The “clearance plant, cheapo” thread

[Eckhoffw]

**OK, I’m not sure if this thread already exists, if so, let me know and I won’t continue.

I really want to see some nice examples of crap material turned terrific! -Ldirt cheap rubbish given a shot at beauty.

My inspiration for this,...... well most of my plants.
And, my recent 90% off, “please take these off our hands,” purchases from Lowe’s.

1st, the 1$ blue rug
Repotted and dead removed w/ a little wire
I’ve told myself to only removed dead foliage.
2nd, a 2.25$ blue rug spruce.

Again, only dead foliage removed, and some wire.
Looooooong way to go. But soo much fun!

 

[Forsoothe!]

Price is not a perfect corollary to good in bonsai or in lots of other things unless you're getting into "priced for snob appeal", in which case it can be a push/pull case of the higher the price, the larger the load of bullshit. For beginners low price means learning at a lower cost. That's a plus anytime. You need to learn how to shop and what the difference in favorable features are. You learn that by buying a plant based upon how it looks. Eventually, you learn there are just a few really important places on stock that make or break it as bonsai. The nebari is there and won't change for a long, long time. You learn to shop for nebari and the first couple inches of trunk. The rest of the stock can be changed by you in a shorter time frame so it's less important. You can be told this, but you really get it imprinted in your brain by buying stuff that doesn't lend itself to bonsai. Cheap material can teach that lesson just as fast as paying too much for supposed good stock from "reputable" dealers. You'll know when to buy more expensive stock. You will as your standards go up.

Learning bonsai is like any other endeavor, it's a volume and time with hands-on game. Buy lots of cheap stuff and style it all to the tens. You will pay for your education.

 

[Eckhoffw]

Price is not a perfect corollary to good in bonsai or in lots of other things unless you're getting into "priced for snob appeal", in which case it can be a push/pull case of the higher the price, the larger the load of bullshit. For beginners low price means learning at a lower cost. That's a plus anytime. You need to learn how to shop and what the difference in favorable features are. You learn that by buying a plant based upon how it looks. Eventually, you learn there are just a few really important places on stock that make or break it as bonsai. The nebari is there and won't change for a long, long time. You learn to shop for nebari and the first couple inches of trunk. The rest of the stock can be changed by you in a shorter time frame so it's less important. You can be told this, but you really get it imprinted in your brain by buying stuff that doesn't lend itself to bonsai. Cheap material can teach that lesson just as fast as paying too much for supposed good stock from "reputable" dealers. You'll know when to buy more expensive stock. You will as your standards go up.

Learning bonsai is like any other endeavor, it's a volume and time with hands-on game. Buy lots of cheap stuff and style it all to the tens. You will pay for your education.

Amen.
Im at a point in this where I just want to keep doing. The tranquility acquired by working on cheap crap material is well worth the price.
I do learn from these sad plants.

 

[stu929]

I have a lot a reject pile trees waiting for spring. I have only tried to style one and the other one I messed with was a trunk chop on a big baldy. I also have a Crepe Myrtle, Serviceberry, Gingko, Common Juniper and a few others that I got mostly for free that a nursery was throwing out.

Here's to hoping next year and can get all my rejects headed in the right direction!

 

[Eckhoffw]

I have a lot a reject pile trees waiting for spring. I have only tried to style one and the other one I messed with was a trunk chop on a big baldy. I also have a Crepe Myrtle, Serviceberry, Gingko, Common Juniper and a few others that I got mostly for free that a nursery was throwing out.

Here's to hoping next year and can get all my rejects headed in the right direction!

Those are some nice rejects! IMO. Good luck with them!

 

[leatherback]

I always think of my eonymous and malus as one of the best finds. Not sure the exact amount asked for. I think I left a tree nursery with 3 trunks after paying 30E or so. All of them on their "Not sellable to trade" trees list.

My malus before and this spring; no recent winter image, but slowly ramification is building:

 

[Boscology]

Amen.
Im at a point in this where I just want to keep doing. The tranquility acquired by working on cheap crap material is well worth the price.
I do learn from these sad plants.

Your posts should come with a disclaimer reminding people that you (and I) live in zone 4 where we have a mere 6 months a year that less hardy trees rest in cold frames, and we don't have a bonsai nursery for 100's of miles around us. Down south or out west one can throw a cutting on the ground and come back next year to harvest the equivalent of your nursery pot.

Personally think hacking away at nursery plants is a waste of time and I'd rather grow from sapling but here it is a fine pastime. I am really interested in our native trees and developing new species for bonsai and experimentation is the path to inspiration.

 

[leatherback]

Personally think hacking away at nursery plants is a waste of time

how come?

 

[Wilson]

So much of the material I use comes from garden centre rejects. I now have friends at the place down the road who set aside trunks for me. This pieris was the first piece one of the workers thought to save from the compost, because she knew I would love it!

