Sean,

Bonsai is a gentle sport, and most of us tend toward the kindness
thingy.



I've decided to get my feet wet with this Bonsai thingie.
I've always
marveled at these interesting trees whenever I visit a nursery
and my
curiousity have finally piqued a desire to try it out for
myself.
I have visited a few websites in the last week and I see
*recommended*
trees for beginners and such, but I live in southern New
Hampshire and I am
wanting try trees from my local area. I realize that this will
most likely
be more difficult, but I really want to go this route. Why?
Because I love
this state and the forests here and I'm an obstinate Yankee.
That's why!

I'm all for it (but see below). I pefer native trees and shrubs
also, and there are a lot of good candidates in your area (but,
again, see below).

I've pulled some very small saplings with my children and we
potted them
individually yesterday in small containers. One is very
shallow, the others
are just small but I'm being given some true bonsai pots today
for the
others.

What we have so far is:
Sugar Maple
White Maple
Hemlock
White pine
I intend on getting white birch as well.


None of the trees you "pulled" (I hope I don't take that
literally) make very good bonsai, or if they do, they don't make
particularly easy bonsai for a beginner.

The Hemlock and white pine are bonsaiable, but not easily. And,
dug at this time of year, they're probably impossible -- even way
up "nawth" in NH, where spring is about 20 miutes old and lasts
for an hour or so. ;-)


I realize they will most likely all die, being a first attempt,
but I'm going to stick it out and keep trying!

Great. But let me suggest that an occasional success early on is
a very nice incentive toward continuing the sport of bonsai.


Is there any suggestions anyone can make for a complete newbie
in this
arena?


We always have suggestions:

1. Go to the library and check out a book or two on bonsai (or
buy one from your local bookstore -- the new Sunset (pub.)
"Bonsai" is inexpensive and excellent. RD Home Handbooks,
"Bonsai" by Harry Tomlinson also is cheap and very good). They
won't tell you much about local trees, but they will thoroughly
ground you in the horticultural aspects of growing trees in small
pots. If the library as "Bonsai from the Wild" by Nick Lenz,
read it. It's all about trees from your area. It is out of
print and pretty much unavailable except at completely stupid
prices on e-bay, but a New England public library may have gotten
a copy because of its local slant.

2. Go to a local nursery (best) or Home Depot/Lowes garden
center) and purchase a one- or three-gallon size tree with small
leaves -- a native if you can find one, or something else like a
privet or boxwood or Chinese elm. Then, using the info in the
books you have do some work on the top -- the branches, the
trunk, etc. -- saving the root work until NEXT spring.

3. Join a local bonsai club. You will find listings of clubs at
www.bci-bonsai.com and www.absbonsai.org. Go to meetings, talk
and learn from members. Have fun.

4. Ask questions here -- and welcome.

5. For the future, bonsiable trees from your area, might include
the red maple (Acer rubrum), various hawthorns, the yellow birch
(B. alleghaniensis), the American hornbeam (Carpinus
caroliniana), the hophornbeam (Ostrya virginiana), the hackberry
(Celtis sp.), apples (Malus sp.), some of the cherry/plum family
(Prunus sp.), and others with leaves under 2 inches (or so). As
you gain experience, the list expands.

Jim Lewis - - Tallahassee, FL - The phrase
'sustainable growth' is an oxymoron. - Stephen Viederman

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