Do you have a least favorite species that you still own

Cadillactaste

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They are also toxic and I have one cat that’s an idiot. So I have limited safe space indoors for a fig, 😋
I know many who raise figs...and have a numerous amount of figs. I did look up fig in my toxicity book. Cattle have been documented to have died eating it. I imagine they as cows grazed a large amount. It also talked of the rubber plant that children have eaten some of its leaves and ended up with gastrointestinal issues. By all means if it concerns you enough to skip the species then do so.

I just know many whom have cats...and grow figs. So I paused...
 

QuantumSparky

Shohin
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Fukien Tea is pretty high on my shitlist. I lost the mother plant this winter in the greenhouse, but a scrawny chance seedling that I found last fall is still alive. I'm not sure whether I should set it on fire, or...
My wife got me into Bonsai unintentionally by grabbing a Fukien Tea at Home Depot while looking for a spider plant. I wanted to get something as well so we could take care of them together so I got a single trunk money tree. Turns out they both had extensive root and trunk rot below the soil line because the pots they came in had a water reservoir that kept the soil soggy 24/7. I didn't discover this though until a few weeks of intensive care later when I went to repot them and realized that I had been babying 2 doomed trees :p Never owned an indoor bonsai since and my new enjoyment is Yamadori and nursery finds
 

Cadillactaste

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My wife got me into Bonsai unintentionally by grabbing a Fukien Tea at Home Depot while looking for a spider plant. I wanted to get something as well so we could take care of them together so I got a single trunk money tree. Turns out they both had extensive root and trunk rot below the soil line because the pots they came in had a water reservoir that kept the soil soggy 24/7. I didn't discover this though until a few weeks of intensive care later when I went to repot them and realized that I had been babying 2 doomed trees :p Never owned an indoor bonsai since and my new enjoyment is Yamadori and nursery finds
Yamadori...sweet! I've nothing to write home about in my area sadly...to collect. But love seeing ones take advantage of their location if it allows it.
 

QuantumSparky

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Yamadori...sweet! I've nothing to write home about in my area sadly...to collect. But love seeing ones take advantage of their location if it allows it.
I have nothing good to collect either, at least not from where I've tried xD Being new, for me, means I'll collect a crappy species for bonsai just to practice caring for trees in general. Free material, free practice! My father-in-law owns a ton of land with a super hilly forest in his property so I'm hoping to make a trip up there to do some tree hunting once fall comes around. I'd hate to go now and find a nice tree that ends up dying because I collected it in the wrong season and I'm not skilled enough to give it good enough care to offset the shock
 

Cadillactaste

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I have nothing good to collect either, at least not from where I've tried xD Being new, for me, means I'll collect a crappy species for bonsai just to practice caring for trees in general. Free material, free practice! My father-in-law owns a ton of land with a super hilly forest in his property so I'm hoping to make a trip up there to do some tree hunting once fall comes around. I'd hate to go now and find a nice tree that ends up dying because I collected it in the wrong season and I'm not skilled enough to give it good enough care to offset the shock
Ahhh, gotcha. Many will go mark trees while their foliage is still on. And go back to collect with a knowledge of what they will be collecting. Harder to do out of leaf. Best of luck to you.
 

Bnana

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I have a Hinoki cypress that's growing well and is healthy but I just don't manage to get a decent shape with the weird fan like pads. The fact that it doesn't back bud is also pretty annoying.
I much prefer my larches and broad leaved trees.
 

Cadillactaste

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I have a Hinoki cypress that's growing well and is healthy but I just don't manage to get a decent shape with the weird fan like pads. The fact that it doesn't back bud is also pretty annoying.
I much prefer my larches and broad leaved trees.
I can see that being a frustrating species then.
 

RKatzin

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English Hawthorne aka Cratagus oxycantha, oxy meaning sharp and cantha meaning thorn, yeah, it's the one with the sharp thorns. And apparently the tree can shoot them about three or four inches because I get stuck if I even get close to these trees. I still have three out of a dozen or so I started from root suckers about ten years ago. I love the bright orange berries they make and they grow faster than any of my other hawthorns. My favorite give away tree.
 

Forsoothe!

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Hinoki are hard to "style". They have skinny branches and the foliage is crowded. Mostly, we make space like Mt. Miyagi said, "Cut off everything not bonsai. What is left is bonsai." Since Hinoki have a lot of skinny branches the space that separates the clouds has to be made up of subtracting foliage from more than just one branch. In fact, many times no branches are removed to make the open space, just foliage reductions from a couple or several branches close enough to be left in association to act as a cloud on a branch. That's where the rubber meets the road. You have to carefully manufacture open spaces where no obvious opening exists (to be expanded upon). The clouds have to be spaced apart logically so choosing the first place to start is tough. You have to have plan to open up here, then there, and there after that. Without a plan, you can find yourself with one fat cloud and two really skinny clouds that are a "set" of clouds that look like they don't belong on the same tree. Since the branches are skinny, that also interferes with choosing a front that can be opened up in the normal bonsai fashion. A wide open from on an otherwise crowded tree doesn't look right. Speaking as someone who doesn't have enough experience with Hinoki to qualify as having "expertise", my limited successes has been limited to small trees. I'd love a big one, but have never found a candidate that I thought I could be trusted with.
 

RKatzin

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Probably is a trident but definitely not the 'standard' trident. There are several cultivars and variations. My petioles are not near that long.
No doubt about it, definitely a Trident. I bought two of them from Forestfarm back in,I think, '09, before I really knew what characteristics were important for bonsai. Never occurred to me that the petioles would present a problem, but there you have it. I have about twenty other Trident maple and they all have about a one inch petiole.
 

Jiminsauga

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Others may disagree but for me it's Juniperus procumbens nana. I have a big one that I've left alone for the past few years because whenever I clean it up or style it I dread getting pricked by the juvenile spiky foliage.

Or worst: I'll miss sweeping up a clipping that fell to the ground and weeks later after it's dried up and hard as a rock I'll step on it barefoot.
 

Drewski

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Others may disagree but for me it's Juniperus procumbens nana. I have a big one that I've left alone for the past few years because whenever I clean it up or style it I dread getting pricked by the juvenile spiky foliage.

Or worst: I'll miss sweeping up a clipping that fell to the ground and weeks later after it's dried up and hard as a rock I'll step on it barefoot.
Those dried up procumbens clippings are worse than lego pieces! 😂
 
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