Nursery Stock Thread. For fun. and I just like pictures...

Cadillactaste

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Nursery material has for many years been pilloried by many in the bonsai trade as being inferior. It is not, it is seldom done with the same attention to detail and patience accorded Yamadori or specifically cultivated pre-bonsai. Ryan Neil recently has been going after the cultivation of bonsai from nursery material.
Ryan offers valuable direction in selecting material...thanks for sharing. What he offers is sound advice to chew over. Something back in the day as a newb...I had no direction...hence...landscape trees ended up later in the landscape. Lol
 
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Vance Wood

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Ryan offers valuable direction in selecting material...thanks for sharing. What he offers is sound advice to chew over. Something back in the day as a newb...I had no direction...hence...landscape trees ended up later in the landscape. Lol
I guess that can happen if you don't have the eye to do something with the tree. What I found early on when coming to this forum is that there is a group of people, and I guess there still is, that are convinced that if it is not Yamadori or pre-bonsai it is useless for bonsai and a wast of time. Included are a few of mine, one of them was a reject from someone who had the same attitude about material. After all; what is the difference between Yamadori, pre-bonsai and nursery material? TIME. Of course the argument can be made that these trees are not very good but they pass for bonsai in many circles, one of them was even considered good enough to display in the National Show two years ago.

AngryBirdMugo copy 2.jpgBlueSpruce09 copy.jpgDSC_0689.JPGDSC_3016 copy.JPGDSC_0017.JPG
 

Cadillactaste

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@Vance Wood ...I don't discredit nursery finds...but one needs to see the trees future as you stated. I so seem a cascading quince with that purchase from the nursery that I still have. As Ryan gave good direction one wants something that sets their material apart from the next. Pre-bonsai to me...is for me...a dream. Only because I live very rural...with very limited resources as nurseries go. I don't have the time to make the distance...almost an hour away for a lowes and two nurseries. If I want to drive almost two hours the other way...I have another nursery. I may go look for a clump or a one root grove. That style I am drawn to. So your video of Ryan...peeked my interest indeed! It's what I am currently smitten with.
 

Vance Wood

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@Vance Wood ...I don't discredit nursery finds...but one needs to see the trees future as you stated. I so seem a cascading quince with that purchase from the nursery that I still have. As Ryan gave good direction one wants something that sets their material apart from the next. Pre-bonsai to me...is for me...a dream. Only because I live very rural...with very limited resources as nurseries go. I don't have the time to make the distance...almost an hour away for a lowes and two nurseries. If I want to drive almost two hours the other way...I have another nursery. I may go look for a clump or a one root grove. That style I am drawn to. So your video of Ryan...peeked my interest indeed! It's what I am currently smitten with.
That's the reason I don't have a lot of Yamadori or pre-bonsai, accessibility, and opportunity that does not cost me a new car.
 

Gsquared

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I don't apologize for using nursery stock. Of course everyone clambers for collected trees, and lots are spectacular, and I've seen some really ugly "finished" collected trees. When you live in an urban environment, collected material is not easy to come by. So, we city dwellers collect from the nursery. Given time, and a talented hand, most nursery material can become respectable bonsai. Sure, it is easy to have an amazing collection if you use only $2000 pre-bonsai material, but it takes a helluvah lot more talent to make a $15 piece of nursery stock and transform it into a nice bonsai.
 

Hartinez

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I guess that can happen if you don't have the eye to do something with the tree. What I found early on when coming to this forum is that there is a group of people, and I guess there still is, that are convinced that if it is not Yamadori or pre-bonsai it is useless for bonsai and a wast of time. Included are a few of mine, one of them was a reject from someone who had the same attitude about material. After all; what is the difference between Yamadori, pre-bonsai and nursery material? TIME. Of course the argument can be made that these trees are not very good but they pass for bonsai in many circles, one of them was even considered good enough to display in the National Show two years ago.

View attachment 182668View attachment 182669View attachment 182670View attachment 182671View attachment 182672
Fantastic trees with humble beginnings. I feel like with any art form, satisfaction, love and peace of mind with your own work is all that ultimately matters. If you receive accolades, praise, awards etc. or can even become a professional than thats just icing on the cake! There are so many sides to the equation. For me, at 34 with only 7 yrs experience. Im certainly not about to buy a several hundred dollar piece of material that is one or two years away from national show worthy praise. For one, I don't feel I have the skills to make it anything more than an amateurs attempt with an expensive piece of material. For two, I'm not in the income bracket to be experimenting with said material. and 3, all I've got is time. Why not try to make something from nothing over a decade plus, and really be proud of something I've created myself. Nursery stock gives me the opportunity to do just that. I have really enjoyed digging and cultivating some great native junipers and piñon pine in the last few years but nursery stock is fun, available and challenging. And VERY fulfilling when you craft something cool over several years time, regardless of what any other bonsai aficionado may feel.

