Many of my trees are of the elgant nature..There are 2 reasons for this, one is becasue I like them and two, they seem to be more affordable. Like everything else, bonsai is a business. Unfortunatley, fatter trunk trees command such high prices and are not easilly found, so people will always be limited on what they can buy and work on. On a positive note, I think that these higher prices for fatter trunks, might make for the continuing use of slender, more legant trunks. Which is good because I also enjoy these trees.
It does seem like many of the seasoned bonsai artists are posting almost all fat trunk trees lately.. This is fine..but what about when one wants to do more than look. What about actually getting to work on this material. I learned many years ago about what could be attained and achieved in bonsai. Now, there are new enthusiasts coming up... When these enthusiasts begin the bonsai journey they might get discouraged pretty quickly. I mean, think about someone who has been in bonsai for about 6 months-1 year. They are new, but seem to have a very good eye.. They finally get to visit a real bonsai nursery. They see material that they would love to work on or maybe at least try. They look at the price tag and it says $2000. This might get someone to think.. If these are the prices, I may never be able to afford material like this.. Ergo, discouragement early on.
Rob