I started in the 1980s, inspired by the late Brian Bachelder who had a Bonsai program on PBS at the time and a book on it. My first was a rose that sprouted from a rooted cutting after I pruned and failed to pick it up, and the cut end poked into the soil all winter. I still have that rose, about 10" tall and 2" diameter at the base after about 30 years. That's the thing about bonsai, time. I do have some grown from seed, about the only way to get an India Banyan around here. I got the seeds on Ebay from a guy in Portugal, planted them in 2005. Now those trees are 10-12" tallwith 3" base and lots of aerial roots. I find collecting from the wild the most rewarding. Currently of my 75 or so trees about half are collected, and in the 50-150 year range, most of the rest from nursery stock and 10-20 years old. Like most everyone, I have sadly lost a few over the years. I still consider myself intermediate, doing more carving now, creating deadwood and extreme bending to create the look of the worst mother nature gives out high in the mountains. My inspiration is from Dan Robinson, who I have met and even worked with a few times, helping prepare his trees for photos in the book mentioned in this article:

http://bonsaibark.com/2015/10/03/dan-robinson-bonsai-pioneer/

I feel really enriched by hearing of peoples' journeys. Thank you both, and great article about Dan. Where do you do most of your collecting, hemlock? Locally, far away mountains?

Tropic, it's great that you have kept that tree from back at the very beginning. Do you grow mostly deciduous these days?

ez

I agree. When I meet a bonsai artist/enthusiast I invariably ask about their journey.

I have a mixture of deciduous, evergreens and (sub)tropicals. I am sure you have a similar mixture too. Mostly I had been letting them grow and then chop them back. I am getting the hang of it -especially the chopping back part. There are quite a few now that I should start training. I need some proper training pots and I had been looking for some on the internet - plastic ones for now. What do you do use for training pots?

I have some larger plants like indian banyan (like hemlock) and I need something wide and shallow for training it. Mine has a 5-6 inch flare and the pot it is in makes it look so out of scale.

I have done some bit of collecting - not very successfully yet. I am usually chasing landscapers who are digging out plants from some ones yard. Not a good method unless you can convince the landscapers to save some of the root ball. Last year I almost saved a very old azalea (with 4+ inch trunk) but a freak storm caused a neighbors crabapple to fall and uproot my newly potted azalea when we were out of town.

Love this! In my head, I was yelling, "Yes!" as I read each stage. I've made it to novice 25+ years after Mr Myiagi made my heart rate accelerate in his mountain side scenes.

Sorry to hear about your azalea, tropic. Sounds like a great trunk was developing.

Unfortunately, I have had bad results with my evergreen efforts, killing both of the junipers I was greatly excited about. The fact that I have no idea what did them in makes me hesitant to try again:-[

I have a volunteer American elm in my back yard. It grew for two years then I chopped it down to four inches tall, then another two years and chopped to eight inches. It now has a four inch base, so I will begin to focus on secondary branches and if it continues to do well I will collect it into a pot in a year or two. That is the sum total of my collecting efforts. Otherwise, my woody friends are all jungle and desert tropicals.

Yeah Amyno, there are a lot of Myiagi kids running around, haha!

ez

Most of my collecting is local mountain areas like the Cascades and Olympics, because it's easier to get permits and not far to drive. I am doing both deciduous and evergreens, most recently a Mountain Hemlock from the Cascades, collected about 3 years ago. I have run out of room for many more so mostly just work on those I already have now.

Very cool, hemlock! I'm not from your area, but was in the Cascades on my honeymoon many years ago. Very beautiful up near Yakima.

ez

Mid-1980s, I was at a business meeting in a Chicago hotel on a Thu evening & was bored. Walking around the hotel, I came upon a bonsai show being set up. I asked if I could watch because I found the trees intriguing. I quickly passed from 'interested' to "I HAVE to know how to do that". I went home to become a master and failed miserably for the same reason 99% of those attracted to bonsai soon leave it behind - I had no idea what I was doing and didn't have mastery of the basic skills required to keep trees alive. I put the trees away and studied hard (this is before the internet was in every home), mostly soil science & physiology, for around 4 years before picking it back up again. At that point I discovered I'd learned enough to get over the hump that stops most others - I could keep my trees healthy. From there forward, it's basically been a decades long learning experience. I try hard not to be a proud person, but I do consider my progress a blessing - partly because it's so personally gratifying, but also because what I've learned about plants has allowed me to share some of what I know with others. This sharing of information re a number of topics has become a natural extension of my own personal growing experience. For that, I'm grateful because it feels good to feel like you're making a difference.

Al

Thanks Al - I wish this forum was more active with teachers like you. I guess the container forum keeps you busy enough.

I think I spend the most time at houseplants, but I've been trying to hit 'Containers' occasionally lately. The problem is the amount of mail I get from GW/Houzz and other folk asking questions. Hard to keep up with that and get to the forums, too. Headed back out to work on repots again, now that my fingers have warmed up. ;-)

Thanks for the kind words, btw!

Al