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Hello everyone,

I'm new to bonsai, but not trees. I'm an arborist and a woodland manager based in the UK. As part of my work I have long standing agreements to be in woodlands for multiple years and the "waste" for want of a better word is mine to do with whatever I please. Basically lots and lots of raw material.

A basic question if I may - if I take an air layering from an tree that is 200+ years old (up in the canopy, nice size and form etc) and successfully bring that to life as a bonsai, I'm presuming the age of the bonsai starts from 0 and not 200+ years.? The fact it came from a 200 year old tree would be irrelevant?

Thanks in advance,

Jamie

The age of the plant is not relevant to how old it looks. If a tree is 200 years old then the trunk and branches will look that old, If it is a young plant, 10 to 20 years the trunk will look young smoother bark thinner trunk etc. If the air layer has the old looking bark then it will look older. I hope that makes sense.

Excactly. We value looks old rather than is old. It is up to you to decide how you want to count. But it is not the numbers that matters. It is how the time has been spent.

Thanks - that was exactly what I was looking for. I had a feeling it was based around the aesthetics and "the journey" of sitting with it and tending it rather than the "hard facts".

?