Bonsai trees!

[Garjzla]

Do not trim roots the first year. You do not even have to be concerned about pots. Depending on the specie and how fast it is growing you can start to wire the tree into interesting shapes. The main concern is to get the tree growing and be healthy. I would recommend that you not buy a mature tree as they require a lot of care and cost. Start with small trees, cuttings, and seeds and then, if your still interested, buy a bonsai. A great tree to start with is a ginseng ficus. They grow well, require less time and care, and are fascinating to look at. I have a number of these in my classroom. When I trim them the students practically fight over the cuttings as they are pretty easy to get started.

So I should wait for a year to trim the roots, unless it's growing quickly? It may be a year old, actually, because it's a real wooden tree, and I heard it takes a long time to grow leafs and become wooden.
I have enough money to buy one, and I will read a lot before purchasing a full grown one.
How old must the tree be to shape it with wire?

 

[nchls school]

So I should wait for a year to trim the roots, unless it's growing quickly? It may be a year old, actually, because it's a real wooden tree, and I heard it takes a long time to grow leafs and become wooden.
I have enough money to buy one, and I will read a lot before purchasing a full grown one.
How old must the tree be to shape it with wire?

Do not trim the roots the first year. Branches can be trimmed immediately depending on specie. Shaping can be done as soon as there is something to shape. When using wire do not wrap it tightly as the tree will grow over the wire quickly and may die. I use twist tie wire (like what is used to close bread bags). Longer lengths of this wire can be bought at Walmart in the garden department. Roots should only be trimmed when the plant has outgrown its pot. Maples are nice in the respect. They can be cut way back and they will still grow. Maples of one specie or another are found practically everywhere; I bet you have some growing there.

If you feel you must, buy a ficus; either off ebay or Walmart. The Walmart stores here have ginseng ficus quite often. These trees are tropical meaning they grow all year.

 

[Yorkshire Coop]

Glad I found this thread, I have a bonsai that I bought. I know nothing about it or even what kind of tree it is. Here is the tree ~

I also have a thread started in the gardening section. The link is in my signature below.
Any tips for me would be very much appreciated

 

[nchls school]

Privot Ligustrum. Fast growing-needs frequent pruning-not Wisconsin cold hardy.

 

[Garjzla]

Do not trim the roots the first year. Branches can be trimmed immediately depending on specie. Shaping can be done as soon as there is something to shape. When using wire do not wrap it tightly as the tree will grow over the wire quickly and may die. I use twist tie wire (like what is used to close bread bags). Longer lengths of this wire can be bought at Walmart in the garden department. Roots should only be trimmed when the plant has outgrown its pot. Maples are nice in the respect. They can be cut way back and they will still grow. Maples of one specie or another are found practically everywhere; I bet you have some growing there.

If you feel you must, buy a ficus; either off ebay or Walmart. The Walmart stores here have ginseng ficus quite often. These trees are tropical meaning they grow all year.

I wonder if walmart sells bonsai trees? Probably not, but maybe.
I did with the pine tree, and it's fine, but I will only do it if it's needed. I had to trim the pine tree because it's roots were way too long for the longest pot I had, so I had to cut it's roots. It's still fine, but I still worry that it may die, but I'm just a worrier.
Wow! I looked up Ficus trees and they're beautiful! I see most people put them in pots, so they must be good bonsais. I'm quite excited for my oak tree bonsai to grow, but I'm a little worried about that one, too! It's leafs look a little yellow and they're hard, is that normal for a yearling?
Also, when shaping, how does it not snap? I mean, it's wood. Sorry for me not knowing, I'm just not used to this sort of thing.

 

[Garjzla]

Glad I found this thread, I have a bonsai that I bought. I know nothing about it or even what kind of tree it is. Here is the tree ~






I also have a thread started in the gardening section. The link is in my signature below.
Any tips for me would be very much appreciated

Oh my goodness! That tree's adorable! But I do recommend asking what type of bonsai you have before buying it, because it could be really fragile and could easily die, meaning it needs lots of care.

