New to the hobby from Boston

J

JeanR

Seedling
Messages
10
Reaction score
22
Location
Boston(ish)
USDA Zone
6b
HI everyone - I wanted to take a moment to introduce myself. My name is Jean and I've been dancing on the periphery of this hobby for a few years. I probably took my first beginner bonsai class 3-4 yrs ago and have had a few small project trees mostly taken from nursery stock that I am playing with around in the garden. I have 8 trees at the moment (4 indoor and 4 outdoor), and expect the collection to grow.

I grew up in Southern Florida and have a love for large banyan-style ficus trees and bald/swamp cypress, which are a joy to see in the bonsai hobby. For the last 12 years I've been living in the greater Boston area where the focus is on more traditional bonsai material.

We have two good bonsai stores in the area (New England Bonsai and Bonsai West) and I've attended a few "intermediate" workshops this year trying to learn some skills. I find the workshops really enjoyable - they can been a little pricey but to have decent pre-bonsai material selected for you and then be able to spend a few hours working on it with an experienced professional makes it worthwhile. Though to be honest I am struggling with how to spend time in this hobby without amassing a HUGE number of trees (I have a small garden) and spending a lot of money. Will look forward to spending time on this forum to learn from you all!

My other hobby is salt water aquariums (reef tanks) and growing coral, which has some nice parallels to the bonsai hobby (fragile living organisms requiring a lot of care and attention to detail). Trying to build a visually pleasing coral reef in your living room is a little like underwater bonsai.

Thanks for having me and looking forward to interacting with folks on the forum!

Cheers
JeanR
 
Welcome to the site! There are quite a few members here who have also enjoyed reef tanks.

Bonsai does not take a ton of money - though money can buy you finished trees a lot faster than the time it takes to create your own. However for many of us the creative process is as fun - if not more so - than having a tree that is ready to be taken to a big show.
 
JeanR said:
HI everyone - I wanted to take a moment to introduce myself. My name is Jean and I've been dancing on the periphery of this hobby for a few years. I probably took my first beginner bonsai class 3-4 yrs ago and have had a few small project trees mostly taken from nursery stock that I am playing with around in the garden. I have 8 trees at the moment (4 indoor and 4 outdoor), and expect the collection to grow.

I grew up in Southern Florida and have a love for large banyan-style ficus trees and bald/swamp cypress, which are a joy to see in the bonsai hobby. For the last 12 years I've been living in the greater Boston area where the focus is on more traditional bonsai material.

We have two good bonsai stores in the area (New England Bonsai and Bonsai West) and I've attended a few "intermediate" workshops this year trying to learn some skills. I find the workshops really enjoyable - they can been a little pricey but to have decent pre-bonsai material selected for you and then be able to spend a few hours working on it with an experienced professional makes it worthwhile. Though to be honest I am struggling with how to spend time in this hobby without amassing a HUGE number of trees (I have a small garden) and spending a lot of money. Will look forward to spending time on this forum to learn from you all!

My other hobby is salt water aquariums (reef tanks) and growing coral, which has some nice parallels to the bonsai hobby (fragile living organisms requiring a lot of care and attention to detail). Trying to build a visually pleasing coral reef in your living room is a little like underwater bonsai.

Thanks for having me and looking forward to interacting with folks on the forum!

Cheers
JeanR
Click to expand...
Welcome to the forum and welcome to the nut house! I am one of those people on here that also have a reef tank. You can find me on reef2reef under the same name. Tell us a little about your trees.
 
JeanR said:
Though to be honest I am struggling with how to spend time in this hobby without amassing a HUGE number of trees (I have a small garden) and spending a lot of money.
Click to expand...

If you grow from seed, you can amass a HUGE number of trees without spending a lot of money. That's what I did. Growing from seed is a lot of fun, albeit a lengthy process.
 
Gabler said:
If you grow from seed, you can amass a HUGE number of trees without spending a lot of money. That's what I did. Growing from seed is a lot of fun, albeit a lengthy process.
Click to expand...
It’s very satisfying too
 
Gabler said:
If you grow from seed, you can amass a HUGE number of trees without spending a lot of money. That's what I did. Growing from seed is a lot of fun, albeit a lengthy process.
Click to expand...
Where do you get your seeds from? I did try some cuttings last year (first year) but only had a couple that made it and none of Japanese maples cuttings made it although they appeared to be alive for couple months
 
Check out some of the contest threads in the contest forums. We just finished a "6 year from seed Japanese Black Pine" contest - you can check out some of the contest entries to see what people did to grow some interesting trees from seed in six years!
 
Jrmcmich said:
Where do you get your seeds from? I did try some cuttings last year (first year) but only had a couple that made it and none of Japanese maples cuttings made it although they appeared to be alive for couple months
Click to expand...
That depends on what you are looking for. Sheffield seeds has a good selection.
 
Welcome Aboard Bonsai Nut!

Looking forward to seeing your posts.

Cheers
DSD sends
 
19Mateo83 said:
Welcome to the forum and welcome to the nut house! I am one of those people on here that also have a reef tank. You can find me on reef2reef under the same name. Tell us a little about your trees.
Click to expand...
Thanks so much! Will post a few photos soon!
 
Thanks for the is information! I actually sent a few emails about the kaikou school but have yet to hear anything. I met someone at on the NEBG workshops who did the class and really like it. Have you done it?
FreshAirSunshine said:
Welcome! In addition to the northeast bonsai association I’d look at the kaikou study group at NEBG. I’m also from Boston and attend both grou
Click to expand...
 
I’m enrolled this year to start. In addition to the kaikou school of bonsai there’s the kaikou study group, which is more of a club than a study group for the school. I’ve been going to that for about a year and a half and it’s led by one of the instructors for the school, John Romano. That you can join in on without any commitment or application.
 
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