I would love to join a bonsai club, BUT, the nearest one is over 2hrs drive away, and I have young kids. I have that pine book, but I have to admit that I don't understand a lot of it, I'm trying to arrange to go for a course at a bonsai place in the city, but they don't run many, and to date there has been various reasons to stop me. Most of my trees are young (Some very young) so I have a bit of time, but would love to learn. Bonsai is not a big thing here, and many who do have them know less than I do (I'm actually considered the local expert, and that's just frightening, cause I'm just a beginner who's managed to keep my trees alive, well most of them anyway, we don't talk about corokias in this household anymore

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So I hang around forums, read, and experiment, I grow lots of stuff just to learn on, or buy seedlings to grow on for experimentation (At the moment I want to learn about approach grafting) and leave my "good" trees alone, My oldest black pine, I took to a bonsai nursery to have it trimmed, and I must admit to getting to the point of thinking that I should just arrange for someone else to do the trimming and wiring of my pines/ceders etc, i Keep looking at them and am afraid to cut (Can't graft on a pine) Still I make mistakes, and then hide the mistake up the back of the yard and leave it alone to recover for a year or 10...... but hopefully I'll learn one day.
Heres a pic of my black pine before and after..