How Long

[Gene Deci]

At a club event last weekend a young woman asked me how long it takes to make a bonsai tree. I said there is no fixed answer to that because it depends on so many different factors. That is my standard reply. It's a question we all get. But she pressed me for an estimate so I gave it some thought.

There were a few trees at this event, which enabled me to tell her what she wanted to know without actually answering her question. I told her that most of the bonsai there were from collected trees and that none took less than five years before they could be called bonsai and most took longer.

She said, "I could do that." I thought, "Yes, you probably could but not until you have invested a few years learning how." But I didn't say anything.

So, what do you nuts say when you get that question?

 

[Vance Wood]

The truth always works best. The answer to the woman's question is: It depends. It depends on how old the tree is that you start with, a bonsai could be created in a few hours or a few decades. Bonsai does not need another dilettante who will get in and get out with the first obstacle they encounter. Don't try to keep people interested by sugar coating a turd. Encouragement is one thing fantasy is another.

 

[jkd2572]

PayPal can get you one in about a week.

 

[Brian Underwood]

I almost always say that a project tree is anywhere from 5 to 10 years away from being a show-worthy bonsai. That is a pretty vague answer that takes very little into consideration, but is often true.

 

[Poink88]

The truth always works best. The answer to the woman's question is: It depends. It depends on how old the tree is that you start with, a bonsai could be created in a few hours or a few decades. Bonsai does not need another dilettante who will get in and get out with the first obstacle they encounter. Don't try to keep people interested by sugar coating a turd. Encouragement is one thing fantasy is another.

LOL. Love this and very true.

 

[Vance Wood]

I almost always say that a project tree is anywhere from 5 to 10 years away from being a show-worthy bonsai. That is a pretty vague answer that takes very little into consideration, but is often true.

That's pretty accurate even if you start with good material. The instant bonsai is pretty much a rarity and even then it takes a year or two to bring the ramification to a semblance of maturity and the removal of wire, assuming everything was done right in the first place. Which begs a question, or at least a comment. It is one thing to start out with a world class piece of material it is another to know what to do with it.

I think we often overlook, in our endeavors to aid the newbie, that there is a significant learning curve in doing bonsai. Not only is there a good many technical, and mechanical issues to be taught and learned, there are the artistic principles and concepts that will in the end determine the quality of the work. On this last point it is almost impossible to determine how much of this is going to be a natural sense of art, a gift from God if you like, or how much of this can only be taught by a paint by the numbers approach, with limited results.

The entire issue boils down to two sets of assumptions: One, that we as teachers assume certain things about the newbie that may or may not be true and Two, the newbie has this idea in their head as to how things work, mostly because it makes sense to them. I have seen some really nice material go down in flames because of these two issues.

 

[Poink88]

That's pretty accurate even if you start with good material. The instant bonsai is pretty much a rarity and even then it takes a year or two to bring the ramification to a semblance of maturity and the removal of wire, assuming everything was done right in the first place. Which begs a question, or at least a comment. It is one thing to start out with a world class piece of material it is another to know what to do with it.

I think we often overlook, in our endeavors to aid the newbie, that there is a significant learning curve in doing bonsai. Not only is there a good many technical, and mechanical issues to be taught and learned, there are the artistic principles and concepts that will in the end determine the quality of the work. On this last point it is almost impossible to determine how much of this is going to be a natural sense of art, a gift from God if you like, or how much of this can only be taught by a paint by the numbers approach, with limited results.

The entire issue boils down to two sets of assumptions: One, that we as teachers assume certain things about the newbie that may or may not be true and Two, the newbie has this idea in their head as to how things work, mostly because it makes sense to them. I have seen some really nice material go down in flames because of these two issues.

Sage's words of wisdom right there...ALL of these issues I am struggling with right now.

 

[rockm]

She said, "I could do that." I thought, "Yes, you probably could but not until you have invested a few years learning how."

Well, that's kind of how I got started in bonsai. It took me a minute to think that upon learning that bonsai are chopped down from larger trees and regrown. It took 15 years (and counting) for me to put that 'A-hah' moment into action.

Along the way, I went through phases of knowing everything and saying I was going to do bonsai "my way," to now. Nowadays--well--the older I get, the less I know...and the longer things take.

 

[Attila Soos]

...a young woman asked me how long it takes to make a bonsai tree

I would answer with a question: "How long it takes the average human to get to San Francisco by foot?"

 

[Vance Wood]

She said, "I could do that." I thought, "Yes, you probably could but not until you have invested a few years learning how."

Well, that's kind of how I got started in bonsai. It took me a minute to think that upon learning that bonsai are chopped down from larger trees and regrown. It took 15 years (and counting) for me to put that 'A-hah' moment into action.

Along the way, I went through phases of knowing everything and saying I was going to do bonsai "my way," to now. Nowadays--well--the older I get, the less I know...and the longer things take.

I don't think that it is so much that it takes you longer to do something as it is that you have learned the most difficult lesson in bonsai, or anything else for that matter: Patience. No one likes to hear about patience, especially here, patience means waiting time and no one in our culture wants to wait anymore, they want it now or not at all.

I hear this all the time in discussions over the National policy about drilling for oil. One group says we have to drill now and drill everywhere, while the other group follows with; well that will take ten years before we see results from that activity. So here we set ten years down the road from the original argument that we must drill now, arguing whether drilling now will help the price of petroleum when we could have drilled now, ten years ago, and be sitting on top of our earlier efforts to drill ten years ago pondering the results if we had drilled then?

It is a sad thing that this kind of thinking has become a dominant trait of our National demeanor, and it is particularly true in the pursuit of bonsai. Unless you want to buy finished bonsai and try to keep them at least alive you are doomed to have a close encounter with the word patience.

 

[Gene Deci]

A wise member of our club has a saying: "If you don't do it because it will take too long, in five years time, five years will still have gone by."