Time

[Dirty Nails]

Sunday's always make me philisophical and twice in the past day I have read a post that said "time is on my side"

I must disagree and say that time is NOT on your side. Time is something that you never know how much you have until it is gone. Life is too short...to grow bonsai from seed. Even if you live to 100 life is too short. Start with good stock and by the time you are 30 you will have nice trees. By the time you are 40 you will be a very experienced artist. Don't waste you first 8 years f****ing around with seeds.

Time is a hellhound on your trail. Buy decent pre bonsai and keep that dog behind you.

 

[Vance Wood]

Sunday's always make me philisophical and twice in the past day I have read a post that said "time is on my side"

I must disagree and say that time is NOT on your side. Time is something that you never know how much you have until it is gone. Life is too short...to grow bonsai from seed. Even if you live to 100 life is too short. Start with good stock and by the time you are 30 you will have nice trees. By the time you are 40 you will be a very experienced artist. Don't waste you first 8 years f****ing around with seeds.

Time is a hellhound on your trail. Buy decent pre bonsai and keep that dog behind you.

I have to agree and I have grown many trees from seed. Seed cultivation is fun and rewarding but if your introduction to bonsai is through see production you are going to be frustrated and impatient for the rest of your career in bonsai.

 

[Gene Deci]

When I was much younger, I knew a gentleman who made furniture and such the old fashioned way. He used only hand tools and traditional methods. His work was marvelous and you could usually not tell a piece was “hand made”.

Someone asked him once when I happened to be in his shop, why he did not use power tools. He could produce results at least as good with much less time and effort that way, the person observed.

The older gentleman’s answer was something like this - to the best of my memory. “I am glad you like my work. I must admit am proud of it. I admit I am proud of it for the skill it takes to do it the old way. But mainly I do it that way because I enjoy it. I do what I like doing and sometimes something fine results. You can’t ask for much more from life.”

He offered to teach me on more than one occasion. Although I found what he did fascinating, I had no interest in learning how to do it myself. I still don’t and he has long since passed away in any case. But doing bonsai has taught me to appreciate his philosophy. There is nothing wrong with doing something simply because you enjoy it without being driven by efficiency and time.

 

[nip]

For some folks- life is about the journey, not the destination. I feel the same way about bonsai. I will continue to grow from seed until my time runs out (in addition to buying quality stock).

 

[jkd2572]

I have one tree I grew from seed and it is very special to me, because of that. It is a flame mimosa. I got the seeds from a tree in my area in the wild. Planted 20 of them. My two year old seedling is the only one that came up. Since then I have wired movement into it and enjoy the awesome growth this little guy gets every year. A couple of weeks ago I had mixed my insecticide too strong, always read the label, and burnt it leafs off. I felt awful. I went out today and noticed the dormant buds are starting to unfurl into new leafs. I can't tell you how happy this made me. There is something neat about a tree that you grow from seed. That being said most of my trees are older than me, but if I had to downsize my collection this little guy would make the keeper pile. The day it blooms at one point is going to be very cool day for me.