Oaks can be excellent bonsai. One of mine is coming along nicely. Take a
look if you like.
http://www.actionvideo.freeserve.co.uk/kev'soak.htm
This one is a collected specimen though.
Plant them in the ground for four or five years and keep cutting the top
back two or three times per season. Lift each spring and rearrange the
roots especially reducing any tap root.
I tried bonsaing from acorn about 15 years ago and still have the tree
that has spent its entire life in a pot. It is a thin sickly specimen in
comparison to the many that I've done by planting them out in the
ground.
Cheers
Kev Bailey
Zone 9, Vale of Clwyd, North Wales, UK
Chris McMillan wrote:
Can oaks be turned into bonsai trees? Believe it or not I have SIX baby
oak trees sitting on my window sill this very minute.
Years ago more as something to do Hazel picked up some acorns and grew
them into miniature trees which when she was about 12 we handed over to
the local tree planting group. She's never really forgiven me for not
being able to take her to see where they were taken.
More as a joke (again) on a UK newsgroup last autumn we said we'd
collect more acorns and conkers and have another go. The conkers seem to
have gone AWOL in the workshop because we were told not to plant them
when we collected them - but out of the 10 acorns which we picked up
from a tree locally, six are sitting here.
So if they can be turned into bonsai, what do we do?
I'm intending to go and see if our main library in town has any books
for beginners (yes, I've seen which books are on amazon.co.uk but I
can't decide which to go for apart from the A - Z of plants)
Sincerely, Chris
Chris McMillan
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