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Anyone have any suggestions? I will not be insulted by criticism. I had to use fishing line for the training since I don’t have any wire yet. I’m not sure what the shrub is, it is from outside the house, same with moss.Thanks all for any help, and I’m very excited to have found this wonderful art!

Hello and welcome, you found the right for your questions.
This is a very difficult and at the same time very easy hobby. Difficult because horticulture comes first (you can’t do anything bonsai-ish on an unhealthy tree, and a lot of people that start find this very difficult) and of the multitude of techniques that have to be learned, and have to be applied on specific times of the year, depending on a lot of variables and this for decades. Easy because you just have to mimic nature, and that is all around you so you just have to look.
Concerning your first experiment : I don’t know if you put the sapling inside for the picture but if not ,outside with it. There is no such thing as an indoor tree, they die inside.The moss: get rid of it, it prevents you from seeing the soil underneath thus preventing you to determine when to water, it keeps the soil to wet and is a perfect hideaway for all sorts of insects that can harm the tree.
Continuing to the styling that you did. Horticulture always comes in first place. I assume you pulled it somewhere out of the ground ( not knowing if this is the right time for it , or even if the species is suited for bonsai( horticulture), placed it in a pot and started pruning , trimming and wiring, torturing the tree even more ( yes, horticulture again) . After you dig up the tree it mus Thrace time to regain its strength ( horticulture) and regain its vigour before doing anything else. The way you styled it.. well ,does it look like a tree in the forest in your eyes? If not, why not.?

I'm fairly certain that it is a pine of some sort. I'm not sure how you are using fishing line to train the tree unless you are using to anchor the branches somehow. If so, thats pretty clever, however I would only suggest that you check after a short time to ensure the line is not cutting into the tree limbs.

I have nothing else to add. LucR really covered it all.

Good luck and have fun trying Barrett.

Remy

I dont think fishing line is a good way to train a tree. We use wire because we want our trees to look like mature trees in nature. That bow looking branches you get with this method dont look natural to me.

Good to see you get started!

The plant looks like a spruce. I do not think it is a pine.

The technique you used is referred to as Guy wires. Main risk is that you have point-based pressure on the branches which can very quickly lead to wires cutting the bark. When I use such pull wires I always put a little rubber hose around the wire. I know some advanced bonsai artists who for their main styling of deciduous trees predominanty use guy wires and cutting to shape, claiming it makes the most naturally styled trees.

Althou I have newer tested myself I see why it can be used for decidious. This conifer tree does not looks like it respons well to this method.

I agree it looks like a spruce. If it is, you might find that branches is almost impossible to set by normal technices. I have found spruces best grown as bonsai using directional prunning. Shose branches with the best direction rather than best placement.

Looks nice! And as leatherback said, looks like a spruce. And it looks like it's already several years old. For whatever reason, it hasn't grown very much, and together with the lichen (the gray stuff looks more like lichen than moss), it reminds me of Tundra landscapes. If indeed you picked it up from the Tundra, I guess it's still pretty cold outside, and the tree may be in complete dormancy. Usually, the best time to move trees around (disturbing the roots) is just when they start waking up.

lucR already gave a bunch of hints and advise, which I mostly agree with. Except the moss/lichen part. I am based in Japan, and here people like to have moss in their bonsai, and even let moss/lichen cover trunks. Japanese really love moss, to the point that the Japanese National Anthem is about moss growing on boulders. On the one hand, moss protects the soil and roots, providing an insulating layer (against hot or cold), and prevents water from quickly evaporating on sunny days. But, the negative points lucR listed, are true, too. I grow moss on my bonsai, and sometimes I have to stick a finger in the soil to figure out whether to water or not. But this is something you need to figure out. I think your lichen looks quite nice, and in nature, it rarely kills trees.

Another point of advise is that the best way to learn is by doing. You need to get to know your trees, which means you look at them every day, and learn to read them: when to water, when not to water, when to fertilize, when to repot, when to wire/cut, etc. And, notice I use trees in plural. If you found this outside your house, chances are, there's more (I'm jealous!). Get a few more (don't be greedy), so you can try different things. Try different species, too. Also, keep observing their siblings in their natural surroundings. If you have some super nice bonsai material nearby, learn the basics first, and let them grow for a few more years.

I'm thinking in the direction of yew: if you zoom in on the right side you can see flat leaves.