How bad are box elders for bonsai?

Joe Dupre'

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I mean, are they just terrible? We have a lot of them locally and , quite often, they tend to have nice flared bases and interesting movement in the first foot above the soil line. I realize compound leaves are not great for bonsai, but are there any other things that really make them a "no go"? I'm not looking for show quality, just something I won't mind looking at on my benches.
 

coh

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They're pretty terrible as yard trees too. Very messy, and they attract those horrible box elder bugs which get in our house every fall. I've got one with a very large trunk if you want to try to collect it!
 

Arnold

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The bonsai community is an uneducated gatekeepy toxic community that regurgitates nothing more the confirmation biases half the time and largely uninformed subjective opinions at best. A quick google search will show they make great bonsai. I have several myself.
sarcastic-laugh.gif
 

Brian Van Fleet

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The bonsai community is an uneducated gatekeepy toxic community that regurgitates nothing more the confirmation biases half the time and largely uninformed subjective opinions at best. A quick google search will show they make great bonsai. I have several myself.
I’m calling. Let’s see.
 

canoeguide

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Could they have meant boxwood? I doubt it, but that's the most charitable explanation I can come up with.
 

just.wing.it

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The bonsai community is an uneducated gatekeepy toxic community that regurgitates nothing more the confirmation biases half the time and largely uninformed subjective opinions at best. A quick google search will show they make great bonsai. I have several myself.
You clearly haven't spent much time here.
Suck my penis ill show you in Spring fuck nuts
Wait!.....you have a penis!?!

Doubt it.
 

Hartinez

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Actually the wood is sought out by wood turners for It’s brilliant red streaks.

View attachment 413297
Ive seen slabs with some of the most brilliant flame pattern.

Wait a sec, maybe the OP could cultivate a bonsai box elder in order to harvest it as a mini slab to make a bonsai stand!! Brilliant! Talk about full circle!
 
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