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Hello! I'm a brand new beginner to bonsai, I was gifted a beginner kit (with some seeds) this past Christmas and am hoping to try to start my first trees. Unfortunately I'm really not sure what I can grow in my situation - I live in a high rise apartment and have a rather strange combination of weather, lighting, and no access to burying the tree in the ground during the winter.

I live on the 12th floor of an apartment building in Ottawa, Canada in USDA Zone 5a. The weather here can range anywhere from -30°C (-22°F) during a cold snap in winter to 35-40°C (95-104°F) during warm spells in the summer. It's also more humid than expected because there's a valley effect. My balcony and windows face NW and my balcony has an overhang, so I get a weird combination of partial-full afternoon sun during the summer (usually around 4 hours in one corner of the balcony/inside and barely 6 hours in the other corner) but absolutely zero direct sun during the winter. There's also plenty of wind (there is a corner I can use to protect them in a storm or over winter, but it's deeply shaded at all times). I can't bury the pot in winter since I'm in a city high-rise and the building doesn't have any unheated areas I can access (the closest thing would be the basement storage and it's still kept around 18°C/65°F).

Are there any trees I can grow in my weird circumstances, or am I basically out of luck for now? I'd love either a deciduous tree that drops its leaves or a conifer, and I've tried doing research, but everything seems to need either more light than I can provide (especially during winter) or isn't hardy enough. There are buildings on my street with creeping junipers and small cedars growing in the ground in similar lighting, but the cedars don't look overly happy (lots of dead areas, especially in the shady side) and I'm worried about winter protection for junipers.

Just in case they're an option, the seeds I was given in the starter kit are Rocky Mountain Pine, Norway Spruce, Blue Jacaranda and Royal Poinciana. Pretty sure these also need a lot more sun than I can give them, though.

Thank you!

Do you heat your balcony?

A possible winter care option is to put the trees up against the wall and tape plastic over them, letting heat from the apartment bleed into the plastic. I would not do that the entire winter but just a couple of months when it will be below -10C or so.

Unfortunately my balcony isn't heated, no - it's basically exposed to the elements except for that one corner.

Thank you for the wintering advice! I wasn't sure if the greenhouse effect would be enough protection for my winter, but I hadn't thought to put it up against the outside wall. The walls are basically just double glass doors with an air pocket in between, so that would probably work very well!

So, get norway spruce and junipers. Both will do excellent on your balcony without any special care in winter.

You can also get ficus. Grow them on the balcony the time of the year it is safe above 10 degrees and move it indoors in winter. A grow light may help the ficus look better in winter but not necessary for survival.

I live in Sweden by the way. I move my most valuable temperate trees into unheated greenhouse. But most stay outdoors on the bench all year. -20 is rare, but happens here.

Oh OK, thank you! Just as another piece of advice, do Norway Spruce and junipers not need any direct sun during the winter? I've read that they still need some direct light even in sub-zero temperatures.

My Junipers and Spruce and all other trees are outside and get whatever daylight there is which during the winter is not a lot. The trees are dormant or almost dormant so do not need a great deal of light and certainly no artificial light.

Norway spruce lives naturally up north in sweden where there are zero sun in winter for a month or more. The months before and after the midwinter night has not enough streangth to power any photosyntesis whatsoever.

The junipers are living in areas that gets a lot of snow. They are covered in snow their first 10 winters or so and gets no sun.

However my recomendation for beginners is always to start with local species. The species growing in the forests around you are the one best adapted to your growing conditions.