Will the "huge trunk, no nebari" trend be the future of bonsai?

[Canada Bonsai]

There can be no good bonsai without good nebari

I guess it depends on what one means by nebari

 

[Gabler]

Also, not to toot my own horn, but there’s several of us who took up this joke challenge as a serious learning opportunity:

Gabler’s 27-Year Nebari Challenge

https://www.bonsainut.com/threads/contest-for-2023.58740/post-1017274 You may have posted it as a joke, but I’m doing it. Twenty-seven years. In case you’re wondering, I’ll be fifty-four years old twenty-seven years from today, assuming I don’t die in a car wreck or something. I collected...

www.bonsainut.com

 

[Cajunrider]

If this is the new trend, my trees are ready for Kokufu…

Since Batman is always vigilant, he is ready.

Also, not to toot my own horn, but there’s several of us who took up this joke challenge as a serious learning opportunity:

Gabler’s 27-Year Nebari Challenge

https://www.bonsainut.com/threads/contest-for-2023.58740/post-1017274 You may have posted it as a joke, but I’m doing it. Twenty-seven years. In case you’re wondering, I’ll be fifty-four years old twenty-seven years from today, assuming I don’t die in a car wreck or something. I collected...

www.bonsainut.com

I will be a few years shy of 100. I am also claiming Batman as the front runner.

 

[BonsaiPoppie]

This was essentially what I was trying to touch on, not trying to generalize anybody. But ultimately there are patterns one can see from miles away. And well, if the shoe fits.....

With an 11 EEEE, the shoe will not fit me.

 

[BonsaiPoppie]

I curse and moan and stumble carrying almost any tree nowadays...

I hear ya brother. I wear a back brace now when I do bonsai.

 

[Cadillactaste]

Well, um, same is true for feminine trees. Women, particularly older women, tend to be drawn to delicate, fussy, or cutesy thin trunked trees. I've seem some skinny trunked trees that are pretty ugly...just sayin...

12 inch pot...far from Feminine. I am more drawn to the unusual... Acer Tim Burton a friend named it. William doesn't name trees either. So an honor.

But I do...love an ugly tree too. I don't want cute. I don't do cute. I do...weird.

 

[Clicio]

But I do...love an ugly tree too. I don't want cute. I don't do cute. I do...weird.

Aha! Now we're talking!
I love weird too.

 

[namnhi]

What I have is the Root Slayer Drain Spade XL. I will not accept any other model or substitute. The 18" long narrow but thick blade wins me over. This thing is like a sharp-shooter shovel on steroid. The blade allows me to dig narrower and deeper trench. Plus the longer blade allow me to angle from 12" out and still cut the taproot. I have one and am buying one to give to a friend.

Thank you Uncle.

 

[Kadebe]

@Clicio contemplate these highly refined jaboticabas

View attachment 488656View attachment 488657

The reason i collected them is that maybe in 10 to 15 years i can have something nice, they were free of charge too, that helps . But i do agree, they are not bonsai YET.
But i think it's worth to collect stumps like these, 30 years growing in the ground is something that can't be compared with growing in pots. Over the next years i will try to correct the nebari and develop primary branches.

For those wondering, Jaboticabas can heal those big wounds, should take probably 5 to 6 years after the first branches thicken up and start to move sap up the trunk.

Looks ideal for a nice bonsai display stand

 

[BonsaiPoppie]

12 inch pot...far from Feminine. I am more drawn to the unusual... Acer Tim Burton a friend named it. William doesn't name trees either. So an honor.
View attachment 488837
But I do...love an ugly tree too. I don't want cute. I don't do cute. I do...weird.

I love the black background.

 

[Cadillactaste]

I love the black background.

Thanks...that was a 50th birthday splurge. I told my husband...I don't like people. Please don't throw me a party. Give me money instead. ...reached out to our photographer in the next town...and he sold me on a popup backdrop. Gave me a link and everything. Easy peasy... folds into a circle. But quite large. Body shots and all that.

 

[jradics]

If this is the new trend, my trees are ready for Kokufu. Joking aside, bonsai has a very high cost to entry. Newbies just don't know that at the beginning. Which is probably a blessing, because I would not have continued with this craziness had I known all that was involved at the beginning. We tend to learn a little about bonsai and then jump in head first, not really understanding all the time, effort and skill that will need to go into this. We are in fact even resistant to tried and true advice from experts because we want to develop our bonsai faster, cheaper and without bonsai soil ("I don't need no stinkin' rules"). Then we make mistakes and have a choice of either getting with the real bonsai program or trying a different hobby.

Well, I guess there is also a middle ground - setting out to create “mediocre” bonsai. I may end up with mediocre bonsai but that wasn’t my initial goal. If one doesn’t want to take the many years to develop a tree and also doesn’t want to drop the serious coin needed to buy a more finished tree, they could opt to do bonsai a different way - nebari is basically however it grew naturally, trunk has less than ideal taper and movement etc. And the less they know, the more they think their tree is a Walter Pall creation. Ignorance is bliss and presumably they are having a good time (and maybe even selling these trees for ridiculous prices online).

There can be no good bonsai without good nebari. Frankly, in the hierarchy of bonsai components (although all are important) I would place the trunk after nebari and branch ramification, but nebari is king.

high costs, yes. I just spent $500 on lumber to make tables for my motley collection of "bonsai" projects. I am comfortable knowing I am not Walter Pall but i can still collect and tend trees in pots. Not for show, or to impress anyone, but just because.

 

[jradics]

IIRC that one is about $70-80....by the looks of it, this is the same exact thing for $45 https://www.lowes.com/pd/Radius-Garden-Kobalt-Root-Slayer-Dig-Long-Handle-Shovel/5005331949

my root slayer has a D handle

 

[Bonsai Turtle]

my root slayer has a D handle

probably like this one: https://www.lowes.com/pd/Radius-Garden-Kobalt-Root-Slayer-Dig-D-Handle-Shovel/5005331733

 

[Potawatomi13]

There can be no good bonsai without good nebari. Frankly, in the hierarchy of bonsai components (although all are important) I would place the trunk after nebari and branch ramification, but nebari is king.

Strictly perspective based comment. Many Most excellent Yamadori have poor or non existent rootage regardless of country collected from.