The fact that this tree has more potential than the average, S-shaped trees does not mean it is NOT a mallsai. It is.
A mallsai is: "purchased from garden centres, shopping malls and chain stores", according to:
Thanks Auk... Just a question though... Then how we define a "Mallsai"? By the fact of buying a tree from a mall, bonsai dealer or by the features (or the lack of them for that matter) that the tree in question exhibits at the time of buying it?
Sticking to my first point I´d tend to agree with you that the tree in its initial state was not a Bonsai, true... But it wasn´t either such a bad material to start with in the first place. That was my point there.
There's a mixture of trees there - the typical, S-shaped ones, ofher mass-produced ones (but not an S-shape) and real bonsai.
Wish I had nearby, a bonsai dealer like that. True I might be surfing by hours its place, but I wouldn´t mind at all. Specially not if at the end of my search I come up with a decent tree for a relatively reasonable amount of money.
You can find material like marco's tree there (which will be a long search... there are loads of trees there) for a relatively low price. But it's going to take 2 decades to create good bonsai out of it.
Yes, indeed... But wasn´t that the name of the game here? Time and patience!!! Both of them I have... Good, decent starter material is one thing I do not always have, though.
I would not call a Ficus Ginseng (the fat root/grafted version) a bonsai. They really have nothing to do with it. Bonsai techniques are not used for it.
So, I just call them house plants (and when not on the forum, I call them damn ugly houseplants).
Ha... Laughing out loud here... Interesting way of putting it...
In my aid I must say that I do have one of such trees, the first one I ever had and looking back at my journey I should add that it´s been a great tree for learning, training and experiencing with those techniques I was learning and was afraid to apply on other subjects. The dude endured them all without ever suffering or complaining about it. Those trees or plants are extremely hard to kill, ergo extremely useful as well!
When I bought this tree, it was definetely a malsai: a plant grown in a field, a quickly as possible, and there was no attention paid for a good nebari and a good branch structure, as you can see at the first picture... I bought it at a gardencentre that time for about 70 guilders which is 32 euro..
The fact that this tree has more potential than the average, S-shaped trees does not mean it is NOT a mallsai. It is.
A mallsai is: "purchased from garden centres, shopping malls and chain stores", according to:
Thanks Auk... Just a question though... Then how we define a "Mallsai"?
A definition is in my post: "purchased from garden centres, shopping malls and chain stores".
However, it is not where you purchase them, but the way they were grown - as Marco stated: "a plant grown in a field, a quickly as possible"
As I wrote, bonsai traders do sell them - but often they import these cheap trees to resell them to.... garden centres, shopping malls and chain stores.
While in their greenhouse, I saw several lots were already reserved - each lot containing dozens of trees.
There is no fixed definition, I think. Does this work"?
"A Mallsai is a mass-produced, young tree, grown for a quick result with a minimal amount of work, using very basic techniques.
Such trees are often found in shopping malls (hence the name), garden centers and chain stores."
Yes, indeed... But wasn´t that the name of the game here? Time and patience!!! Both of them I have... Good, decent starter material is one thing I do not always have, though.
Yes, sure, but note that a mallsai is the intended end-product. The tree is grown to be sellable NOW (it is not like a pre-bonsai, where we look at the potential of the tree and what it may look like in the future). This means that often, there's not much you can do with them, except start all over, which would specifically be the case with the typical, symmetrical, S-shaped trees. However... as Marco has proven, you can find something workable - but it will take you a lot of time (or good luck, or both ) as you already guessed.
There is no fixed definition, I think. Does this work"?
"A Mallsai is a mass-produced, young tree, grown for a quick result with a minimal amount of work, using very basic techniques.
Such trees are often found in shopping malls (hence the name), garden centers and chain stores."
Yep... That would be a good definition for Mallsai, I think. Probably it might have been said louder, but no clearer.
Never update this topic, and maybe nice to see: in June this year I participated with this tree a bonsaishow "Bonsai van het Westen" in Delft, Holland. I had a smile from ear to ear when I heard that the tree had won the second price of the deciduous trees...
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The following user(s) said Thank You: leatherback, Clicio, crent89, Hansen