Huh?

[tomc]

I'm going to vent for a second. Please turn up the segway music.

Why is it that a substantial percentage of new bonsai growers 1, never look to see what the light or water needs of their trees are, untill every last leave has fallen off the tree (or it is brown as a shopping bag)?

2, Why is it when growing things outdoors (even bonsai) that posting the state-province, and USDA zone, the plant is growing in is a major intrusion when asked.

If you keep your bonsai on top of the TV, in the dark, and never water it, don't be too put out when it gives up the ghost.

[rainbowgardener]

I have noticed a rash of bonsai owners posting pictures of their totally defoliated trees. I think I even put in my response to one recent e.g., next time ask for help a little before your tree is nearly dead. and don't buy a bonsai without knowing what kind of tree it is and what kind of care it needs. Seems pretty basic. Would you bring an animal home from the pet store, saying I don't know what kind of creature this is, maybe a cat or a fox or a squirrel and I don't know what it eats or whether it lives indoors or outdoors?

In a similar vein, I always admire how patient you guys are. You sure do see some ugly bonsai pictures! I have to keep biting my fingers, to keep from typing something about that is one ugly bonsai. Sometimes ones that aren't dead, that people are displaying with pride.

[webmaster]

From the BonsaiBoy Indoor Bonsai section:

The following selection of bonsai trees are "indoor" bonsai trees which will do well indoors or outdoors in temperatures above 50 degrees F. They make a great gift for the home or office, classroom or dorm and are easy to care for.

And here's how bonsai are marketed by mainstream companies that don't specialize in bonsai, giving the impression that you can grow it in the middle of a living room:

1800bonsai.jpg (10.58 KiB) Viewed 395 times

1800bonsai-2.jpg (13.95 KiB) Viewed 395 times

People do what they feel is reasonable, as judged by them with the limited information or perceptions that they have. My wife has a friend who fifteen years ago was given a 90 year old bonsai as a wedding gift. The friend is not a gardener. He had the perception that bonsai were indoor plants. That it was a tree and what that entailed did not even occur to him. They're thought of as indoor plants. You can probably guess what happened to that beautiful bonsai.

[digitS']

You put this in "what doesn't fit elsewhere," so I read it.

My usual technique is to avoid all forums where I have little knowledge and experience. My knowledge of bonsai is so far back in time and star-crossed. Briefly, I had several evergreens for my bonsai experiment. Then, I moved from Oregon to California. The plants were taken out of the back of the pickup at the border "bug station!" I had the choice of continuing with my move or returning to Oregon with my plants! It was the equivalent of watching your scoop of ice cream, fall from the cone and the mental image will always stay with me.

Here's an idea on how to maintain your emotional balance with what has to be "the low-information" consumer. And, don't you really think that these are the folks who are functioning so poorly as bonsai caregivers and sharing so little information in their HG questions?

We deride the low-information voters and point our fingers at organizations where they gather. Both sides of any argument may as well not bother with that. What seems to be common in the behavior of these folks is that they are looking for guidance from a star. That's you! Straighten your tie. Noblesse oblige and all of that.

I know, as common as weeds, it is easy for me to say. So, would you rather be the kid with the empty ice cream cone?

Steve

[rainbowgardener]

very nice post, digitS. I stand reproved!

[tomc]

I put this away from an actual gardening forum, cause it was more about me grumbling more than gardening per se.

I'm sure I have wounded a few new readers here. But. if you post a litany of things that aint so (and in fact could never have been so) and are also struggling with care I have to excise the fiction and seek to get to the facts.

If you wander around bonsai, there are features of neglect that are reoccuring. Growers age (and even die) with benches full of trees that the owner is either unable to care for, or has just pain died and will never return to care for his-her beloved trees. This last fact is prodding the back of my thoughts as I sit here and write.

When bonsai came to the united states, it was often collateral collecting by diplomatic corps who were stationed in Japan. Some of those collections lingered for decades before an Omya trained gardener caught up to those collections. The oldest photo-sets of Brooklyn Zoo's collection is a study in this kind of sad tree.

In this day of a fair amount of resonably correct information instantly available on the internet, waiting to seek answers is self defeating. I'll leave it to others to argue over whats the only right way to root prune.

Some obvious to me facts about trees.

Trees thrive in full sunlight, your new trees space has to have something rather like full sunlight. Failure to provide that constitutes a critical injury (here after to be called an insult)

Trees are not self cleaning. Rain and wind do the heavy lifting for trees, Failure to provide this is yet another insult

Top and root pruning and fertilizing trees are needful and stressors, each can also be counted as insults.

Leaf cutting (or) pinching does reduce the size of leaves, but is also an insult.

The structure of soil around the roots of trees in pots needs to admit passage of water and air faster than in garden beds. Loess or peat based soil holds much much too much water everywhere except the tropics. The bonsai grower in Bankok can use soil much wetter than the grower in Milwaulkie.

Indoor heating and air conditioning is powered by multiple-horsepower powered motors. Expecting a tree in a half cup of soil to stand up against such, is rather like laying down and letting a buss drive over you. It might not kill you, but don't bet the farm on it.

Ideally you want to subject your tree baby to only one insult at a time. When you stack many of them against a tree, very often there can only be one outcome.

If someone with editorial capacity wants to turn this into a sticky, or discard it altogether my feelin's won't be hurt.