My 11-year old son just built his bonsai bench (and now I get all my space back!!!). We are starting a YouTube channel focused on getting kids into bonsai early, and building this will be our first video.
My 11-year old son just built his bonsai bench (and now I get all my space back!!!). We are starting a YouTube channel focused on getting kids into bonsai early, and building this will be our first video.
Hmm… I don’t know how to do text AND photo using the web browser the way you can do it on mobile, so all my text got lost. Here’s what I had written:
He’s only worked on a few of his trees so far. From right to left, bottom to top:
**Bottom Row**
1. *Willow Leaf Ficus*, bought from Ken Duncan July 30, 2024 2. *Trident Maple*, a gift from John Geanangel July 30, 2024 (fun fact: John sold Bjorn Bjornholm a tree when he was my son’s age!) 3. *Japanese Holly*, neighborhood yardadori, April 2024 4. *P. Afra*, cutting from me, April 2024
**Middle Row**
1. *JBP*, bought from Hank Gross of Cape Fear Bonsai Society, June 15, 2024 2. *Fukien Tea*, won in a raffle @ Cape Fear Exhibition, June 15, 2024 3. *Willow Leaf Ficus*, bought from Ken Duncan July 30, 2024
**Top Row**
1. *Blue Rug Juniper*, bought from a local nursery July 13, 2024 2. *Unlabeled ground crawling juniper*, bought from a crappier local nursery July 13, 2024 3. *Unlabeled but probably procumbens nana*? Also bought from the crappy nursery July 13, 2024 4. *Third unlabeled juniper*, #3 from the crappy nursery, July 13, 2024
With young kids, you don’t get a whole lot of continuous focus. So you go bit by bit, evidenced by the fact that he’s still got a lot of unworked material. But if you push harder, it stops being fun, like a kid forced to play the piano an hour a day. To keep it fun, we keep going till his “tank” is empty, and come back again later.
Of the 11 trees, he’s done work on 5 of them:
* *#3 Japanese Holly* – Clip and Grow actions * *#4 P. Afra* – Took the cutting, just letting it grow now * *#5 JBP -* Plucked 3-year needles and trimmed some branches off * *#9 Unlabeled crawling juniper* – Cleaning and initial wiring. We decided to wire the runners up into trunks to be a future raft/forest. We will leave it to set till the spring and then take next steps. * *#11 Unlabeled juniper* – Some initial cleaning and made one jin. More cleaning left to do and no styling has been started yet.
It’s a fun adventure, and all the greats I know started young. And I hope when we launch our YouTube channel we can start to inspire some younger folks to get started early too. **I can’t believe that he could have trees in development for 30 years by the time he’s my age!** I’ve only been going for a year so far.
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Hmm… I don’t know how to do text AND photo using the web browser the way you can do it on mobile, so all my text got lost. Here’s what I had written:
He’s only worked on a few of his trees so far. From right to left, bottom to top:
**Bottom Row**
1. *Willow Leaf Ficus*, bought from Ken Duncan July 30, 2024
2. *Trident Maple*, a gift from John Geanangel July 30, 2024 (fun fact: John sold Bjorn Bjornholm a tree when he was my son’s age!)
3. *Japanese Holly*, neighborhood yardadori, April 2024
4. *P. Afra*, cutting from me, April 2024
**Middle Row**
1. *JBP*, bought from Hank Gross of Cape Fear Bonsai Society, June 15, 2024
2. *Fukien Tea*, won in a raffle @ Cape Fear Exhibition, June 15, 2024
3. *Willow Leaf Ficus*, bought from Ken Duncan July 30, 2024
**Top Row**
1. *Blue Rug Juniper*, bought from a local nursery July 13, 2024
2. *Unlabeled ground crawling juniper*, bought from a crappier local nursery July 13, 2024
3. *Unlabeled but probably procumbens nana*? Also bought from the crappy nursery July 13, 2024
4. *Third unlabeled juniper*, #3 from the crappy nursery, July 13, 2024
With young kids, you don’t get a whole lot of continuous focus. So you go bit by bit, evidenced by the fact that he’s still got a lot of unworked material. But if you push harder, it stops being fun, like a kid forced to play the piano an hour a day. To keep it fun, we keep going till his “tank” is empty, and come back again later.
Of the 11 trees, he’s done work on 5 of them:
* *#3 Japanese Holly* – Clip and Grow actions
* *#4 P. Afra* – Took the cutting, just letting it grow now
* *#5 JBP -* Plucked 3-year needles and trimmed some branches off
* *#9 Unlabeled crawling juniper* – Cleaning and initial wiring. We decided to wire the runners up into trunks to be a future raft/forest. We will leave it to set till the spring and then take next steps.
* *#11 Unlabeled juniper* – Some initial cleaning and made one jin. More cleaning left to do and no styling has been started yet.
It’s a fun adventure, and all the greats I know started young. And I hope when we launch our YouTube channel we can start to inspire some younger folks to get started early too. **I can’t believe that he could have trees in development for 30 years by the time he’s my age!** I’ve only been going for a year so far.
Nice! Would love having such a bench.