[IBC] starting off
 

i have had my two bonsai's for 3 years now. one is a japanese
maple, and
the other is a cypress. both trees where bought and already
styled and
pretty much finished. i would like to start my own. for a
beginer
what would be the best way to start a tree? i would like to
collect a
tree from the wild seeing how i live in the woods. but i have
heard of
making them from cuttings and think air layering? the trees
i would
like to make would be a, birch, dogwood, crab apple, or a
weeping
willow. can you please tell me which would be the best way to
start one
of these trees, and which one if any you think would be
suitible for a
starter. thank you for any advice

The willow will root almost immdiately from hardwood cuttings.
They make mediocre bonsai, at best.

Crabapples make the best bonsai of the trees you listed, but are
harder to propagate. Softwood cuttings in late spring/early
summer will root (with help from a rooting hormone). Some sprout
readily (and reasonably true) from seeds. I have a batch of
North American native, M. angustifolia seedlings from fruit I
collected last summer. It'll be a while before they're
bonsai-able, through -- even for the size trees _I_ go for. I
let the entire fruit overwinter outside, then planted in January.

Birch _probably_ will root from softwood cuttings and a rooting
hormone, but they make only fair bonsai -- except in unusual
circumstances that are unlikely to result from a cutting.

Dogwood root easily from cuttings and a strong root hormone, but
are seldom used for bonsai and when they are with only limited
success.

(Propagation info from Dirr's Manual of Woody Landscape Plants -
suitability statements a matter of MY opinion.)

Jim Lewis - - Tallahassee, FL - Our life is
frittered away by detail . . . . Simplify! Simplify. -- Henry
David Thoreau - Walden

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