Loving this thread by the way!!
 

Hartinez

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Loving this thread everyone!! more trees!! more pics!!

Does anyone ever find themselves at a nursery or big box store, see a shrub or tree that your not familiar with and google the name of said plant with bonsai at the end? Im constantly doing this, and the more documentation and pictures we can get online of obscure attempts at bonsai for non traditional nursery stock, the better!!
 

Gsquared

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Fantastic trees with humble beginnings. I feel like with any art form, satisfaction, love and peace of mind with your own work is all that ultimately matters. If you receive accolades, praise, awards etc. or can even become a professional than thats just icing on the cake! There are so many sides to the equation. For me, at 34 with only 7 yrs experience. Im certainly not about to buy a several hundred dollar piece of material that is one or two years away from national show worthy praise. For one, I don't feel I have the skills to make it anything more than an amateurs attempt with an expensive piece of material. For two, I'm not in the income bracket to be experimenting with said material. and 3, all I've got is time. Why not try to make something from nothing over a decade plus, and really be proud of something I've created myself. Nursery stock gives me the opportunity to do just that. I have really enjoyed digging and cultivating some great native junipers and piñon pine in the last few years but nursery stock is fun, available and challenging. And VERY fulfilling when you craft something cool over several years time, regardless of what any other bonsai aficionado may feel.

Loving this thread by the way!!
One of the wisest things ever said to me in life was by my first San Francisco sensei, John Boyce. I was doing a Thursday night newbie workshop and John asked me if I ever had "worked with Japanese Black Pine." I answered, "no, the take too long to look good." To which John replied, "Yes, but the time is going to pass anyway, so you may as well start a pine."

Well said John, well said.
 

Lazylightningny

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I’m breaking my own rules here. But I’m terrible at remembering to snap a shot first. Here’s a San Jose juniper I got for $12 on clearance from Lowe’s. Fall 2016. Initial styling in spring 2017 and finished styling and deadwood fall 2017.
View attachment 182541
nice deadwood work
 

BunjaeKorea

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Loving this thread everyone!! more trees!! more pics!!

Does anyone ever find themselves at a nursery or big box store, see a shrub or tree that your not familiar with and google the name of said plant with bonsai at the end? Im constantly doing this, and the more documentation and pictures we can get online of obscure attempts at bonsai for non traditional nursery stock, the better!!
I always do that....my wife says I am crazy......and that life is not all about making big trees become small......
Shes right.....its about making small trees look big....
Anyway Korea has super fast internet so everything is a few seconds away.....as soon as I can figure out what the actual name is...
 

Sn0W

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Does anyone ever find themselves at a nursery or big box store, see a shrub or tree that your not familiar with and google the name of said plant with bonsai at the end? Im constantly doing this, and the more documentation and pictures we can get online of obscure attempts at bonsai for non traditional nursery stock, the better!!

Picked up a Parrotia Persica from that very same reasoning. The pot just said Par. Per so I took it up to the till to ask what it was and the guy had to look it up on his stock list. I then googled it and decided to take it home. It's going in the ground for a few years as the trunk is only an inch or so but I'm looking forward to it
 

BobbyLane

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I love nursery stock. as Potter has said, more often than not nursery material is a blank canvas with with little to no inherent beauty, so its for you to make something worthwhile with it. i love yamadori too btw.

Here's a Hornbeam bought from a hedging nursery, these have been in airpots for approx four years and have good root systems

20180226_135747 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr
20180226_142056 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr
20180306_114810 by Bobby Lane, on Flickr

virtual
27098594388_00a05f58ae_o by Bobby Lane, on Flickr
 

jeanluc83

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What I found early on when coming to this forum is that there is a group of people, and I guess there still is, that are convinced that if it is not Yamadori or pre-bonsai it is useless for bonsai and a wast of time.

What I find interesting is that there are also those who thinks if you don't grow a tree from seed or cutting you are somehow cheating. They look down on anyone who buys a tree with distain.

I guess you can't please everyone. Just do what makes you happy.
 
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