Under-used\under-rated plants

Saizan

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IMHO, most of the local species of pines are underated against japanese pines. In my region, is quite common Pinus halepensis and P. pinea, but very difficult to get any information about. This is the key, the lack of information for some species compared with the big amount of info of the japanese species.
 

markyscott

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Here in Texas we are maple-poor, but oak rich - a vastly underused group. We have about 40 native Texas oak species, none of which are used very often in bonsai. The southern live oak is a really great tree and responds to bonsai culture very well. But there are amazingly few in cultivation. As for the rest of the oaks? I've seen a couple of red oaks, white oaks, willow oaks and water oaks. They also adapt well to bonsai culture. I've seen none of the rest and some of them are fantastic deciduous species with small leaves and great fall color. Why don't we seen any of them? California is way ahead of the rest of the country using their oaks - I've seen fantastic specimens of Coast Live Oak and Golden Cup Oak produced. But there are many oaks of similar quality elsewhere in the country. I honestly think that if bonsai had been developed in the US, oaks would be king and people in Japan would be trying to figure out how to make their local maples look as good as all of the fantastic American oaks.
 

jeanluc83

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I honestly think that if bonsai had been developed in the US, oaks would be king and people in Japan would be trying to figure out how to make their local maples look as good as all of the fantastic American oaks.

I have to agree. I think people are realizing now much promise our native trees have. Just the shear size of the country means that there are many more species to work with.

This is the key, the lack of information for some species compared with the big amount of info of the japanese species.

That is the crux of the mater. There just isn't as much of a knowledge base to work with. If anything sites like this will be the most helpful. A quick search and you can get at least some info on any species. More importantly it gives you people to talk to who are also working with a given species.
 

barrosinc

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ok, so I got a Nothofagus Dombeyi and a Nothofagus Obliqua (or Lophozonia obliqua).
will post images soon! But Im super happy.
 

GGB

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I beat my P. bansiana (jack pine) like a red headed stepchild and it just keeps smiling. Time will tell how well the needles reduce
 

eferguson1974

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Pitch pine, pinus rigidia. There are few opertunities for collection and they are not available at nurseries. They are a two flush pine and they backbud on old wood. I'm growing my own from seed but best case I'll be 15 years in before I'm even close to a bonsai.
Love it!
 

ABCarve

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After seeing all the redbud trees along the highway around here this year I'm on a mission to collect one next spring.
My experience is that they don't take well to bonsai culture.
 

AlainK

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Laurus Noblis (Bay tree)

Excellent!

I've never seen one trained as bonsai before, but saw one in Palermo that formed a tree. at first, i really wondered what species it was, but when I came closer and smelled the leaves, I was really amazed. a couple of years later, my son rented a house with a garden, and there was one that was at least 12 metres high, with a girth at the base of nearly one metre!

You make me feel like trying one. I have a big one, multi (multi) trunk one in my garden that I trim each year, and many seedlings around. My garden looks like a jungle - or a dumpsite at the moment :eek: Here is the Laurus that was trimmed last week, it's now about 3 metres high:

laurus.nobilis_160421a.jpg
 
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sorce

Nonsense Rascal
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My experience is that they don't take well to bonsai culture.

@0soyoung ..... I am of the school....that....of you can grow it from a seed.....you can grow It a bonsai...

You have some.
? What say you?

Sorce
 

Waltron

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I've been messin with this querus bicolor aka swamp white oak for a couple years in the ground... ive heard read they tend to take to transplanting better than most oaks and have a higher root system.. the leaves are large but I've seen it put out some small leaves that stayed small. I've got a bunch of stunted ones to try on.. some badass old short trunks, they will be large bonsai if I can ever get them in a pot. might try to lift a shittier one before i lift 2 of the nicer ones I've been working on.

yesterday got some mail order white oak, english oak, red bud, yellow birch, and river birch.. all planned for landscape but I may pot a few to collect data. perfect humid rainy day today for diggin and planting.
 

Smoke

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The Taiwan form of trident maple is seldom used here in the United States at least. Not quite sure why, as it seems extremely well suited for use as bonsai and is much more commonly used in Asia, from my understanding.

My new one has really nicely textured bark, even as a young tree with a trunk that is less than 1" in diameter.
A botanical name or cultivar would help since most tridents come from the Taiwan region of China and Korea.
 

rockm

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Here in Texas we are maple-poor, but oak rich - a vastly underused group. We have about 40 native Texas oak species, none of which are used very often in bonsai. The southern live oak is a really great tree and responds to bonsai culture very well. But there are amazingly few in cultivation. As for the rest of the oaks? I've seen a couple of red oaks, white oaks, willow oaks and water oaks. They also adapt well to bonsai culture. I've seen none of the rest and some of them are fantastic deciduous species with small leaves and great fall color. Why don't we seen any of them? California is way ahead of the rest of the country using their oaks - I've seen fantastic specimens of Coast Live Oak and Golden Cup Oak produced. But there are many oaks of similar quality elsewhere in the country. I honestly think that if bonsai had been developed in the US, oaks would be king and people in Japan would be trying to figure out how to make their local maples look as good as all of the fantastic American oaks.

If I could quadruple like this post I would. I completely agree. Unfortunately, people here have ignored Eastern and Southern oak species or assumed they're unbonsaiable, or start off with crummy saplings that never amount to much.

Live oak and its subspecies make spectacular, tough, easily trained bonsai. Willow oak too. Both are every bit as bonsaiable as California oak. I know Don Blackmond has some massive and amazing White Oak bonsai--or had. Don't know if he sold them.

Texas alone has a forehead-smacking 42 species of oaks, about half the total number of oak species in the US. Twenty nine of those species are termed "dwarf," "small" or "medium" sized between 15-50 feet in maturity. I've had one of the "medium" sized species, quercus fusiformis as a bonsai for over 20 years. It is just under three feet tall with small leaves. If that's how a "medium" sized species behaves as bonsai, can't imagine how the small and dwarf varieties would work out. FWIW, the picture is just a snapshot I picked up off an East Texas real estate page. Typical landscape, all the trees in it benwheeler.jpg are oaks of varying species.
 
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