Hey, glad to see my own adventures in tiny trees have been inspirational and/or informational for other peeps! Thought I'd pop in and provide some advice I've received & info I've found in my research and/or personal experiences so far as a patron of the tiny forest. Wall of text incoming:
- While starting from seedlings or cuttings is one of the faster ways to get your own Bonsai going, it's still a many year-long project. If my maples make it, I don't imagine they'll be ready for making into bonsai for at least 2 or 3 years, and that's considering the extent of my goals for them is "keep them alive and one day make them into brooms of some kind" - letting them grow from scratch or near-to is a long process!
- With that in mind, don't let that discourage you from taking seedlings into your care or rooting cuttings, even the non-ideal ones - even though the Acer Rubrums are far from typical bonsai material, AFAIK your main difficulty for the first few years is just gonna be keeping them alive, happy, and healthy so they can grow out & mature a bit.
- Many of the difficulties they bring as bonsai are specifically for styling - for instance, the Rubrums in particular are only an issue because, left to their own devices, they like putting out giant leaves the size of your face - which is great for big trees! Not so much so if your goal is a tiny tree, though.
- Due to the long time in between now & them being ready for bonsai styling, you've got plenty of time to hone your skills & learn more so that when they are ready, you'll be all set to turn them into something beautiful.
- While you're waiting for seedlings to grow or cuttings to take (and then to grow), you should definitely pick up some additional material in other phases of life to learn your way around styling & keep things interesting so you don't burn yourself out on bonsai just waiting for things to grow.
- A young-ish & small-ish bonsai from a reputable dealer (or a box office, if you're willing to take a gamble on more difficult maintenance & needing to triple-check what species you're picking up so you don't end up with a tree way outside your skill range or climate) is a nice way of learning about the specifics of bonsai care, and often still have lots of potential for being polished into the exact style you want.
- For instance, the Fukien Tea I picked up at Lowes was clearly meant to be a formal broom in the middle of the Shohnin range - which is exactly what I would've wanted!
- (PSA: Please do not go out and buy a Fukien Tea at Lowes. They are difficult to care for and have pretty specific needs that're only really met by being outdoors in the tropics, or if you have a room that meets some very exacting requirements, which luckily the room where it lives does - decent humidity (30%+), lots of light, and temperatures consistently within the 60-80F range.)
- But, the canopy's pretty lop-sided, and there's no Nebari to speak of, so my long-term goal with it is going to be filling in the current negative space in the canopy & growing out a Nebari. In spite of that, it's beautiful, calming, and so far has been fairly low-maintenance - I occasionally mist the leaves, water it every couple of days when the soil's feeling dry, and recently trimmed off some new growth that wasn't adding to the canopy's silhouette.
- The best place for sourcing bonsai is a local bonsai nursery, if any are near you. Beyond that, I know mail-order ones exist, but know very little about which are considered trustworthy or not.
- The outdoors section of your local box-offices stores will likely also carry some, but they've usually not been cared for super-well, may be in a potting nightmare situation (e.g, rootbound, entirely organic substrate, etc), and sometimes will have things like rocks glued to the top that can make watering the actual soil difficult, or leech toxins into the water that'll ultimately kill the tree. Their documentation is slim, species unspecified, and if you're not careful you could come home with something beyond your level of skill or raw capability to care for, like a Fukien Tea.
- If you're willing to take on that risk & the likely imminent need to re-pot one as soon as the season is right, you can do so - they do likely have a better shot at surviving in the hands of a well-researched newbie than the average person who impulse-buys one - but you may very well end just end up with a forgettable planter as a consolation prize.
- Grabbing some raw material (e.g, nursery trees/prebonsai) is also a decent plan - they're usually fairly cheap, and you can get into styling them almost immediately to learn the ins and outs of shaping trees w/out worrying you're going to destroy a many-year-old beauty. I personally opted to do this with some Portulacaria Afra, since it's comparatively quick-growing, durable as heck, and, as LittleJadeBonsai shows, can produce beautiful results in shockingly little time, especially if you shoot for the Mame or Shohnin size range, which are my jam. Plus, if you're at a shortage for material, cuttings from regular maintenance can easily be rooted & become viable material comparatively quickly.
- Also note that not all trees grow at the same rate! IIRC, most pines, junipers included, take longer to reach the prebonsai state than other species of trees - though they do reward you with being utterly gorgeous when you finally get there & get them styled, so if you're really buckling in for the long haul, the results will definitely be worth it.