 

[Bunnylady]

*sigh* I had a bonsai tree once. We had a bunch of cut-leaf Japanese Maple seedlings, 2-3 years old. Some were almost growing like weeds, but this one was slower, and had highly dissected leaves, so I decided to turn it into a bonsai. I planted it off-center in a rectangular bonsai pot, wired it into a "windswept" shape, tucked it in with moss; it was quite cute, if I do say so myself. I had just taken the training wires off of it when two canine hooligans that we had rescued pulled it off the shelf in the greenhouse and shredded it. That was just one of the incidents that prompted me to ask them, "you guys are trying to find out just how much I love you, aren't you?"

But that's one of the things I love about Japanese Maples - even in a landscape, it takes relatively little effort to get them to make interesting shapes.

 

[Garjzla]

*sigh* I had a bonsai tree once. We had a bunch of cut-leaf Japanese Maple seedlings, 2-3 years old. Some were almost growing like weeds, but this one was slower, and had highly dissected leaves, so I decided to turn it into a bonsai. I planted it off-center in a rectangular bonsai pot, wired it into a "windswept" shape, tucked it in with moss; it was quite cute, if I do say so myself. I had just taken the training wires off of it when two canine hooligans that we had rescued pulled it off the shelf in the greenhouse and shredded it. That was just one of the incidents that prompted me to ask them, "you guys are trying to find out just how much I love you, aren't you?"

But that's one of the things I love about Japanese Maples - even in a landscape, it takes relatively little effort to get them to make interesting shapes.

Oh my, that sounds like a cat! You know, hopping on shelves and knocking things down. But I do hope that you forgive them, dogs usually act like toddlers, so annoying yet so cute

. At least those trees grow really quickly, because you can start another, but it probably is pretty aggravating to have to start all over.

 

[nchls school]

I wonder if walmart sells bonsai trees? Probably not, but maybe.
I did with the pine tree, and it's fine, but I will only do it if it's needed. I had to trim the pine tree because it's roots were way too long for the longest pot I had, so I had to cut it's roots. It's still fine, but I still worry that it may die, but I'm just a worrier.
Wow! I looked up Ficus trees and they're beautiful! I see most people put them in pots, so they must be good bonsais. I'm quite excited for my oak tree bonsai to grow, but I'm a little worried about that one, too! It's leafs look a little yellow and they're hard, is that normal for a yearling?
Also, when shaping, how does it not snap? I mean, it's wood. Sorry for me not knowing, I'm just not used to this sort of thing.

Yes. Walmarts do sell bonsai and pretty nice ones for the beginner. Quite often they carry the gensing ficus I told you about. Green-new branches are flexible and bend easy. After a year or so they become brittle and hard; shaping is much more difficult if possible at all. It's fairly easy to tell if a branch or trunk can be shaped; if you can easily bend it with your hands then it can be trained to grow in a shape/design.

 

[Garjzla]

Yes. Walmarts do sell bonsai and pretty nice ones for the beginner. Quite often they carry the gensing ficus I told you about. Green-new branches are flexible and bend easy. After a year or so they become brittle and hard; shaping is much more difficult if possible at all. It's fairly easy to tell if a branch or trunk can be shaped; if you can easily bend it with your hands then it can be trained to grow in a shape/design.

Really? Cool! I may tell my mom about it, though I don't want to bother her with my talk about bonsais, but it helps a lot that she loves bonsais and is glad that I'm making a hobby out of them.
So, basically my oak tree doesn't have much hope? Well, it doesn't matter, I'd like to see what it'll look like naturally, it'll be interesting. I'll just wire the little pine tree later on.
Do you know how long cherry trees take to grow? Not to make cherries, but to be fully grown. I think they're beautiful and I'm excited for it to be full grown, but it's just a little bit of a sprouted seed right now.