Cork Bark Fir or Abies lasiocarpa var. arizonica for Bonsai

[DrBonsai]

Google search and BN search doesn't yield very much info.
Does anyone have any experience with using Cork Bark Fir for Bonsai ?
I am always a little nervous when I don't see info about a tree species being used for bonsai.
It usually means that species doesn't like being a bonsai OR its an American Native species that
hasn't been used a lot.

 

[Dav4]

I've heard of them being used for bonsai, but I've also read that they tend not to do well much beyond their native range, which is probably why we don't see more of them.

 

[0soyoung]

I am playing with an Abies lasiocarpa (sub-alpine fir) that I got from a garden nursery. Needles are about twice the length of bird's nest spruce or roughly the same as on Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga). My tree seems to back bud. Add corky bark (which my tree does not have) and it sounds quite interesting - fame in the bonsai world awaits you.

IIRC, Walter Pall has made an A. lasiocarpa bonsai as well as Michael Hagedorn.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

I've heard that the Abies lasiocarpa var. arizonica does not do well with heat, it is a true alpine resident, up near the tree line where it is found. Heat combined with humidity makes them suseptable to fungal and bacterial rots. If you are close enough to Lake Michigan to get reliable ''Lake Effect'', you may do well with it. If you are inland, I doubt it would be a long term survivor.

I have not tried one yet myself. If you could get a couple younger & inexpensive plants, it would be worth a try.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Firs in general are not commonly used, why I don't know, but you will see 10 spruces or more to every Abies of any species as bonsai.

 

[sorce]

&

I tried to blow that off my screen....
I thought it was a cigarette ash...

Sorce

 

[M. Frary]

''Lake Effect''

I've heard of this phenomenon.
It's real.

 

[Arcto]

Here are some small Cork Bark I've been playing around with a few years. Most of the time I had them, they were in the Williamette Valley. The 1st pic shows what started as a group planting of 5. 3 died, 1 has been weak and sputtering along for several years. Only one is really healthy and growing well. The one on the right has been doing ok, but has fungal issues on the needles.
One thing I have learned is to keep the foliage as dry as possible on these. They are on a bench with my Manzanita that gets no overhead watering. That change has improved things with them. The relocation to a higher, dryer, cooler location has made things much better with all my fir.

 

[sorce]

HellOL...

I just saw these at a nursery yesterday...
Pretty.

Sorce

 

[JoeR]

Idk but cork bark anything would catch my eye and be worth trying.