I have several Bonsai,
been growing them for 10 years now.
I have a Japanese Hornbeam.
a Trident Maple forest.
A Japanese zelcova.
and many Japanese Maples in the ground, grown from seed.
some of them are 8 years old now and are almost ready to be moved into pots.
[b said:
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I've always liked bonsais but they're too expensive and they need too much sun.
not true!
you can get started in bonsai for FREE!
get some seeds of varieties that make good Bonsai..
Japanese Maples are ideal.
Beech.
Pines.
Elms.
Junipers.
plant the seeds *in the ground* and let them grow for about 5 years, all the while reading up on bonsai and trimmming them.
training young bonsai in the ground is MUCH better than growing immature trees in pots.
they are much more vigiorous in the ground and the trunks thicken much faster..5 years in the ground equals 20 years in a pot!
then after 5-8 years they can be put in a bonsai pot and you have a tree you trained yourself from seed! very satisfying!
I have picked just-sprouted Japanese maple seedlings out of the ground from a local cemetary and planted them in theh ground at my parent's yard..
they are looking great now!
also, Junipers and other trees can be bought cheaply at garden centers to begin training as Bonsai.
thats also a good place to get Japanese maples cheaply.
the main thing is that you want trees with naturally small leaves.
regular maples (sugar maple, red maple) arent so great..the leaves are too big.
I recommend just going to a bookstore and looking at/buying books on Bonsai, there are lots of good ones.
and..dont spend more than $40 on any one Bonsai tree until you have been immersed in the hobby at leat 5 years!
actually..dont buy any tree *already* in a Bonsai pot when you are just starting out..
and NEVER buy a bonsai tree from Home Depot, Lowes, Walmart, Target, the mall, etc.
they are all overpriced junk..
you can do MUCH better yourself by buying plants that *arent* being sold as Bonsai, then training them yourself to turn them into Bonsai.