When you die, what will become of your trees? Curious who's got this planned!

[Deleted member 21616]

@rockm i think we must have very different friends and family...

have you ever gone on vacation for 2-3 weeks at a time? if you did, based on what you're saying i'm assuming that all of your trees died?

my mediocre bonsai

maybe this is the problem - not the trees, but your appreciation of their importance to the broader bonsai community. I have seen your trees, and have a hard time believing that nobody would take any of them for free or even for a reasonable price.

Are you not part of a local community? How far are you from a nursery who would gladly take them (for free, at the very least) and sell them?

 

[rockm]

@rockm i think we must have very different friends and family

have you ever gone on vacation for 2-3 weeks at a time? if you did, based on what you're saying i'm assuming that all of your trees died?

Some nearly have when they've looked after by my best friend and his family when I've taken vacations...No harm, no foul. They did their level best--which left trees soggy, with various levels of root problems.

My son has taken over their care when I've had to take several weeks-long emergency trips during the growing season. He has been great at it, a real trooper. He managed to take care of my trees and my dog, while he was in the middle of final exams at college. It wasn't easy for him. He didn't complain and did a great job.

However, weeks of caring for my trees is a lot to ask from someone who has only a passing interest in bonsai and is doing me a favor.

It is a huge IMPOSITION on your loved ones/friends to ask them to do this when you die. It is one of MANY IMPOSITIONS your family will have to take up after you pass.

If you don't see that God help you.

OF COURSE your friends and family will tell you they will take care of your trees when you die. They love you. They will, probably with the best intensions, try to keep your trees going or sell them...After a few months of overwatering or uneven watering (because your family and friends have actual lives to return to instead of keeping a shrine to your ego going), your trees will begin a decline. that decline could be slight at first, or precipitous... Some could get sold, or given to bonsai folks, but that depends on how busy your immediate family is with your other affairs.

Good luck!

 

[coh]

If something happens to me, I told my wife (and put it in writing) - contact so-and-so from the local club. They can come over and take all the trees and supplies and have an auction or whatever. Trees that people like will find homes. Trees that people don't like, well...maybe someone will take them as yard trees. Of course, it helps to have a large and very active club nearby...

I will probably gradually sell off most of my trees over time, only keeping a few. We are talking about becoming "mobile" after retirement (traveling around the country) so continuing to do bonsai at that point will probably be difficult anyway.

 

[Lorax7]

I haven’t decided yet.

Option A:
Defoliate and put the leaves and flowers in canopic jars. Bareroot and wrap the trunk, branches, and nebari in linen. Cover them with natron salts until the tree desiccates completely. Then remove the dried trees and place them on plinths surrounding my sarcophagus in the inner chamber of my desert tomb. This will ensure that I have good starting material in order to practice bonsai in the afterlife.

Option B:
Get a wooden boat and make a pyre of all my trees in it. Pile several spools of all different gauges of unannealed copper wire on top. Then add my body on top of that and lay a sword across my chest. Light the pyre and push the boat out into Lake Michigan. It’s like a Viking funeral but with bonsai. Although it will be hard to recover, the copper wire should get annealed in the fire and quench when it falls into the lake.

 

[Smoke]

I haven’t decided yet.

Option A:
Defoliate and put the leaves and flowers in canopic jars. Bareroot and wrap the trunk, branches, and nebari in linen. Cover them with natron salts until the tree desiccates completely. Then remove the dried trees and place them on plinths surrounding my sarcophagus in the inner chamber of my desert tomb. This will ensure that I have good starting material in order to practice bonsai in the afterlife.

Option B:
Get a wooden boat and make a pyre of all my trees in it. Pile several spools of all different gauges of unannealed copper wire on top. Then add my body on top of that and lay a sword across my chest. Light the pyre and push the boat out into Lake Michigan. It’s like a Viking funeral but with bonsai. Although it will be hard to recover, the copper wire should get annealed in the fire and quench when it falls into the lake.

Your going to need a fire permit on Lake Michigan, otherwise great idea.

 

[Smoke]

When I get the bad news I plan on having all my trees shredded and turned into oriented strand board and build a coffin.

 

[wlambeth]

They are going to be transported with me in spirit to my next life!! LOL