- Furthermore, note that anything you transplant or take from cuttings is gonna need special care & to stay in the outdoors - AFAIK none of the species you have in mind do well indoors for anything much more than a brief period to present them, and all will need the sunlight + temperature differentials of living outside long-term.
- Short-term may require bringing them inside somewhere with *some* light but nothing direct, just so as to avoid direct sun scorching their leaves or excessive summer heat wicking all the water out of them. My maples have mostly been living on a screen porch, though they've had a couple of (unfortunately very sunny) days out on the front porch again recently - they have definitely preferred coolness and shade to getting much actual light & I may very well move them back, or even indoors for a little while just to keep them from getting roasted by late afternoon sun & heat.
- Also, remember to fertilise things once they're established, as well as to figure out what kind of fertiliser they'll want! I've not done the maples yet as they're still recovering from the transplant (almost two weeks ago now), but I expect sometime in the next week or two will be their first proper feeding. Not done the Fukien Tea yet as I'm still not 100% clear on what mix/type of fertiliser it prefers, but that's likely to be coming up soon as well.
- Some, or maybe even all of this stuff you already almost certainly know, but figured I'd throw it out here anyway, just in case - can't hurt to try, and if it helps keep your trees happy, then it's effort well-spent.
Like Sorce already said - welcome to crazy, and best of luck in your own adventures into the tiny forest!
Hey, thank you so much for your thorough and even well-outlined response!!
As a newbie, I’m probably not as thoroughly researched as you, but for sure more well researched than the average bear, and a bit of a lay naturalist in my spare time. You’re right; seedlings are faster than seeds but won’t provide many interesting things to do anytime soon!
I don’t expect to do anything exciting with these trees for several years. With these, I was not looking for a quick dive into the hobby so much as a little guidance for where to start if any are worth saving. I figure the worst I can do is kill them, and if I don’t kill them in pots, they’re going to be killed the next time we have a bonfire or my spouse thoroughly weeds the flowerbeds. I was able to stave off their demise by doing the weeding duties myself (an easy sell - I like the outdoors and don’t mind the heat and bugs so much) and deliberately leaving some, but any I want to save long term will have to be moved at least once. I could even bury the pots in mulch to help them make it through the winter. From prior experience, I know that in a drought, almost nothing in an exposed pot in the sun will live long unless given lots and lots of water.
The parent tree for most of the maples has very small leaves for a maple. The thing is significantly taller than our house, but the biggest leaves are no bigger than my kid’s hand, counting fingers. At least I have no unrealistic ideas about creating a tiny six inch tree with those.
Anyway, a multi year project doesn’t bother me because slow burn hobbies are what I need currently. I think about the time that has passed since my almost 4-year-old was born and it seems like nothing. I contemplate... what if I had saved a few seedlings from three years ago that I felt so reluctant about destroying, and had some things to work with now? A project I can start now that I don’t have to fuss with daily until my children are not quite so young is actually great. I’m 31. Maybe I’ll have some mildly interesting trees by 40.
And yes, the outdoor aspect is a huge plus! No Fukien Tea trees for me, as nice as they are. I don’t plan to have any of my bonsai indoors unless I truly fall in love with something that can’t be outdoors here. I’m great at keeping plants alive outside but indoors is more hazardous. Two children, four animals, and an aspiring minimalist spouse who has thrown my live plants in the trash when they did not look “healthy!” (I’m sure any struggling bonsai wouldn’t be thrown out without checking with me, but still.) If it’s outside, it is safer. I’ve got all kinds of irons in the fire in our landscaping. I’ve got a native herb garden, a food garden, and decorative things going on. A little forest of small trees to look after while they grow, once moved somewhere safe, won’t be a burden.
I took a trip to Lowe’s late last week. I didn’t like the look of the few bonsai they had. They were all tropical and had the tacky glued rocks and stuff. None were appropriate for living outdoors here. Among the regular landscaping plants though, I did pick up a $9 Japanese azalea for the 5 year azalea thing, and found an small, inexpensive native-to-the-US juniper that I might return for.
Nearest options for real bonsai shopping are in Nashville which is a long drive for me but worth it next time I can go. I joined a Facebook group for bonsai in the Nashville are too.
Fertilizer is something I will need to research more and that’s one reason I am here. Many of the volunteers are thriving in whatever rotted mulch and soil they’ve found but they will need more specialized care long term once potted.
Thank you again for your helpful and organized response!
