Does anyone else name their trees?

[coh]

I name them "willow_ficus_01", "willow_ficus_02", "free_juniper", "cr_black_pine" (cr = initials of the person I got it from), etc.

Very creative, I know!

 

[PaulH]

I've named a few. Some names are descriptive and some are based on where I got it. E.G. Fat Ollie, The Big Redwood, The Mas Black Pine, Yosh Black Pine, Ken's Oak, Bjorn Cali, Bob's Cali, Gnarly Olive, Twisty Lodgepole, Big Sierra, Little Sierra, Grafted Sierra, Silver Lake Sierra. My wife recently named Grandmother Willow.

 

[JudyB]

piglet

 

[Mike MoMo]

I'm crazy of course I name my trees. Ir would be rude to talk to them and not address them. By the way the nieghborhood skunk Slim Stinky just walked by.

 

[my nellie]

No, I don't BUT if that Azalea will make it and survive I have promised I will name it "Lazarus"

... ... I gave it the name Enelysios, because this name derives from "struck by lightning" in Greek. This was a blessing by Zeus that sent you to paradise.... ...

To be precise this means only : "struck by lightning" and refers especially to a place struck by lightning, thus inaccessible and holy place.
The Elysian Fields, or Elysium : in Greek mythology and religion it is the final resting places of heroes and the virtuous ones who were given by the Gods the gift of immortality.
@AlainK : Avenue des Champs-Élysées, it is!

 

[Tidal Bonsai]

Thanks for the info!

 

[shinmai]

I've hunted pheasants with a guy who has a yellow lab. The dog had a birth defect, and had his tail docked. The guy named his dog Forrest Stump.

 

[shinmai]

And I about wet myself laughing when I got to Treeanu Leaves....

 

[shinmai]

By now it should be obvious that the Jenny reference is to Forrest Gump's one true love--"that's my Jenny."
This morning I looked at the bucida planting and yelled, "run, forest, run!!!!" Nothing....d@mn thing ignored me, just like my kids.

 

[Bonsai901]

I tend to name most of my plants since I like them more than I like people; None are as catchy as the ones already listed.

 

[michaelj]

I have only one tree named, as far as I can recall. My children named it Meelo, after a character from Avatar the Last Airbender.

 

[Boerboel313]

Lol. I do not. I use the tree variety, style and color of pot distinguish between them.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

When in a maudlin mood, or full of booze, I used to name all my trees, all my orchids. The next day I would say to myself, ''what the hell I was thinking'' or that title is a bit presumptuous, or ''aren't we feeling pompous''.

When some of my orchids won national awards, and needed a name for publication, I ended up just naming my orchids for various women in my life. Never name an orchid or a tree after somebody that might become an ''Ex'' as this can lead to inconvenient conversations with later romantic partners. So all the women I named orchids for are relatives. Makes conversation with lovers less awkward.

Every time I named a tree, within a year or two I would do something stupid and the tree would die.

So seriously, nothing wrong with poetic names, names honoring people or places. But often are trees are not of sufficient quality to ''live up to the expectations'' that having a name would project into the minds of the observers. You can give a name to a display, to ''force'' the viewer to notice certain features, Like ''ancient one'' to force viewer to look at bark. But if the bark was not pronounced enough to get the viewer to look at the bark without prompting, then the tree was not of quality enough to live up to the title.

So sometimes I name a tree, or an orchid, or a display, but rarely do I tell anyone, for fear of appearing too full of myself.

Oh, I do have an inventory list, and all the orchids and bonsai are or will be on the list. They each get a number. I'm in the thousands now, sometimes I recycle a number after the death of the plant, sometimes I don't. So I do have an orchid with a #1, and a corkbark JBP #1063
Every plant in the house gets a tag with genus, and species name and any cultivar name if it has one in addition to the tag with its inventory number. I don't count this as ''naming'', this is just good book keeping.

 

[WesB]

Not all but some. Usually just a nickname or if the tree looks like something already. I once upon a long long time ago had an S curved tea that I layed down and carved little dragon horns and face on to at the top. Every one called it “Nessie” and said it looked like the Lochness monster. LoL Fun!

 

[amatbrewer]

I don't name my trees but my family tends to.
My wife has a ficus we call Phil, and my son has its little sister that is called Phyllis. I have a Wisteria that has been pronounced dead but returned to life at least 3 times now that we obviously call Lazarus. For some reason that I have yet to figure out my daughter named my Ginkgo "Will Wheaten" (Yeah, the actor in Stand by me and Star Trek TNG)?!?! My son rescued a pine (thought it was a shore pine, but now not so sure. Pun intended.) a neighbor had ripped out that he named Beau after the original owners obnoxious dog Beauregard. And I am not going to even try to explain "the Jewish Christmas Cactus". I just sigh and shake my head.

 

[coh]

So I do have an orchid with a #1, and a corkbark JBP #1063

So does that mean you've killed 1062 corkbark JBPs? Maybe this will be one

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

A few of my trees have names:
My wife called this Hawthorn, “stump in a pot” because that’s all it was when I collected it in 2000:

Son of Seattle Elm (a root cutting from an Elm I bought at Bonsai Northwest in 1996):

Peter Warren Pine, originally styled by Peter Warren in April and again on a return visit in October 2011. Pretty cool:

Ben Oki Azalea, originally dug in 2002(?) and styled with Ben Oki in a 2005 workshop:

The 350 JBP, because I bought several JBP from Brussels around this time, and this one was $350.

And the Crazy Shimpaku, originally styled by Bonsai Crazy in a demo back in 2012 or 13:

 

[Frojo]

I don't, but sometimes they do.
The one insists on Treezilla.

 

[Potawatomi13]

Cobra

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

So does that mean you've killed 1062 corkbark JBPs? Maybe this will be one

LOL
Naw, I've only killed about 50 or so Cork Bark JBP. One Excel Spreadsheet for all plants on the inventory. (actually using Open Office these days) So the inventory of orchids, cactus, bamboo and bonsai totals some number over 1200. But this is how I know how long I've had some trees and orchids.

Yes, cork bark JBP is a passion, fascination. And I am always screwing up. The pain of trying to grow something not winter hardy in your area. I do have 6 or so alive at the moment. But all of them are still pretty young. Some 10 years ago I was getting cocky, because I had one cork bark that I managed to keep going for 18 years, it was looking pretty cool. Pushed it too hard, did too many things to it in one year, and killed it. Still have not regained the ''touch'' needed to repeat that success again. My oldest cork bark has been with me maybe 6 years. Oh well. I keep trying.