Thanks for your (and all others') reply, but I have one
question about one
of your comments.
That is not the way to go. You need to grow them in the
ground for a few
years first.

snip
It's that comment...won't they grow too large and have far too
many roots if
they are grown in the ground "for a few years"? Or, once
removed from the
ground, will I be pruning the living bejeezus out of them to
make them
suitable?

Well, one of the goals of bonsai is to make trees that LOOK old.
A skinny tree with a pencil-thin trunk stuffed into a tiny pot
might technically be a bonsai (which means plant-in-a-pot), but
they certainly won't be _good_ bonsai -- or even _fair_ bonsai.
And they will NOT look old.

We will plant trees in the ground and let them grow for a couple
of years, or more -- sometimes letting them get several feet
tall -- and let their trunks fatten. THEN we'll dig them up, and
put them in large-diameter, shallow pots (maybe a 10-gallon
nursery pot cut doan to 6 inches deep), doing a considerable
amount of root and top pruning in the process. Then we'll let
them grow out again for a few years -- 2, 4 or more, repotting as
necessary if the roots start to fill up this pot. We may do some
basic wiring and shaping during this period, but usually nothing
more than hard pruning at the end of every growing season.

You can't NOT have too many roots. They can be too long (but
they also can be cut back).

Assuming at this point that 4-8 years have gone by, we THEN may
put the tree in a bonsai pot, but still a larger pot than may be
its final destiny. Depending on the species, and the style, we
could have a tree whose trunk is 2 inches wide and a tree that
stands 8-10 inches tall. At this point, we will start hard
training -- wring, pruning, pinching and shaping the tree. In a
year or two, we may repot, pruning and thinning roots, and moving
the tree into a smaller (maybe final, but maybe not) pot, and
will continue the training of the top.

Perhaps 10 years will have passed before we have a "bonsai." And
many more years will have passed before we have a "Bonsai."


The reason I am not buying nursery plants or ready-made bonsai
is the cost.
I'm not exactly rich and can't see paying money to murder poor
innocent
plants to get good at this. I've got a fairly decent track
record with
vegetable gardening and indoor plants where, while not exactly
along the
same science of Bonsai, at least I have had a little luck with
horticulture.
And I have plenty of patience.


You don't ever need to buy a ready-made bonsai, but in MY town,
you can buy a juniper (procumbans nana, or chinensis) with a
one-inch trunk in a one-gallon pot at a GOOD nursery for $3.95.
These trees make as near to "instant bonsai" as you can get
(though you're still much better off working on the top the first
year and the roots in the second). You can buy a Satsuki azalea
with a 2-inch trunk for $5.00 +. They'll need a little more work
(and time) to become a nice pre-bonsai, but still are nice plants
which will give you pretty flowers the next year (if you let
them).

You don't have to be even moderately rich to buy a few of these.

It would, BTW, be a lot easier to reply if you'd drop the NOSPAM
stuff from your e-mail address for messages you post to the
list/news group.

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

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