New to the hobby.

[Deadwood]

hi all.
I am very excited to find this cache of help and information all in one place. I became interested in bonsai about 8 years ago, and now am ready to give it a go. I have read a few books and lurked about or a while so I feel prepared to begin. I live near Myrtle Beach Sc. thanks

 

[fourteener]

Welcome and enjoy the journey. In a world of opinions a lot of things work really well. If you can find anyone local, it will really help you out immensely.

 

[drew33998]

Welcome to the Nut House! Do you have a species in mind that you would like to start with?

 

[Deadwood]

I picked up a 1gal Parsonii Juniper at Lowes on sale and a dwarf Alberta. Some too late research showed that the Alberta is not such a good candidate for bonsai.Ill show pic of what I have at the moment. The spruce showed a nice trunk to me in the beginning, but after cutting, not so much, showing a reverse taper....but i won't just toss it if it survives.

 

[Deadwood]

My 10 yo desert rose (just for fun).
and the others mentioned earlier.

 

[JudyB]

Greetings and welcome deadwood.
It will help you get good advice in future posts if you go to your profile (top right) and list your location, as much depends on where you live. When you do things, what kind of things work...etc....

 

[drew33998]

My 10 yo desert rose (just for fun).
and the others mentioned earlier.

What are your plans with the spruce and the parsons juniper?

 

[M. Frary]

Welcome Deadwood. Almost everyone falls into the Alberta Spruce trap. Give it a whirl. Good practice tree. Tough to get the branches to stay where you want them but you can learn wiring on them. I would post a pic of mine if I could find the carcass. Again welcome and good luck in the new hobby.

Mike Frary.

 

[Deadwood]

lol....the spruce trap....
my plans are to repot the juniper in the spring in a grow box and maybe start a bit of wiring....probably a semi-cascade with some eventual jinn work. As far as the spruce.....probably just try to keep it alive..may put it in the ground in my eventual space dedicated for bonsai growing. Thanks for all the warm welcomes!

 

[Dirty Nails]

I just styled my first parsonii junipers (you can find the thread) The branches grow up and thicken and they become impossible to bend. Wire them down sooner rather than later and you will be happier.

 

[Eric Group]

lol....the spruce trap....
my plans are to repot the juniper in the spring in a grow box and maybe start a bit of wiring....probably a semi-cascade with some eventual jinn work. As far as the spruce.....probably just try to keep it alive..may put it in the ground in my eventual space dedicated for bonsai growing. Thanks for all the warm welcomes!

That is a very small parsons Juniper, you can find them with MUCH more mature trunks for very little money. The Parsons Juniper is a difficult subject too some would say, yours certainly just needs to grow for years before doing much with it. Of the trees your posted I think the desert rose is my favorite! They make really nice "bonsai" in my opinion, but the on. Had for years died on me a while back. My Mom has a couple on the coast (Beufort) and they do much better... Just a couple hours inland here in Clumbia and I find it much more difficult to do the tropicals, they just don't do well through the winter in doors, and the longer growing season along the coast lets them get bigger much faster!

In your area, look at Crepe Myrtles, Elms, and most Junipers if you want to go that route.. Maples might be hard- they get wind burn easy and I have heard from a friend on the coast here there that there is some sort of boring beetle that is apparently prevelant along the coast in SC that loves to get in Maples and it is pretty much fatal... She lost a couple big OLD ones... Kind of killed her interest in Bonsai.