What would you grow or recommend is best for bonsai??

[Luke308]

Hi peoples, I am looking at getting some more seeds, but some of the seed available, I am unsure of how they would be suited to bonsai? Thast where you come in Hopefully you can tell me what is either not suited, or what you would recommend from experience etc.

Here is what I have come across as available locally

Betula Platyphylla -Japanese white birch
Pinus Parvifolia - Japanese white Pine (obviously make great bonsai, but unsure about growing from seed)
Larix Leptolepsis - Japanese Larch
Acer Palmatum "atropurpureum" Japanese maple
Acer Tataricum - Tatarian Maple
Pinus Nigra Austriaca -Austrian pine
Pinus Aristata - Bristlecone pine
Pinus Armandii - Chinese White pine
Pinus Mugo Pumilio - Dwarf mugo pine (obviously make great bonsai, but unsure about growing from seed)
Pinus Banksiana - Jack pine
Pinus Densiflora - Japanese red pine
Pinus Koraiensis - Korean pine
Pinus Edulis - Pinyon pine
Pinus Sylvestris - Scots pine (obviously make great bonsai, but unsure about growing from seed)
Crataegus Laevigata - English hornbeam
Taxus Cuspidata Capitata - Japanese Yew
Zelkova Serrata - Japanese elm
Cedrus Atlantica - Atlas Cedar
Cedrus libani - Cedar of Lebanon

I hope someone out there in bonsai-land can give me some advice???
Thanks in advance

[Guy]

with all that seed looks as if your in it for the long haul-----

[Craig]

none of the above, grow Melaleucas

[bodhidharma]

G'day Luke, in all honesty mate for what you will spend on seeds you are better off going to a Nursery and get some starters. You will then have some stuff to play with. Better still, get a couple of pre- Bonsai in grow pots and make your dreams come to fruition a lot earlier.

[Brian]

G'day Luke, in all honesty mate for what you will spend on seeds you are better off going to a Nursery and get some starters. You will then have some stuff to play with. Better still, get a couple of pre- Bonsai in grow pots and make your dreams come to fruition a lot earlier.

Thats good advice , or you can pull Radiata pines from the side of the road for free. Many years ago I used to pull Radiata pines out from the ground. "Thats right", just grab them and reef them out bare rooted. If you pull out say 12 trees, take them home covered in a wet rag and plant up in straight sharp sand, you may get a 50% strike rate. Thats how I was taught to collect trees from the side of the road by a well known bonsai master now no longer with us. Now after being involved in the bonsai society since 1984 I have a wonderful mature pine collection. Forget about growing from seed, just get out there and collect !

[Andrew F]

Air layers, and heaps of them. Root hormone powder is like 3 bob from B*nnings.
Buy wholesale spag moss from a nursery, some plastic bags or nursery pots, you'll be cheering mate.

Maybe grow the pine from seed though

[cre8ivbonsai]

G'day Luke, in all honesty mate for what you will spend on seeds you are better off going to a Nursery and get some starters. You will then have some stuff to play with. Better still, get a couple of pre- Bonsai in grow pots and make your dreams come to fruition a lot earlier.

Good call Bodhi, try improving your skills on some big healthy stock and save yourself years too!

[xtolord]

Would also recommend to go for nurseries.

1. You'll get trees that actually grow in your area.
2. That will save you some good 10~25 years waiting for the tree to get enough characteristics
3. Look a trees that grows around you [ bottlebrush, casuarina etc ] for starters.
If you are starting up, look for fast growing trees [ casuarina or privets should do the trick for a start ]

[AndrewC]

Hi Luke,

Yeah the advice above is right on the whole - use nursery stock, trainers, collections or air layers for a quick start on more common species. But I wouldn't overlook starting some seed for species that are different to the norm when you like the look of them. You might enjoy getting a handful of trays started germinating and growing... for mine I do enjoy looking at my trays of cuttings and also seedlings when I have them (mostly collected from park trees). The thing is maybe not to have your whole bonsai experience with these mini youngsters. Make sure that at the same time you've got some more advanced material started in training.

