Bonsai is a slow hobby. It can take years just to get to a point where a tree is ready for training. The eastern white pine below is a prime example. Collected in 2006 and it's first real training is just getting started in 2024! Bonsai is a hobby that's interested me since I was a kid. I got my first tree sometime when I was in early high school - so in the early 1980s. It was a juniper. I kept it indoors and it promptly died. I had no idea what i was doing and with that failure I put the hobby on the back burner for a few more years.

In the 1990s when I married and setup housekeeping I started to keep houseplants and learned a bit about keeping them alive. I was also developing a habit of collecting plants from the wild - usually our yard or some spot nearby - but still not returning to growing trees yet. Fast forward another decade or so and we've bought a home and have plenty of outdoor space and the bonsai bug reemerged.

Since then I have collected many trees and I have learned more about how to care for each species. I know some species I like and others that I don't feel up to yet. I have a couple of trees approaching 20+ years old now. The advent of youtube and the amazing growers sharing their knowledge has helped tremendously in my growth in the hobby. I can spend a few hours watching Peter Chan's Heron Bonsai channel. Other favorites are Bonsaify which gives great, fairly short tutorials on a variety of species in all stages of growth and development, and Arkefthos Bonsai whose videos are inspiring. I have a dwarf Alberta spruce that I'm working on as a direct result of one of his videos.

I'll add more trees and as I get pics and do a little write up on them. Click the tree you want to know about.