitch or Virginia pine collected from a mountaintop cliff on my grandfathers farm in 1976. Back then the practice was to use an organic soil mix with some sand or small gravel tossed in for drainage. It lasted about 10 years but then died one winter. I had left it sittnig on our back deck steps all winter and it had lost vigor over the years. There just wasn’t a lot of info back then on how to care for our native yamadori so it really died more from neglect and poor care. Too basd since it ws a really nice tree with some real age and girth on it. I collected it from a depression in the rocks and almost the whole root system came out with a little encouragement.

 

[green_emi]

First tree was a Yellow Poui seedling found in the backyard.
Was doing well. until a rooster pulled it up.
Good Day
Anthony

Sorry about that! I'll remember that if its in the ground it needs to be protected from animals

 

[0soyoung]

I took out a gun.
And I just shot it.

 

[Michael P]

Amazingly I still have my first bonsai, acquired as a 1 gallon nursery plant in 1975. It is a Natal plum, Carissa grandiflora. It has had many near-death experiences, but at least I knew enough to put it outside every summer. That is the main reason it survived my years of ignorance. In the meantime, I have killed many trees, mostly from bonsai demonstration syndrome.

 

[green_emi]

I took out a gun.
And I just shot it.

Sacrificial tree?

 

[green_emi]

Amazingly I still have my first bonsai, acquired as a 1 gallon nursery plant in 1975. It is a Natal plum, Carissa grandiflora. It has had many near-death experiences, but at least I knew enough to put it outside every summer. That is the main reason it survived my years of ignorance. In the meantime, I have killed many trees, mostly from bonsai demonstration syndrome.

Wow! Can see a pic of your plum?
Whats demonstration syndrom?

 

[Michael P]

I'll try to get a photo tomorrow if the weather clears up.

Bonsai demonstration syndrome happens when a respected guest bonsai expert comes to your club to do a workshop or demonstration. The tree(s) may be something the club bought for the occasion, or it might be a member's tree. The guest artist does wonderful things! He or she restyles, prunes, wires, re-pots and the tree is transformed.

Then the tree is raffled or returned to its owner, who proudly takes it home. There it slowly dies, having been worked to death.

 

[Rid]

I killed my first 14 trees

 

[BrianBay9]

I killed my first 14 trees

Most of us stopped counting sooner than that......

 

[PeaceLoveBonsai]

Did you ever read “Of Mice and Men”...?

Do you remember what Lennie did to his puppy?

No? Google It.

I was the Lennie Smalls of Bonsai for longer than I’d like to admit. ????

 

[Lorax7]

Juniper “bonsai” purchased from Lowe’s in the 90’s. I kept it alive successfully for several years despite not knowing that it should’ve been outdoors. Killed it the first time I repotted it via root rot because I knew nothing about the importance of drainage at the time. I didn’t know of anyplace where I could buy a proper bonsai pot for it. The closest thing I could find in size and shape was a shallow pot that was really designed for growing a cactus. It had no drainage holes.

 

[barrosinc]

Yes. Mallsai elm in water retentive substrate... over watered

 

[substratum]

Went backpacking in Europe for 6 weeks (‘83), leaving Mom with a watering schedule, and her word that they’d be cared for. She didn’t water any of them... not even once. They were all crisp when I returned. Learned a valuable lesson.

 

[Carol 83]

Went backpacking in Europe for 6 weeks (‘83), leaving Mom with a watering schedule, and her word that they’d be cared for. She didn’t water any of them... not even once. They were all crisp when I returned. Learned a valuable lesson.

Your mom sounds like my son.......

 

[TN_Jim]

dig
bareroot
put in heavy organic (ton of sifted bark with some lowes pea gravel) despite reading copious times otherwise <-I know plants & yea..
wire
arrange
no, style again
these branches are MY medium!
again!
...all same day or next
proud
put next to house west facing no protection, just side-by-side throughout winter and too late in season
ERC
~12 trees
2 live....these two I did not like as much, don't think I bare rooted them completely, they didn't have the "potential" and were after-thoughts...adjacent fodder from collecting good material...one in a shitty plastic cereal bowl with pocket knife holes, other in a metal container with nail punctures (both exposed all winter).
cereal bowl one I put in a thick clay pot (that cracked in freeze-thaws) that previously held a dead heavily wired one I really liked...thought it was on death's door all year and it came back..

 

[Tidal Bonsai]

Ooooohhhh my first tree lasted about a week, or two. I took a garden juniper in a 3 gallon pot, and sawed off 90% of the roots out of season. I joined Deep Cut Bonsai Society, and never looked back!

 

[coh]

Nope, first tree was a boxwood I got in a beginners workshop with Bill V in 2011 (I think). Sold it this summer, got bored with the style and didn't feel like investing the time and effort to change it.

I have killed a few along the way, a couple got too dry one winter and never woke up in the spring. One of those was the most expensive tree I had purchased to that point. Ouch.