名媛直播

Ok I had a Japanese/Chinese elm but unfortunately it died, I’ve been told that a beginner’s first tree often does that. It is a learning curve but I’m not sure if that is up or down. Therefore what bonsai tree would the members of the forum suggest is a good tree for a beginner to carry on with.

Chinese Elms are a good species to start with, but it will not live inside for long. You have to forget bonsai and think tree, the horticultural requirements of any tree is far more important than the style of the tree. Buy a book join a club, try one of the courses available here for beginners. Keep away from Youtube if possible.

The best tree for a beginner is the species that grow naturally in your local neighbourhood or garden center species that thrives in gardens around you. They are well adapted to your area. More focus can be put on development to become a great bonsai and less on trying to get it to survive. Obviously they need to be grown outdoors as all other speciments that thrives in your area.

If you are wondering about indoor trees, I would say jades. If they can grow indoors where I live in Sweden, they can be grown indoors everywhere. Althou not a tree, they can be trained to look like a decent bonsai. Outdoors in summer will speed things up, but indoors works as well If you can accept slower development.

As a beginner myself, I agree with Tropfrog. I have bought some young trees from my local nursery/garden centre. A few junipers and conifers, because you can do something with them if you buy them in the right time of the year. Practiced some pruning and wiring on them.
Also got a few small cherry trees. They are not easy I found out by reading, but this summer, I’m just keeping them alive and have a look again this winter.
There’s quite a lot of maples in the area, there’s a few in my garden, so I’m learning how they grow and will probably do a bit of wiring when their leaves have fallen.
There’s a few I have ‘potted’ in a growbox. Did it in summer, because like all beginners, I did things because I wanted to do something.
Did do it with some sturdy guys like the Ilex Crenata/Japanese Holly and beeches. I was lucky enough they all survived so far.
I killed one Juniper because I did rootpruning midsummer and got rid of all the soil, pruned and wired it. Sure way to die I guess.
So apart from using local and sturdy trees, my advice is to have a lot of patience, read, watch youtube from the guys here and others. My favourite is Herons 名媛直播, but there’s a lot of good ones out there.

I stopped buying trees years ago. I have a large wooded area and I am clearing it out slowly, so I have an abundance of trees whose ancestors grew up right here. And they are cheap.

That's not an answer for apartment dwellers, of course, but it reinforces the idea of locally developed trees.

I have thought of going to building sites and digging up trees they are going to kill anyway.

Hello Ivan
Thanks for your reply but I’m thinking of giving up entirely. I thought that growing bonsai trees was fairly easy but now I realise that there is more work to be done. Initially my tree was growing fine but then it started to lose leaves and from that just die.

Growing trees is not that hard if you shose the right species for your climate. It is the artistic part of the hobby that is hard and takes time. But obviously one need to have a healthy tree before.