I was going through my t-shirt "collection" last night, getting rid of some old ones because my drawers are overflowing. It is not a direct parallel for the process of weeding out unworthy bonsai stock because t-shirts get worse with age and bonsai get better (for the most part.) But I think the decision process is similar, and in both cases I need to get rid of more then just a couple old dogs, and in both cases I have developed irrational emotional attachments to some as well.
At some point there is a limit to how many trees you want to or can keep up with. The limit has to do with growing space, maintenance time and many other factors I'm sure. This limit is very personal for everyone and can change from year to year.
Personally, my growing space in flux because one of my neighbors complained and now we are not allowed to have potted plants in the courtyard. Maybe if I had been more selective and restrained in the first place, the neighbor would not have complained, but probably not, she is a total (*personally biased derogatory). Fortunately the landscape committee has allowed me a garden box on the backside of our building, which could be a backhanded blessing since nearly all of my material could use some years in the ground to develop their potential. However, the growing bed is in a semi public area. I am afraid to draw to much attention to them and think that a potted plant may "walk off" or just get messed with by some neighborhood kids or drunks. I've compensated for this by taking a few plants to my sister's place and by enhancing my indoor growing conditions, but this spring I am going to have lot of thinking and reorganizing to do. I probably do need to get rid of some. Also a few of the potted ones at my sisters I really like and am thinking I should bring them back and put them in the ground where I can care of them. Additionally even some of my "indoor" material which is doing pretty well indoors, could really stand to benefit from a summer outside.
As far as potential though. I do appreciate and heed the advice of the more experienced who say not to waste time with inferior material, however, the more experienced should remember that not everyone is at the same stage in their bonsaism. Although I could have skipped a few years by starting with better stock, it sure would have hurt more to learn my horticultural lessons of mortality on nice trees. I also enjoy the challange of turning something that is not considered good material into something beautiful, even if it might take me many years, or even if it takes many years and then fails to attain my goal anyways. This spring I am sure I will keeping you updated with some of my terrible experiments. I have a prunus in mind that was a bunch of volunteers twisted together and left to the escape method. I remember Jim telling me not to, but now they have fused, but the bark and leafing characteristics are different from the volunteers and it is really ugly. It might not make the cut this spring.
Thanks,
David
