From: cczcole@mips.nott.ac.uk (Marlon Cole)
Subject: Re: World wide popularity of bonsai.
Reply-To: cczcole@mips.nott.ac.uk (Marlon Cole)
Organization: Nottingham University
Date: Mon, 14 Sep 92 11:24:36 GMT

In article <1992Sep10.175646.27472@mr.med.ge.com>, bartlone@gemed (Mike Bartolone 5-4266) writes:
|> 
|> Now to the real point of this post. I have seen at least one post from
|> Europe (Finnland?) and one from Japan..a couple from the U.S. How
|> wide spread is the popularity of bonsai? I would also be interested
|> in hearing about individuals first exposure to bonsai..when did you
|> first learn about it (year as well as your age, then and now), and
|> via what medium? 

Well, I've just returned to work after 2 weeks holiday to find a newsgroup about one of my favourite
hobbies (tho' I don't think I'm very good at it :-( 

I'm English, and would say that bonsai cultivation is widespread in this country - indeed I'd say that
this is probably the case in many countries (esp. Europe), tho' this is pure speculation.

I can't remember my first true exposure to bonsai, but remember more a growing awareness and appreciation
for it.

I took the first tentative steps 3 years ago when I discovered a local annual show of the East Midlands
Bonsai Society at which a demonsration of bonsai was given by a guy called Harry Tomlinson, and more than
that was the fact that Mr. Tomlinson runs a complete bonsai centre just 10 miles from where I live!  It's
called the Greenwood Gardens - their advertising info. says that they export all over the world, so I guess
some of you there may well have heard of it, or maybe at least seen Harrys books.

My first visit to the centre got me completely hooked - you can buy trees ranging from unpotted 1-2 year
olds for 1 UK pound right up to 60 year old specimens for anything up to 2000 UK pounds!  You can also
get hold of authentic Japanese bonsai tools (tho' I've tended to improvise - it's MUCH cheaper!), pots of
all shapes and sizes, rock - in fact everything you could need, including expertise as they also run
regular courses.  If anyone wants names, addresses, phone numbers, etc. I'll post them....

For my first attempt I bought a 5 year old nursery grown Chinese Juniper, and following HTs demo proceeded
to hack it to pieces, wire it up and pot it - it was ok until this summer when I left it with someone to
water it when I was on holiday - and it duly died :-(

My current favourites are a Sycamore that I found sprouting from seed when digging over the garden 2 years
ago, and so potted up - it's not reccommended for bonsai by afficionados 'coz the leaves are too big, but
I thought that as it was free I'd give it a go!
My other favourite is a juniper I found in a garden centre that was unsold because at some point it had been
pruned hard such that there was no main upward growth; all the remaining growth was going out sidewards and
up - an excellent start for a cascade style I thought!  I bought a special cascade pot, used some heavy
wires to get some downward direction, and, thankfully, it's looking really healthy now - in fact this
summer I was even able to take the wires off!

Ones I've had great problems growing have been Wisteria, Laburnum and Mountain Ash  - I'd love to try an
Acer Palmatum, but the base stock seems so expensive compared to other species.

Perhaps people should comment on which trees they've had difficulty growing, which have been easy, secrets
of success, tales of failure, etc.

Cheers!

        Marlon

------------
Marlon Cole                  email:  cczcole@unicorn.nott.ac.uk or
Systems Programmer                   cczcole@uk.ac.nott.unicorn depending.....
Cripps Computing Centre
University of Nottingham
NOTTINGHAM
NG7 2RD