Hello everyone, My name is Blake. I am 20 years old and live about 40 minutes north of Portland, OR. I have been into bonsai for about 2 months now. I recently purchased a chinese elm and a juniper chinesis from a nursery and am very eager to learn this beautiful art as a life long hobby. I have been doing research day in and day out. I am of course still blurry in most areas so I will be asking for help and guidance through my journey. I realize this adventure requires great amounts of patience and passion. I was gifted a 7-8 year old juniper tree on 5/18/16 by a good family friend who cared for a tree but never cared to do the necessary research and maintenance to keep up with it. I am hoping to receive some great knowledge and advice from the people on this website! Everyone seems knowledgable and willing to help. Im glad to get to know you guys and girls! Thank you.

Hi Blake welcome to Bonsai, wish you lots of fun and plenty of trees in the future

G'day Blake, start out with a trip to Mirai,
www.bonsaimirai.com/

welcome to Bonsai

I actually live in the same town

Craig wrote: G'day Blake, start out with a trip to Mirai,
www.bonsaimirai.com/

welcome to Bonsai

Bhawk wrote: I actually live in the same town

Craig wrote: G'day Blake, start out with a trip to Mirai,
www.bonsaimirai.com/

welcome to Bonsai

yes you have great things nearby , have fun.
www.portlandbonsaivillage.com/#welcome-1

Greetings,

My name is Tim, and I currently hail from NW Missouri. (My father and I were both career military, so I've spent six years in Germany, two in Thailand, and eight months each in Beirut and Iraq). I fell in love with plants in Europe, with the formal palace gardens found everywhere. I am highly educated with one Associate degree, three Bachelors (with a minor in Botany), and one Masters degree. Majors include Electronics/Computer Technology, Technology, Biochemistry, and Theology. I am currently a candidate for a doctorate in Theology.

I suffer from some serious physical disabilities along with both PTSD and TBI, and I find that working with plants is soothing. At the moment, I have many seedlings, nursery stock, and pre-bonsai online purchases, perhaps 50 trees in all. None of them are considered to be bonsai. Nearly all of them are being grown for trunk development. The trees include cherry, Dwarf Tophat blueberry, olive, azalea, Chinese elm, lilac, wisteria, blue spruce, Norway spruce, orange, Chinese chestnut, and several volunteer walnuts. (I don't know about how the walnuts will turn out; they are experiments).

I enjoy learning, and experimenting with plants. My outdoor gardens are populated with hundreds of plants and trees. I don't spend a lot of money on my hobby, depending mostly on seedlings, cuttings, volunteer stock, and cheap nursery stock with potential. Because I don't spend much money, I don't get upset with my losses (which are rare, and all grown from seed), as long as I learned something beneficial from the experiment.

I am patient, never in a big hurry to prune drastically, wire, repot, etc. I prefer to wait and try to see the potential benefits of acting before I do act, sometimes waiting many months before deciding how to best develop each tree or bush.

Welcome to bonsai! May you learn to train trees, and may the trees train you!

Hello, My name is Joe. Looking forward to meeting other bonsai enthusiast from around the world. Retired from the fire department in 1993. Started bonsai in 1983/4. I own Artisans Bonsai Nursery in Tampa, Florida. My other hobbies are I play the bagpipes and I like to drink beer. People LOVE to hear me drink beer! {:>)

Actually, I quit drinking beer long ago. I hope I can be helpful in this forum. Seems like a GREAT bunch of people!

Hello fellow Bonsai people,
I have always been drawn to the art of Bonsai and now is the time to learn. I'm glad to have discovered this forum for my education. I live in Black Diamond, Washington so at least my tree won't lack for water.

Daniel,
I'm planning a hike in the Vercors massif for boinsai inspiration. Do you often go hiking there?