What: My buddy Ron purchased a 4-trunk ficus clump from Mary Miller. In an article written in 1996, Mary asked John Naka about this clump’s having 4 trunks as breaking the “rules” of bonsai. Naka dismissed it with, “so?”
Later, Ron hosted a Japanese sister-city dignitary who wouldn’t even look at it; walked way around it like the clump was sheltering an Ebola patient. Ron also had a single-trunk nerifolia that looked like it had a helmet on; a truly ugly bonsai. So? What to do…
When: 1998
Where: Iowa
I have been studying bonsai since 1994, in an ever-increasing obsessive fashion. In our last 5 years prior to moving from Iowa to Alabama pursuing a career in the foodservice industry, my bonsai collection was limited to a few varieties that could survive brutal winters outside, or winters under dim light in the dank basement of our humble duplex...my wife puts up with a lot. Including the trailer hitch I put on our brown 1983 Chrysler New Yorker to pull a U-Haul full of trees to Nashville for a 3-month stop along the career path that led us to Alabama. 12 years later, we no longer have the New Yorker; and not a single one of those trees remain on my bench, having given the last holdout to a new club member this summer. I prefer collecting native trees and buying the classical species used in Japan, feeding organic, and reading everything I can get my hands on.
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One thought on “TBT: An unlucky 4 becomes a winner 5, 1998”
a serious truck accident 10 years ago helped the process along 🙂
Nebari Bonsai 
a serious truck accident 10 years ago helped the process along 🙂