You can call your little tree "Mathilda".
My old aunt Mathilda will not be thrilled to be compared to a sexy S shaped skinny youngster, but...
Calling your tree Mathilda will not transform it into my aunt, or any other person.
You can call your sapling Geraldo.
My brother in law Geraldo will surely be sad when he sees the thin plant, specially with the short first branch wired down...
But calling the seedling Geraldo will not make it my brother in law.
And you can call that nursery plant in a pot a bonsai.
But calling it whatever you want will not transform it into a bonsai.

very well said! after joining this forum it didn't take long for me to realize that my trees were not bonsai trees but only trees in training. i guess these people just need to have an open mind instead of taking it as an insult. i do hope they come to realize one day.

Well said but.. no matter how many times we keep saying it, this will never stop Walmart and local flower shops from selling branches in pot labeled deceptively as ”bonsai”.

I agree but even though this thread is called a topic...

I don't think it was worth opening a new one. There are some good topics, there are enough newbies' topic where you can tell them things like this. I don't think we need one more discussion what others think wrongly about bonsai.

Couldn’t agree more. There’s plenty of newbies out there who are buying a plant with an s line shape and naming its first name-bonsai.
This is something that we as a community must conquor
Regards
Finn-bonsai

Finnbonsai wrote:

Couldn’t agree more. There’s plenty of newbies out there who are buying a plant with an s line shape and naming its first name-bonsai.
This is something that we as a community must conquor
Regards
Finn-bonsai

Not sure what you are trying to do here but it is rather silly.

Finnbonsai wrote:

I know a bigger obstacle, and that’s convincing you air heads this is a bonsai as you clearly are rookies

Auk wrote:

Not sure what you are trying to do here but it is rather silly

Possibly just trolling... We shouldn´t be feeding him anyways

Alain