Most trees can be grown in a container if you're careful with them.
Issues in general with cherries are:
1: leaf size. Can you get the leaf size to reduce if grown in a bonsai pot? If not then it needs to be a large bonsai to look proportional.
2: disease resistance. Ever seen a 200 year old cherry tree in front of someone's yard?
3: fairly straight taperless trunks. This one takes growing them with wiring and chops.
The paperbark cherry is Prunus serrula. These guys (
http://www.portlandnursery.com/plants/trees/prunus.shtml) describe it:
Paperbark Cherry P. serrula – Excellent shiny red-brown bark that peels in big strips provides nice winter interest. Flowers are white & sparse, leaves are green. Upright pyramidal shape. Prone to canker and borer problems.
Brent on his site (
http://www.evergreengardenworks.com/prunus.htm) sells a different Prunus (Serrulata) that has larger leaves:
7600 Prunus serrulata 'Beni Hoshi' (Pink Star) 20 feet x 20 feet with long arching branches to form an umbrella shape. Multitudes of single pink flowers with twisted petals hang below the branches, blooms mid-season. Vigorous and fast growing. The leaves are about 3 inches but will reduce somewhat in bonsai culture, still they should be used for larger bonsai. This cultivar suffers from fungal diseases in cold wet spring weather and must be sprayed.
Ian
