Thanks, Jim !
I understand your point! I guess i got so passionate about this new
hobby, that i want everything i can lay my hands on ... Maybe one
reason i'm so spread out is that i want to figure out what i DON'T
want to work with !
Right now, i'm having a lot of fun with Boxwoods, Grapevines, and
althea's. If the big vines i put in the ground do well, i'll have
some good cuttings next spring, my yard is lousy with altheas and
privets, and boxwoods are easy to come by. I am avoiding spending a
lot of money. The process is just so soothing to an old country boy
stuck in the city. I will pare things down and take some pre-sai to
my next club meeting.

(Jim Lewis) wrote in message news:000b01c3c419$83056060$57102cc7@pavilion...
My question is: What should i avoid ? What's the best things
and
worst for a relative novice like me.

Ummm. Getting so many trees you can't do any one of them
justice?

Unless you are 85 years old, there's time. You do not need to
own a specimen of every known tree, which is what it sound like
you are trying to do.

You will become (in MY opinion) a much better bonsaiest if you
concentrate on a few trees -- especially to begin. LEARN a
species. Learn how IT reacts to pruning, root pruning, wiring.
LEARN what ITS fertilizer and watering needs are.

You cannot possibly store that information about each of the huge
number of species you listed. There's just no time. And books
will NOT give you information about how that species behaves in
YOUR area. As a result you will know too little about any one of
them to develop it into a nice beginner's tree _and_ know when it
is looking ill, when it wants fertilizer, when it has scale, when
. . . etc.

Pick three species out of that list -- maybe the juniper, the
privet, and the maple to cover all the temperate-zone bases
(conifer, evergreen (mostly), and deciduous) -- and learn all you
can learn about each of them before moving on to others. Take
the others to your local club and raffle them off.

Jim Lewis - - Tallahassee, FL - Only to the
white man was nature a wilderness -- Luther Standing Bear
(Ogallala Sioux Chief)

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