Hello Ian and Treeboy,
Many thanks for your advice. I have 300 oaklings of the Major oak in Sherwood Forest. They were all acorns in Oct 2000. 142 are now planted out, the rest are in pots waiting to be planted out, or acting as "spares". There are about 70 spares, which are of less stature than the rest. You are welcome to a spare, but must collect it yourself from my Nursery in Dorset, England. Importing to USA is next to impossible because of phytosanitary laws. All my oaklings are exposed to sun and wind, have been allowed to adopt a natural shape, and all have a "flared" base caused by flexing in the wind. Those in pots are lying on the ground, and are watered quite often by hand. The pots are 10 litre size, so the oaklings probably won't know that they are not planted out!
Sorry about the typo in my URLs. They should have been:
www.eyemead.com/majoroak.htm
www.eyemead.com/oakwood.htm
As suggested, I will welcome further advice from the "greybeards " of the bonsai world, and also do some reading up on the subject.
Thanks again,
John