I decided to try bonsai on my 40th birthday. I like to call it my mid-life crisis. I have always been fascinated by bonsai and even tried to grow some from seed when I was a kid. But now I figured it was now or never, meaning if I did not start now I would not have any "good" trees before I die. I received a few books for my birthday, and trolled the Internet, and wanted to take a workshop; but did I mention I have a 2-year-old, so that was out of the question for a while. On the Internet, I discovered that the American Bonsai Society offers a correspondence course for beginners. This seemed to be the ticket for me. I signed up, and for a fairly reasonable price received a video, a course manual, and a lesson-plan book, and was assigned a mentor.

I have to say that I was not expecting much, but I was impressed with what I received. The lesson plans were very concise and had great illustrations. The video lessons dovetailed nicely with course readings. The written course work reinforced what I had read and the mentor was great addition. The mentor was probably the main reason behind my success with the course.

If you are like me, you read books and articles, and while you may retain quite a bit, there is no better learning than in a structured course. I picked up a strong basis from this course. It worked me through the basics of bonsai, from styles to soil, from art to agriculture. It also outlined practice sessions with wiring and pruning; and finally it led me step-by-step through both a styling from nursery stock and a repotting. I have to say that even though I probably hacked my first tree quite a bit, I learned a tremendous amount from this course. I have before and after pictures of my tree, which my mentor reviewed and commented on. I have a great course manual that I refer to all the time concerning the trees I am working on, and I go back and watch the video for a confidence boost, before each repotting.

Can this correspondence course take the place of a hands-on workshop? No, and it shouldn't, but it gave me a chance to work at my own pace. And it boosted my confidence enough to work on trees on my own, and to take workshops now that I have a basic knowledge of the science and art of Bonsai.