Understanding the why in everything we do/ are we automatons?

Do you contemplate these questions? Why do I work the job I do? Why do I do the things I do? Why ask why?

Sometimes we do what we do because that's how we have done it for years. Sometimes we do things because it takes too much effort to change, or maybe we do not know any better?

In bonsai, there is this culture of reading things on the internet and taking things at face value. When we are new this is understandable. We do not know anything. As time progresses we hold on to those “rules” and sometimes we do not let go even though maybe we should.

A certain bonsai professional who I like to quote (Ryan Neil) said that we should know why we do what we do. He likes to ask if anybody repots on a schedule. Then he points out that there are only three reasons to repot a tree. One reason is the loss of percolation, another is decomposition and finally, change of style. Those reasons are not dictated by a timetable.

He asks this is because he wants the bonsai community to stop doing things out of sheer tradition. That we should know the horticultural reasons why we do the things we do in bonsai.

“In anything, we do in bonsai there has to be a reason if not it is about us. Right? This is not about us. Bonsai is not about us bonsai is about the tree.” Ryan Neil

Let's dig a little deeper. let's find out what we are really doing to our trees.

That's it. Short and sweet. Something to ponder. Cheers.

Time, what is it good for?

It's all around us but we never have enough of it. Time, the first and most important lesson in bonsai. Some people do talk about time and patience. However, time is the common denominator in all bonsai. Time is the most important ingredient in making a bonsai. Do what we do to speed things up we can not make a plant grow two seasons worth of growth in one season.

  

My wife (I apologize for using you as an example) loves bonsai. If she did not I would have to find another hobby. Whenever we bought plants she would want to pot those plants right away. There would be no growth, no refinement. I understand what she was doing. I am guilty of doing it too. However, I came to realize that by potting plants before they were developed somewhat I was stunting their growth. Now, it would take even longer to have a bonsai with some refinement.

California Juniper, It's probably more than a hundred years old

If you want to become a master at anything you have to dedicate time to it. You have to sacrifice countless hours training your muscles and mind to do what you want them to do. There is a dichotomy with bonsai. A bonsai has to be worked on and manipulated. There is pruning, wiring, and fertilizing. We have to apply our time to develop the tree. Then there's the part where you give the tree time to grow. The tree has to grow new branches, new leaves, and more roots. That part also takes time. Not doing anything and letting the plant just grow might be the hardest thing for a neophyte bonsaiphile. Although, some trees don't need as much time as others. Then there is the time of rest. That time there is no growth.

I submit to you that the only way to master time is to subjugate to it. In other words, understand that time is not something that we can control. We can not rush time. We can not make a tree grow faster than it does. When we accept that, then and only then can we begin to develop all the other skills needed for growing bonsai.

I was once asked how a trunk could be thickened. The short answer is time. Cheers.