What tree have you kept for the longest amount of time ?

[Njyamadori]

I know many of the users on Bonsainut have been in bonsai for more than a decade and some for many decades. Some of you guys must have some tree that you've had for years. What's the tree that you have kept for the longest amount of time?

 

[HorseloverFat]

The "Stinker" in me wants to say...

"25-30 feet"

 

[Njyamadori]

The "Stinker" in me wants to say...

"25-30 feet"

This rough morning isn't allowing me to figure out a correct title

 

[HorseloverFat]

But I have only been doing this for under 3 years..

So that's my answer.. under three years.. Poms, Bougie, Camellia, Buckthorn, Honeysuckle, Thuja, and Spruce, have been the ones that SURVIVED the longest.. AND were also subject to MANY MANY MANY beginner's mistakes.

 

[HorseloverFat]

rough morning

Sorry to hear that.

 

[Japonicus]

meet my Alpha procumbens

Good evening fellow Bonsai Nuts! This is Alpha, my longest running bonsai of 20 years or so. Few of my plants for bonsai do I name, but this one has been with me through hell and high water. I made what I thought was a cold frame I guess 18 yrs ago in which I ignorantly baked nearly all of my...

www.bonsainut.com

probably got this one in 1999 or maybe a year earlier.

 

[just.wing.it]

My P. Afra is my only one from my first year of attempting to create bonsai.
2015:


2021:

It's come a long way in 6 years.

 

[Nybonsai12]

been doing bonsai around a little over a decade. Had these two just about the entire time. Anything else I had at the start was either sold or sacrificed.

 

[HorseloverFat]

The "Stinker" in me wants to say...

"25-30 feet"

Awww!

Now that you've changed the title.. my Joke Doesn't make sense!!

 

[William N. Valavanis]

55 plus years

 

[PaulH]

Cork oak, Q suber. I planted the acorn around 1986.

 

[Carol 83]

My P. Afra is my only one from my first year of attempting to create bonsai.
2015:
View attachment 418644

2021:
View attachment 418645
It's come a long way in 6 years.

I really like that pot.

 

[Bonsai Nut]

The tree that I can confirm I've had the longest is a shimpaku from 1994 that's still with me. It is tough to keep a lot of trees when you move from Chicago to Southern California, and then from Southern California to North Carolina. However I've got quite a few trees I've had about 20 years.

 

[just.wing.it]

I really like that pot.

Thanks! It's a cheapo found on Amazon a couple years ago.
It had no drainage holes, so I drilled a couple with a 3/4" Diamond edge hole saw bit, and I think I used a 1/8" for wire anchor holes.
It's actually quite thick and heavy-duty feeling.

 

[BrianBay9]

I've moved among six climate zones over the past 20 years. Not surprising then that my longest is a ficus that could handle the moves inside when necessary. My oldest is from 2000. I'll see if I can get a pic up later.

 

[Dav4]

This Japanese maple raft came from a cutting struck in 1998. It's made the trip with me from MA to GA in 2009 and from GA to MI in 2021... we've both come a long way together .

Japanese maple raft project

This is a maple I started as a cutting at least 15 years ago, or rather, it was layered off of a maple I started as a cutting over 15 years ago. For one reason or another, part of the trunk had died, so the roots were relatively one sided. I kept it around for a long time, mainly because it...

www.bonsainut.com

 

[rockm]

Going on 30 years for this live oak, as well as a couple of others..

 

[Njyamadori]

Awww!

Now that you've changed the title.. my Joke Doesn't make sense!!

I Finally got the ability to think

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

I thought I just answered this in another thread?

Pomegranate - 42 years - kept it alive from about 1970 thru 2012, when a accident caused its demise. It does not look like much, as it was the victim of all my beginner mistakes. Fro the time I started until 2000 I was not serious about bonsai, it was more a houseplant. I assumed I could learn bonsai from books and this new thing Al Gore "invented" (joking) the "Internet". In 2000 I joined my first bonsai club and by 2003 I was taking classes with Ted Matson and Jim Doyle and other travelling teachers. I had other trees, with more potential so this tree never really got individual attention. But it is a testimony to the species being a survivor. I was 15 years old when I started watering it. It survived my mistakes, it moved to college with me, it survived all manner of mayhem. I highly recommend Pomegranate as an indoor for winter, outdoor for summer sub-tropical for northerners or as a outdoor year round for anyone who's winter lows temps are above 25 F or -4 C. They might possibly survive colder, briefly but keeping them above 25 F will avoid loosing fine twigs. I live in zone 5b, so I would let mine experience a few frosts then bring it in for the winter, either under lights or into the well house. In the well house it would break dormancy about a month early on me in February, then it would get moved to the light set up.

 

[Bob Hunter]

38 Years......