名媛直播

Hi there,

Complete newbie here, I wasn't aware of what a bonsai tree was until about a week ago but now I'm fascinated and keen to get started. Having looked around, I believe the type of tree I'd like is an acer bonsai, however from what I can gather there seems to be a huge variety of acer bonsai's. My question is, what are the most common species of acer bonsai, and what would be good for a newbie.

My apologies if this is a naive question, like I said, completely new . This is my first post, so hello to anyone who reads this, I'm Emily, a student from the UK.

Thanks in advance .

Hi Emily,

Welcome to the forum.

Acer are very nice indeed. In the UK one of the common acers usefull for bonsai would be Acer Campestre, or field maple. As it is native to the UK it will be most easily cared for; THey can stand all weather types.

Other nice maples for bonsai are varieties of the Acer Palmatum, or japanese maples. Here I would suggest to go with the wild variety, if you decide the campestre is not your type.

Hi Leatherback, thank you very much for the reply.

Yeah to be honest I would be happy to grow any, I don't think I've seen one yet that I wouldn't love to own. Having looked around though, I think the Palmatum looks amazing! Do you (or anyone reading !) have any experience growing this species?

Perhaps I will begin with the Campestre, I can see myself getting a little addicted to this so perhaps I should gain some experience with the easier tree first!

Yeah, I have a bunch of Palmatums, but all of them sit in my garden, as I want very thick trunks;

Do you ahve a lot of experience growing plants? Before starting keeping bonsai, it would be good to just have experience keeping plants alive in a pot. This does take a bit of experience After all: 名媛直播 is just an artistic stance on growing plants

Palmatum are easy to grow. However, they do not like hot summer sun, hate to dry out and seriously abhore dry winds. You are in the UK so you should be OK
Don't know where you are; Maybe this is something for you to visit:

When you buy palmatum for bonsai: Keep in mind that many of these are grafted (A nice looking variety is grown on top of a variety with very strong roots). This graft/union may get really ugly over time. Best to get them from a dealer for bonsai plants: They are then grown on their own roots.

howdy emily welcome to the forum,

first thing first you will need somewere to keep a maple outside all year with protection in winter. alot of people new to the art dont realize this and end up on forums like this one to ask why their trees are dieing,so cudos on asking questions first.
maples and procumbens junipers are good outdoor starters,but from expieriance ficus, which are tropical tree and can be kept indoors, are the best to start with, they take a ton of punishment and are hard to kill.
just keep in mind patience is a virtue

keep us all posted on your new adventure

Leatherback wrote: Do you ahve a lot of experience growing plants? Before starting keeping bonsai, it would be good to just have experience keeping plants alive in a pot. This does take a bit of experience After all: 名媛直播 is just an artistic stance on growing plants

To be honest, not really! I have family members with expertise (ish!) who can help me with the basics, since discovering bonsai I've been trying to learn what I can about gardening in general but I suppose it will take time and patience before I have a decent knowledge.

Leatherback wrote: Palmatum are easy to grow. However, they do not like hot summer sun, hate to dry out and seriously abhore dry winds. You are in the UK so you should be OK
Don't know where you are; Maybe this is something for you to visit: swindon-bonsai.co.uk/winter-show/

Yes, especially in the north, it will be a miracle if my bonsai tree suffers from too much sun! And thankyou for the link, i'm having a look on it right now. It's interesting, unfortunately I am quite a long way from Swindon. When I know what i'm doing a bit more perhaps a road trip will be in order!

Leatherback wrote: When you buy palmatum for bonsai: Keep in mind that many of these are grafted (A nice looking variety is grown on top of a variety with very strong roots). This graft/union may get really ugly over time. Best to get them from a dealer for bonsai plants: They are then grown on their own roots.

Right, thanks for the advice. From what I have seen so far, most sources seem to suggest that if I cut any corners I will pay for it in the long run.

manofthetrees wrote: howdy emily welcome to the forum,

Howdy manofthetrees, thanks for replying. Very nice avatar by the way!

manofthetrees wrote: maples and procumbens junipers are good outdoor starters,but from expieriance ficus, which are tropical tree and can be kept indoors, are the best to start with, they take a ton of punishment and are hard to kill.

