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Make Bonsai Trees Your Next Pandemic Hobby
Life has been on hold for a year now, and although vaccines have been made available, there is little indication that things are set to return to normal anytime soon. In this time away from the real world, many people have tried to improve themselves, taking up new hobbies or trying to master new skills that could help them the rest of their lives. That’s why TikTok is awash with cooking and baking videos. (The singing and dancing were always present.)
If you read around the Internet, you will find all sorts of pastimes folks have taken up in the past year. Some are learning an instrument, some are learning golf, some are even learning a new language. One hobby that I have not seen much of, however, is bonsai.
Bonsai is the Japanese art of growing miniature trees. Looking around my dreary home office recently, it occurred to me that I could use a succulent to “green up” my environs. But then, if I am to get a plant for my desk, why not go for something a little more fulfilling than what would amount to a fancy paperweight?
I turned to the Everything Store to find a bonsai kit for beginners. What I found surprised me. Out of all the options, none of them had particularly high customer ratings. The $35 starter kit pictured above, for example, was rated by over 1,000 people, amounting to a paltry 4.2 stars. And that was one of the more highly touted ones!
After reading the reviews, however, it all became clear. Although most reviewers gave it a perfect 5 stars, some of the people who had purchased the kit were salty. Why? Well, turns out they weren’t very good at growing bonsai trees. They blamed a defective product for their apparent lack of skill or commitment (or both).
Part of taking up a hobby, any hobby, involves the process of going from being terrible at it to at least being serviceable. It is not the seeds’ fault if your first attempt at bonsai did not result in a gorgeous bit of Japanese flora. That’s like giving the digital piano I bought a bad review because I am not able to play Beethoven on it. Instead of wasting my time complaining on Amazon, I think I’ll just go and practice.
Hopefully, putting it into perspective has assuaged your fears, and if you are looking for something to do, you can take up bonsai without fear of failure. It is certainly an economical hobby: at less than $35 for four seed varieties, you are more than able to try, try again until you get it right.