Good & Bad Species for Beginners

Heathcliff

Ok, Here it is. It took me a while and my head hurts but it looks good!

DIFFICULT FOR BEGINNERS

Azalea* - Need acid soil and will die if they dry out a little. Too wet and they rot.
Black Gum - (Nyssa sylvatica)
Ceiba Pentandra - slow grower, and this is a headache tree... it won't develop small leaves, so well; it won't make it different than blooming style. But it can live for centuries...
Chaemacyparis - any
Cryptomeria - any
Cypress*
Eastern Red Cedar - (J. virginiana)
Eucalyptus
Fir – Any
Ginko - They are real touchy to watering and tend to throw away shoots for no apparent reason.
Hemlock - Any
Hinoki Cypress*
J-black pine - will survives and tolerates the heat. doesn't tolerate over watering, candle pruning is an acquired skill, all operations need to be coordinated against a seasonal calendar, and it doesn't accept pruning without regard to existing buds.
J-white Pine
J-mountain maple - requires shade and protection from dry winds
Manzanita
Oak - They hate over watering.
Pines - Require perfect drainage and some advanced cultivation.
Privet - (Ligustrum vulgaris)
Rhododendron* - any
Shortleaf Pine - (P. echinata)
Spruce - any
Washington Hawthorne - (Crataegus phaenopyrum)
White pine - Any

*In a hot dry climate


BAD CHOICES IN GENERAL

Fukien Tea - Fickly (can work)
Palms - With the exception of Sago Palm, which is kind of cute actually, it’s a lost cause. You might as well display a pineapple as an accent planting. I've been battling a Mexican Fan Palm for 10 years or so. Leaf size reduced to about 1/2, but it still looks funny to me.
Serissa Tea - Fickly (can work)
True Cypress - Leylandi & Italian Cypress. No real cultivation problems, I just don't think these make good bonsai in general.
Willow - I'm sure someone out there has a nice willow tree. I'd like to see it
Walnut - I'm sure someone out there has a nice willow tree. I'd like to see it

*Any other "nut tree" with big compound leaves, with the possible exception of a Chinese Pistache, which is the only tree around here with reliable fall color


EASY FOR BEGINNERS

Amur Maple - (Acer ginella)
Bahuina - they grow like weed... they grow so fast that I had troubles of root bound in about 3 months... well, but they are forgiving trees... they will grow from nothing, but the other con, is that they will hardly make it in a different style than cascade...
Bald cypress - do well in the heat but are kept in water. swamp, pond, or Montezuma
Black Cherry - (Prunus serotina)
Bouganvillia
Burning bush - (Euonymous alatus)
Celtis Maple - will tolerates the heat as well but can be a little fussy about water and fertilizer
Chinese Elm - Very good in many ways
Chickasaw Plum - (Prunus angustifolia)
Crepe myrtle
Cryptomeria - Nice-looking tree, easy to style. Relatively forgiving.
Elm - Seiju, Hokkaido, Chinese,
European Olive - small leafed variety looks best, little ollie for fruit
Ficus - popular "indoor" bonsai. Small leaved Bennys, nerifolia, nitida, retusa,
Gingko - easy
Hornbeam - these are slow growing and tend to be a bit more expensive.
Trident Maple
Hophornbeam - (Ostrya virginiana)
Japanese Honeysuckle - (Lonicera japonica)
Japanese maples - good in Seattle, bad in Phoenix. Isn’t hard to start with, but remember not to give it to much fertilizer.
Juniper - the "perfect" bonsai conifer. Stays green even when it's dead. On the downside, it stays green even when it's dead! This is a high light tree and will usually not do well inside. Foemina, nana, prostrata, San Jose, sergeants (kishu, itoigawa) Californica. (J. procumbens "Nana" and "Green Mound")
Liquidamer - orientalis especially.
Montezuma Cypress - does well in the heat but is kept in water
Mulberry - Impossible to kill.
Olive - I doesn’t know how they cope in the snow, but nothing else seems to worry them....
Peach - (Prunus persica)
Persimmon - (Diospyros virginiana)
Pomegranate - Real easy, good fruiter, great flower
Saju Elm
Sugarberry or Southern Hackberry - (Celtis laevageta)
Trident Maple - will tolerates the heat as well but can be a little fussy about water and fertilizer
True cedars - Atlas, libiani, brevifolia, and deodar
Virginia Creeper - (Parthenociscus Cinquifol0ia)
Winged Elm - (Ulmus alata)
Wisteria - Grow like weeds
Zelkova - love full sun and heat


SOME RELATIVELY EASY FLOWERING BONSAI:
Crabapple
Hawthorn
Cotoneaster

__________________
Sir Winston Churchill: "You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: It is victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival..."