In the beginning

Welcome to my new bonsai blog.

Allow me to introduce myself - I have been keeping and working on Bonsai trees for about 5 years now. Why did I get into bonsai? I suppose I have always liked trees and nature, but I also like to be a little more involved and so since I am no Capability Brown I think bonsai was the natural progression.

I started collection bonsai when I moved into my first house and my collection has been growing ever since (far too many trees at the moment!) At first, probably like most people I learned a lot about the horticulture and art of bonsai through books. This has it's advantages and disadvantages which I will list below (please note that these are my own personal opinions and you are welcome to think differently):

Advantages:

• you can study a book at leisure and take things in at your own pace.
• some books are very well written and can be a great inspiration to both the beginner and more advanced student alike.

Disadvantages:

• some principles are difficult to learn from descriptions and pictures, in these cases courses or membership of a club is an invaluable source of help
• Some books can give conflicting advice which will confuse the amateur
• some books are simply not well written and contain advice that has gone out of fashion or is simply incorrect. In regard to buying books for beginners I would advise people to buy a more recent book that has plenty of pictures, older books can contain few photos and drawings, relying heavily on text to get principles across. When I was starting out I found these type of books heavy going and difficult to visualise certain things so I found them more of a hindrance.

As well as collecting bonsai trees I also have collected a lot of bonsai books, one facet of my blog will be for me to re-read some of these books and review them with a critical eye. I will post my reviews and personal opinions on this blog and hopefully they will be of some use to bonsai practitioners out there

Another reason I wanted to start this blog is for me to post the progress of some of my trees over time. Like so many people I know out there, I tend to jump in to working on a tree without getting pictures and recording things fully. Hopefully this blog will give me the incentive to do this. Therefore I will be regularly posting what I am working on at the time.

If anyone has any comments good or bad about the trees or anything else on this blog then please feel free to post a comment.

Warm wishes

Kez