Bonsai Trees

OmahaJB · May 13, 2007

I've recently germinated a Monkeypod Brazilian Rain Tree to use eventually for bonsai, and plan on having a few bonsai trees in the future. So I decided to ask about the experiences others have had with growing bonsai trees.

It'll take years for my seedling to turn into a nice bonsai tree, but that's part of the attraction to it. Some of the bonsai trees I've seen pictures of are stunning. Some being hundreds of years old. They had one on the news a couple of weeks ago that was over 400 years old! Amazing.

I'd enjoy hearing your experiences with bonsai. What first got me interested was when I was living in Miami several years ago, I noticed someone was selling 10 different types of tree seed for bonsai on EBAY, for $12 or around that price. So I decided to try them out. At that time I didn't have any lighting, so after germinating, the spindly seedlings toppled over. We also had unusually cold weather for about a week which helped kill them off.

Some varieties had great germination rates but others had low or very low rates. Giant Sequoia had maybe 1 or 2 germinate, and the "stone" types (I forget the actual names but they had stone in the name) were also incredibly stubburn to germinate.

Well, I wanted to start this thread to hopefully initiate some discussion about bonsai. It seems a worthwhile topic to discuss. Maybe that's just because I'm interested in it.

Jeff

May 13, 2007	#1
OmahaJB Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Toledo, OH Posts: 1,821	Bonsai Trees I've recently germinated a Monkeypod Brazilian Rain Tree to use eventually for bonsai, and plan on having a few bonsai trees in the future. So I decided to ask about the experiences others have had with growing bonsai trees. It'll take years for my seedling to turn into a nice bonsai tree, but that's part of the attraction to it. Some of the bonsai trees I've seen pictures of are stunning. Some being hundreds of years old. They had one on the news a couple of weeks ago that was over 400 years old! Amazing. I'd enjoy hearing your experiences with bonsai. What first got me interested was when I was living in Miami several years ago, I noticed someone was selling 10 different types of tree seed for bonsai on EBAY, for $12 or around that price. So I decided to try them out. At that time I didn't have any lighting, so after germinating, the spindly seedlings toppled over. We also had unusually cold weather for about a week which helped kill them off. Some varieties had great germination rates but others had low or very low rates. Giant Sequoia had maybe 1 or 2 germinate, and the "stone" types (I forget the actual names but they had stone in the name) were also incredibly stubburn to germinate. Well, I wanted to start this thread to hopefully initiate some discussion about bonsai. It seems a worthwhile topic to discuss. Maybe that's just because I'm interested in it. Jeff