Main thing is to have fun... and it doesn't hurt to be doing something different

Andrew.

[daiviet_nguyen]

Hi,

G'day Luke, in all honesty mate for what you will spend on seeds you are better off going to a Nursery and get some starters. You will then have some stuff to play with. Better still, get a couple of pre- Bonsai in grow pots and make your dreams come to fruition a lot earlier.

Thats good advice , or you can pull Radiata pines from the side of the road for free. Many years ago I used to pull Radiata pines out from the ground. "Thats right", just grab them and reef them out bare rooted. If you pull out say 12 trees, take them home covered in a wet rag and plant up in straight sharp sand, you may get a 50% strike rate. Thats how I was taught to collect trees from the side of the road by a well known bonsai master now no longer with us. Now after being involved in the bonsai society since 1984 I have a wonderful mature pine collection. Forget about growing from seed, just get out there and collect !

Radiata pines are certainly strong. They strike from cuttings too. Years ago, I did pull bare-root a radiata from Laburnum train station (between Blackburn and Box Hill,) it did survive (but got stolen in 2010.)

But if we can do better than just pull them out bare-root, we should try too.

I still have a kick out of seeing seedlings pop out of their seeds. For trident maples with the right cares, we can actually have cute little bonsai in a relatively few short years.

But I agree with bodhidharma, starting out, we should get our hand on material to play with rather than waiting for seedlings to grow.

But there is nothing wrong with growing from seeds at the same time as well.

Cheers.

[Pup]

Look around your area! note what is growing well and start with them.

Then you could try a Native or two, as this is primarily a native Australian forum.

In Sth Australia you will have trouble with certain species, from the northern Hemisphere as they need the cold, like Yew and Taxus also some of the Tsuga's.

Cheers Pup

[Luke308]

Thanks to all those have replied, I appreciate it, but I think most of you missed my question. I have been on digs and collected material, I have nursery stock, the only things I don't have are established (show worthy) bonsai, and exotic seedlings. I have plenty of casuarina, callistemon, & eucalyptus seedlings, but I am wanting to try my hand at exotics (both deciduous and evergreen) like maples, pines, and cedar. I was asking if anyone has had experience with growing these from seed. As like I said, I have potensai, or bonsai trainers, or whatever you want to call them, but whilst I am experimenting and learning with these, I would like to raise some from seed, so in 15-20 years time, I can have the satisfaction of saying "I grew this from seed" to my (future) children and or to people at shows (hopefully they are worthy of showing.) I am just wanting to try my hand at a bit of everything, so if anyone can chime in and tell me what they would recommend to grow from seed I would be appreciative. I am particularly interested in the JWP, and either the scots pine or Austrian pine, and the Tatarian maple, Japanese Larch, and Japanese white birch. please feel free to comment on any of the others as well.
I know a lot of people here a fond of natives, and I appreciate that, but I have a heap of them already growing as seedlings, and I am going on a dig shortly for 15-20year old natives so I have that base covered. All of the nursery stock JBP, Mugo pines, Scots pines and JWP have all been grafted and not grown from seed, so that is another reason for interest in this method of propagation. I hope you all understand the method to my madness, as I am in this for the long haul as "Guy" said
Thanks again to all those who already replied,
Luke

[Pup]

What would you grow or recommend is best for Bonsai. Is that the question? I thought it had been answered. If however you were to say.

What seed do you recommend I grow for the future for Bonsai you might get a different set of answers.

Just my

[daiviet_nguyen]

Hi Luke,

In my mind, to successful keep JWP, we must have good shade house.

My experience with JWP seedlings is very limited, and I did not have any success with them either.

Please find this thread viewtopic.php?f=9&t=7336

The little girl has since been burnt off.

But if I have access to JWP seeds, I would keep trying year after year. I have read that in California, Mr. Inami, who is now in his early 80s, (he studied under Mr. Ota,) and still doing JBP seedlings.

There is absolutely no reasons why we should not try -- if we have access to seeds. The worse that could happen is they all died. But in any case, we will learn something. If we have too many, there is always a sell section on this forum

Just my

Cheers.