FredL

OK, we've had a thread on "Trees I won't grow again"; how about all time favorites?

From what I've worked with, at least at this point, some of the trees I really like include:

1. Amur Maples. Not fussy at all, easy to shape, beautiful colors, Spring and Fall, well proportioned leaves, under rated, I'd say. No problems with hot or cold weather, one of the first trees to bud and leaf in the early Spring when you're ready to get going with bonsai and many trees want to wait for warmer weather. I LOVE these trees.

2. Hophornbeams. A native that's just as nice as its various Old World cousins. Widely available for free, this humble species is another easy to grow species that is very undemanding and seems to naturally form interesting trunks and good nebari. Three years from seeds, mine are alredy beginning to look quite like little bonsai.

3. Shortleaf Pine. By golly, these trees resemble Japanese Red Pines. Mine, once succesfully past the shock of initial potting from the wild, are developing beautifully, responding well to Bonsai culture. Their needles are not nearly as long as other Southern Yellow Pine and reuce well with their rootage limited by pot culture. This species deserves to be WAY more popular than it is and if it grew in Japan would be one of the most popular bonsai species. Their needles and bark are superb and it is not difficult to develop very beautiful trunks and branches with them.

Others that were very close to the top three include: Winged Elm, Sugarberry (Southern Hackberry), Flowering Quince, Procumbense Juniper, Washington Hawthorne, Virginia Creeper, Winged Euonymous and our native Wild Plums (Chickasaw Plum).

I had some other favorites when I was in California, but these are my favorites now.

Fred

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