 

[Eckhoffw]

Personally think hacking away at nursery plants is a waste of time and I'd rather grow from sapling but here it is a fine pastime.

Yes, indeed a pastime!
And when you pay next to nothing for a plant, it makes for a really cheap night of entertainment! It’s kind of like a Peter Chan challenge of transforming impossible material. Now, I understand these will most likely never amount to anything past fire starter, but,,,,, Give me a good beer and a plant, and I’m a happy shut in.

 

[Boscology]

So much of the material I use comes from garden centre rejects. I now have friends at the place down the road who set aside trunks for me. This pieris was the first piece one of the workers thought to save from the compost, because she knew I would love it! View attachment 341965View attachment 341966View attachment 341967View attachment 341968View attachment 341969View attachment 341970View attachment 341971

how come?

I dont like nursery plants because even if they have a good; trunk, movent, branching, and shape they will always have a hodgepodge root system.

Like Wilson's fine trees, they each look like they have maximum 2 roots at the top root level and they aren't even very horizontal. I've been pursuing this hobby for several years and lost many trees, I aim to create good material which cannot be missing an important visual element and be considered complete. I still have many nursery plants from years past that I am still essentially rebuilding a new root system (slow conifers).

Just my personal preference is all it is at this point but I aim to create thorough bonsai and I think starting with small plants like inexpensive seedlings or pre-bonsai is the best strategy for me.

 

[Eckhoffw]

So much of the material I use comes from garden centre rejects. I now have friends at the place down the road who set aside trunks for me. This pieris was the first piece one of the workers thought to save from the compost, because she knew I would love it! View attachment 341965View attachment 341966View attachment 341967View attachment 341968View attachment 341969View attachment 341970View attachment 341971

Very nice!! So cool that you have some friends on the ‘inside’
I’ve been chatting up a really cool guy at Lowe’s every time I see him. It’s paying off. Not only do I truly enjoy small talk with him, but I also enjoy that he will mark my plants as “damaged” to get the 50% off discount.

 

[leatherback]

they will always have a hodgepodge root system.

Fair enough.

Guess I shop at a different nursery

 

[Eckhoffw]

Fair enough.

Guess I shop at a different nursery

View attachment 341978View attachment 341979

Damn! I guess!

As Bosco kind of mentioned, descent nurseries do exist here, but their seasonal availability and accessibility, can make it tough to acquire. I believe prices also reflect this.

I’m expecting anything with any wow factor of quality and development will be a collected tree. For me that is.

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

I’m expecting anything with any wow factor of quality and development will be a collected tree. For me that is.

I expect you to change your mind in one or two years.

I see nurseries as some economic conjuncture-thing, it moves in waves; some years they're drowning in quality material, other years there is nothing interesting in stock.
Two years ago I got a gingkgo with a 1 inch diameter base for 9 euros. Procumbens junipers were 4 bucks a pop, all being 0.7 inch or thicker at the base. The mugo pines were prime and the Japanese white pines weren't grafted.
This year, no ginkgo's, no procumbens, all junipers, cypresses, hinoki's were labelled as 'mixed conifer assorted', yews were pencil thick and the magnolias that were 10 bucks the year before were now 45. The mugo pines this year sucked and all of the JWP were grafted.

Talk to those guys! I have a dude going the extra mile for me who even sends me pictures when he's at auctions, just he can get the stock trees I want to pay for at their nursery.

 

[jimib]

$7.00 quince from Lowe’s. Had it about 3 years...this thing is virtually bulletproof ..still working with it.

 

[stu929]

There are a bunch of flowering quinces in the junk pile at a local nursery but I have no idea what they are beyond flowering.

$7.00 quince from Lowe’s. Had it about 3 years...this thing is virtually bulletproof ..still working with it.

 

[Eckhoffw]

I got here a beat up

ramapo rhododendron ​

Clearance from Lowe’s

When I purchased it, there where dead flowers on it. The following year it perked up, but no flowers.
Since, it has dropped more leaves and is looking even more bare. That’s ok. I may have soil off. I’m guessing not acidic enough/ alkaline.
Still, well worth my 2$.

 

[Pitoon]

It was truly hard for me to stop myself from buying any/every plant on sale, but I have made an agreeance with myself to focus solely on a several species. I see the plant clearance section and now just walk buy......sometimes I make a pass through to see if they have anything that I'm focusing on if not I don't buy anything. If you continue on your course you will find yourself with a bunch of plants that each will get less and less of your time the more you add into your collection.

 

[Eckhoffw]

If you continue on your course you will find yourself with a bunch of plants that each will get less and less of your time the more you add into your collection.

Very true, and a good point.
For me these subjects serve as -more or less- a medium to see a challenge, a problem to work at creatively.
Survival is not all that important to me.
+ I would imagine many of plants would benefit from a degree of ‘neglect’ on my part.