Hello Bonsai Geniuses!
I am a new Bonsai enthusiasts with three maple trees that I have been growing from saplings since last spring. I plan to purchase a real Bonsai in this coming spring to try my had at pruning, shaping, wiring etc. I also plan on collecting more material in the spring to raise into Bonsai in the future. My question is how many Bonsai do you all have? How much material do you have in the early stages which will become Bonsai?

I ask this because I assume that the failure rate of any one plant can be pretty high (if you are not experienced) and with an art that is so long term how much other material do you have in the works to ensure that you have a healthy collection and are not left Bonsailess should something go wrong? I have my eye on some oak, birch and maple material (cuttings and possibly air-layering) and I am wondering how much I should have on hand.

Thanks in advance!

How long is a piece of string

If you have toask this question, you are not doing bonsai, but killing trees. The idea is that your plants do not die.

as far as taking care of trees my experience is: if you understand what the species needs and can give that to the tree... it will live. plain and simple. If you do things to the tree at the wrong time, or put it in the wrong place or give it the wrong amount of water it will die pretty quickly.

75% of bonsai trees will die in the hands of novices

75% ? Where did you get that from? It depends on the circumstances, if the novice gets advice from a good grower then he may not lose any trees. When I started I knew how to look after plants as I have been growing plants since 11 years old. Yes I have lost trees, but not because I did not know how to look after them. There were other reasons, which I learned from. I still after 16 years lose a tree sometimes.
But the question was how many trees do you need. As far as I am concerned there is always room for one more.

Mossy wrote:

75% of bonsai trees will die in the hands of novices

Such nonsense

Maybe 75% of mallsais will die in the hands of novices? I can think of a multitude of reasons that could support that statement.

Bunsen33 wrote:

Maybe 75% of mallsais will die in the hands of novices? I can think of a multitude of reasons that could support that statement.

I'd say it's even higher than that. Mallsai are like a bouquet of flowers. They die. You buy new ones.

Simple answer....it is one less the number of bonsai that you can take care of without spending more time interacting with plants than people!