I just got back from four days of working on trees up at Peter Tea’s place, PTBonsai.com. While I was there, after some long but really fun days working on a bunch of trees, we sat down one evening, grabbed a drink, and just talked.

I got to pick Peter’s brain about what really goes into building a high-level bonsai collection—how to think about ranking your trees, the ideal number of trees to own, and his plans for attending Kokufu 100. We also talked about some of the questions he’s planning to ask his teacher, Mr. Tanaka, and a whole lot more.

This is part one of a two-part conversation, so keep an eye out for part two coming soon.