Oh right, some of the ficus i've seen look awesome. The more i'm reading the more i'm realising how much there is to all this, so I suppose I should go for a tree with high durability. On the other hand, the acer palmatum, is pink .

Thanks for the replies anyway you guys, giving me the motivation to get into this. I absolutely love the idea of starting a bonsai from seed, but I get the impression that this probably requires more experience than I have? I'm thinking I may start a palmatum from seed and grow a ficus from, is it from cuttings? Forgive me, I know I must sound really naive ! And I apologise for the essay.

Thanks again.

Hey Again,

If you are just starting off, I would just go and buy a plant. Don't worry about cuttings and seeds untill you have a year or two experience taking care of plants. Growing from seed and cuttings is lots of fun, and can be done succesfully for many species. It does however carry a lot of risk; What is you have managed to get the cuttings to root, the seeds to sprout, but after two years all of the sudden it dies because you forgot to take them out of the sun?

Bigger plants are stronger, and therefor will not as easily die on you. Furthermore: You can get into styling etc directly, without having to wait years before you can actually start working on the tree.

Naturally, you can do both at the same time, get a tree to work on and seeds to grow out. But you must be willing to accept the risk of many seedlings dying. Cuttings you can most easily get through a bonsai club or friends with suitable plants. In a store you will not find cuttings (Although a local grower might be willing to give you some if you ask)

Yeah, I see what you are saying. Everything I read seems to expose my lack of gardening knowledge at the moment, I guess I just need to get out in the garden and get to work. It's snowing at the moment though .

Out of interest, how many trees do you own? and how long have you been interested in cultivating bonsai trees for? (Or anyone else who reads this; I'd love to hear people's set ups). It's something I would love to be an expert in.

Hm.. The total amount of (pre) bonsai in my garden runs around 200-300. Hard to tell, as I do reproduce material quite easily, and have a hard time killing plants. *most* of my plants are in training beds in the garden though. In total I have some 10 plants that are mature enough to be in a pot; None of them I would consider worthy of the term 名媛直播 though. In species I have Tillia Cordata, Juniperus (multiple species), Chamaeacyparus Obtusa, Acer Palmatum (5 varieties), Acer Campestre, Acer buergerianum, Acer pseudoplatanus, a further 8 species of Acer are now in a germination tray, waiting for spring, Fagus (2spp), Quercus (3 species), Larix (2 species), Carpinus, Malus, Pinus Mugo, Pinus Sylvestris, Taxus, Rhododendron indicum, Forsythia, Ficus abutilifolia, Eonymus. And tonight I am picking up my new Ficus, which I wil lpost this weekend I think.

All in all, sizes range from cuttings to plants of 10+ years old, and 10+cm girth.

I have been growing plants since I was about 6 years old. My first bonsai dies when I was maybe 12 years old, after which I lost interest in bonsai for a long time, but got interested in collecting succulents instead, a hobby which I gave up after getting my Msc in Ecology, and moving around the world a bit.

Since about 1996 I have been growing my vegetables in vegetable gardens pretty much continuously. I picked up bonsai in ernest again in winter 2008 or so, collecting theoretical knowledge very easily, and applying it more and more, using whatever horticultural knowledge I already had to bonsai. So far no great casualties, and most trees have responded as expected. (Not sure what will happen to a big bend I made this winter to a trunk of an old juniperus tough; Fairly large cracks appeared in the trunk during the twisted-bending .

pink acer huh. there is a variety called "butterfly" that starts off pink in spring then turns a verigated white/green in summer.

well as for bonsai i have been interested in dwarftrees since i was very young. hiking through the area gorges seeing trees on rock cliffs with exposed roots always interested me.i have been gardening since i was old enough to pull weeds my parents had a 1/2 acre garden that grew all sorts of veggies to can for the winter
i finally started bonsai about 7 years ago and now have 60+ trees (only about 20 in pots) most are in the garden