What do you want in a bonsai? A classic evergreen, like a pine? A deciduous tree that will take you through the season (a maple, for example?)
The traditional way of starting a bonsai is to collect a plant growing wild, pot it, and wait several years before training it. Because this method robs the environment of trees, though, and because there's such a long wait before training can even begin, the other methods describe in this section have become accepted as equally valid ways of starting bonsai. One of the best ways to be assured of success-and therefore one of the best ways for the beginner-is to start with a nursery plant. The plant lists on the previous pages can help you find the right one.
From the nursery
Nurseries have a wide variety of potential bonsai plants, and nursery personnel can give you advice about a plant's growth habits. Having grown up in containers of 5-gallon size or less, the root systems of nursery plants have adapted to confined conditions, and transplanting them will prove much less traumatic than with plants dug out of the ground.
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| Murraya paniculata. From seed. |
When you shop for your potential bonsai, know the characteristics you want. Look for a vigorous, healthy tree with small, compact foliage. Try to find one that's not too tall and gawky and one that has a thick, strong trunk at the base (dig down to see if some of the trunk is under the soil surface). Look carefully at the shape and arrangement of major branches-you might have to push some foliage gently aside to do this. Try to imagine which side would be the front, which the back.
Ask yourself some questions. Would any major branches have to be removed? If so, would the pruning leave visible scars? Let the tree suggest the basic form-upright, slanting, and so forth. Then imagine how you want the finished planting to look. What will you need to do to accomplish that-bend the trunk, wire the branches, create a new apex?
The castoff plant that doesn't get second look from other gardeners may be exactly the right specimen for your bonsai. It's the one with the bent or twisted trunk, the dwarfish character, that the bonsai grower rescues from ignominy and turns into a work of art.
Out of a nursery can
After you've chosen your tree, have the can cut only if you expect to repot the plant as soon as you get home. When a can is cut, roots dry out fast.
Trim back the root ball by about a third and put the tree into a container that is slightly smaller than the one you took it from. Try to flatten out the ball shape somewhat. Don't expect to chop away enormous amounts of roots all at one time to get a canned tree into a small bonsai container. Few plants will survive this treatment.
At the next replanting season thin the roots even more and transfer the tree to its shallow bonsai container. By working in this gradual way, you'll be able to get the root system down to the right size without danger of losing the plant.