Good observation, bad analysis

bonsai barry

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I frequently bring bonsai trees to the middle school where I teach. I really don't discuss them much, I just place one on a student table. Yesterday a boy ask me where I hooked the electricity up. "Electricity? What do you mean?" I asked. He replied, "It's wrapped in wire so you must use electricity to make it grow small.
 

mat

Chumono
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Ah, he must be referring to the secret techniques of the infamous bonsai master Dr. Franken-sai.
 

Ang3lfir3

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interestingly he made an observation that is not entirely out of scope... we find that collecting small plants and grasses from under high tension power lines does produce smaller somewhat stunted plants... there may be something to this idea ...

of course most of the stunting in trees is due to the brush hogs being used keep the shrubs at bay... who knows :p
 

bob shimon

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I'm also a middle school teacher, now retired. We had a yearly lunch for our parent and community volunteers, and I would be asked to bring in some of my trees to help decorate the room. One year I overheard two parents looking at one of my trees, and they noticed the wires used to tie down the tree in the pot. One was explaing to the other, very assuredly, that the wire served the same purpose as when certain cultures bound the feet of young children to keep their feet from growing. The wire was wound tightly around the roots to keep the tree from growing. I'll bet that you didn't know that!
 

rockm

Spuds Moyogi
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Funny how bonsai warps people's minds...

My parents had a neighbor when they lived in NJ who said he "paid extra" for the "bonsai" pine he had planted in his front yard. The nursery or wherever he bought it from obviously had done a number on him. He paid several hundred dollars for a $15 mugo with a weird trunk and a seriously bad graft. I didn't have the heart to say anything to him though. He bragged about that seriously ugly tree for years...
 

october

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A friend of mine who is a school teacher told me one of the funniest things said by a child. They were teaching about fire safety. They asked "what do you do if your clothes are on fire?" Answer "Don't put them on". ;)
 

Brian Van Fleet

Pretty Fly for a Bonsai Guy
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I'll bet that you didn't know that!

Didn't know that there are people out there perfectly willing to share their expertise in areas where they have no knowledge? Yep, knew that...;)

Didn't know you were root-binding those poor tortured trees...:rolleyes:

Good story! Ignorance is bliss, and often hilarious.
 
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