I have two 1 year old black walnut trees in small pots, Are they bonsaiable? Also a blue spruce, can any or all be made into bonsai trees?
I should mention that my plants are volunteers and after reading everyone's posts I see I should have bought an already started one, rather than dig them up from the ground. But my Black walnuts are a year old in pots, not in the ground, the blue spruce was a slip in a Christmas card that I planted in a small pot.
I also have my lovely year old Rosemary that I'm 'training' to be beautiful. Actually it's doing That itself.
TIA
pl
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Hey Tia,
You can turn most any tree into a bonsai; the trick is to know the usual habit of the tree and look for a style to fit it. Individual trees have individual traits, so there is latitude here, but all in all, a little homework might be in order. F'rinstance, I wouldn't try to do those walnuts as cascade styles; it wouldn't suit the growth habit. Check the bonsai pages to see more on styling...
I buy very few "started" bonsai and prefer to style them myself from nursery stock or pre-bonsai starters; cheaper and it gives you far more control over the finished product, so nope, you didn't do anything wrong.
Start getting those trees into shallower pots; I find that simply cutting the tops down on plastic nursery pots helps expose roots early and sets your soil level for years to come, so that's a good start. And I've seen some lovely rosemary bonsai, so have fun with that...
Remember that slow and easy are the by-words for this art and it's easy to do more later and impossible to undo cuts and pruning, so gradual change is best...
Scott
You can turn most any tree into a bonsai; the trick is to know the usual habit of the tree and look for a style to fit it. Individual trees have individual traits, so there is latitude here, but all in all, a little homework might be in order. F'rinstance, I wouldn't try to do those walnuts as cascade styles; it wouldn't suit the growth habit. Check the bonsai pages to see more on styling...
I buy very few "started" bonsai and prefer to style them myself from nursery stock or pre-bonsai starters; cheaper and it gives you far more control over the finished product, so nope, you didn't do anything wrong.
Start getting those trees into shallower pots; I find that simply cutting the tops down on plastic nursery pots helps expose roots early and sets your soil level for years to come, so that's a good start. And I've seen some lovely rosemary bonsai, so have fun with that...
Remember that slow and easy are the by-words for this art and it's easy to do more later and impossible to undo cuts and pruning, so gradual change is best...
Scott
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Yep, they sure are, so an upright style. Formal upright would be good, but it has the most rules of any style to do it right, so not a good style for beginners, but...
The link below takes you to our bonsai index, on which you will find a link to Bonsai Societies of Florida. My old friend Tom Zane has graciously allowed people to make copies of his Intermediate Bonsai Course handout, and I would definitely download that to learn more than I could teach you from one of the best teachers in the country. Good stuff...
[url]https://www.helpfulgardener.com/bonsai/index.html[/url]
The link below takes you to our bonsai index, on which you will find a link to Bonsai Societies of Florida. My old friend Tom Zane has graciously allowed people to make copies of his Intermediate Bonsai Course handout, and I would definitely download that to learn more than I could teach you from one of the best teachers in the country. Good stuff...
[url]https://www.helpfulgardener.com/bonsai/index.html[/url]
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