AusBonsai

Greetings,

I'm not sure if this is an acceptable topic of discussion.. but as a beginner this seems like a good place for me to start obtaining some goodies.
With 75% off conifers, deciduous varieties and such.. could anyone please recommended some beginner types for me to look into procuring?

Cheers! ^_^

Wiki is your freind
https://www.ausbonsai.com.au/wiki/index. ... ter_Bonsai

Lots of different species mentioned here, but there are many other possibiltied too. Look for Species that backbud, are not large leaved.
look for any that have low branching or trunk movemet, and some nice root flare around the base of the trunk.
Avoid plain straight trunks and ugly disfigured roots.

Ken

Becareful of ugly grafts as well. I normally steer clear of grafted material.

Thanks guys.
Will steer-clear of grafts! ^_^
I plan to grab some maples and rosemaries and fruits .
Of the starter evergreens listed (in the ever so helpful and now bookmakred Starter Bonsai wiki), which would you recommend as fastest growing? My short attention span demands instant results!
Is this an OK time of year to be undergoing a stock-obtaining venture?
Thanks again!
-ignorant novice.

Juniper procumbens are the fastest I think, but many people do not like them due to the prickly foliage. Sergeants are nice on the fingers and not that slow either in a big pot and lots of ferts.

Ken

evenings wrote:Thanks guys.
Will steer-clear of grafts! ^_^
I plan to grab some maples and rosemaries and fruits .
Of the starter evergreens listed (in the ever so helpful and now bookmakred Starter Bonsai wiki), which would you recommend as fastest growing? My short attention span demands instant results!
Is this an OK time of year to be undergoing a stock-obtaining venture?
Thanks again!
-ignorant novice.

Evenings, I think you have chosen unwisely if you are looking for INSTANT bonsai. It requires time and when you have run out of it someone else takes over.

harry

Hi Harry,
Please be reassured, I jest dear-sir ^_^ I just want something I can manipulate and play with to hone my bumbling fumbling novice hands. I think it would frustrating for me to start with slow growing varieties all of the same growth-rate.
I shall keep my eyes peeled for interesting Juniper

There is no such thing as instant bonsai, trees take time to grow so I guess if you want to pursue this hobby you will need to get used to that. To grow a really good tree takes an absolute minimum of 10 years unless you have access to very good quality collected material.
With raw nursery stock its better just to look at the first 15cm of the tree and select on the basis of a nice lower trunk and root base then cut the tree back hard and re-grow. Somif you are buying conifers low branching is essential.
Plants that are stripped back wired and put into a bonsai pot take a very long time to make convincing trees whereas if you are prepared to put the next 5-10 years into actually growing the tree into shape you will ultimately get a much better result.
Craigw

I love junipers for some basic instant gratification fun... chop, chop, clean up, wire the whole length and bend and twist and wammo.... instant cascade bonsai ready to go. You will like the way it looks already from day 1 and then over the next few years you develop the foliage pads etc and refine everything further.

K2 yes its really easy to whip up some kind of tree from nursery material juniper, its almost a right of passage for most Australian growers. My problem with this technique is that it takes 2 lifetimes for the junipers to develop any sort of trunk girth and they spend years and years looking like stripped down nursery stock. In the long term if you spend some years developing a decent trunk before you commit the trees to a bonsai pot you will end up with a much better result.
Craigw

Well said CraigW! It does, however depend on what you expect from bonsai and what you believe bonsai to be. Many novices are happy with sticks in pots and for some that is all bonsai will ever be. Some will go on to appreciate real bonsai but it seems we all need to go through the 'have something in a pot' stage before setting out to create real trees.

Evenings, Commercially grown nursery trees can sometimes yield reasonable stock for bonsai but most are grown without attention to roots as they are repotted and are grown for the quickest, straightest trunk so you will mostly find trees with little taper or movement and tangled roots. If that's what you want then go ahead and buy a truckload but you may be disappointed later when you come to appreciate the finer points of bonsai. Really knowing what to look for can help select plants that may produce reasonable bonsai from commercial stock.
As CraigW said, good bonsai takes time and patience. Starting with good stock helps too.

That is what my maples and other species are for. My response was more in relation to the poster stating they wanted an "instant bonsai". In my eyes the juniper is a fav for doing this. Of course it will never develop a thick trunk etc, but is the closest a newbie will get to a good looking tree from day one with inexpensive stock. In saying that i only prefer doing cascades with my junipers as i have found i really am not the greatest fan of coniferus plants in bonsai. i am more of a sucker for a maple, ficus, elm etc