Best Bang for the Buck??

Jay

OK, I thought I'd see what the group felt was the best tree for the money. Here is the rules (so to speak) for this question.
1- You go to a New Nursery to buy a future tree for under $20.00
2- The Tree will be in a nursery container
3- There will be over 25 to choose from
4- You plan on takeing it home and styling it once it has adapted to your location
5- After styling, it will look good. ( OK good to the untrained eye or just your friend down the block).

The type or types of tree you will be looking for in the nursery are ____________

Disclaimer.... No guarantee that any tree you see in the place will do, but without future knowledge of the nursery you still have a feeling you will be able to find something? You are limited to the $20.00 figure. It would be easier to do with a higher limit but for this hunt its $20.00.

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ripsgreentree

Hands down winner is the five gallon procumbins juniper.
This material will "in my opinion" give you the best opertunity to create the best looking bonsai in a short time.

Glenn

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ripsgreentree

It requires an open hand to give and to recieve.

Jay

Rips, I agree! I just would like to see if there are other trees and other opinions out there. We have seen different artists do very nice work on the Juniper P. C.

I just wonder if there are others.......dare to be different?

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A Bonsai student living with his trees at N 44.37 W 77.49...
Think before you act... then think again... no good comes from rushing

stephentoddpope

well, i agree now, but at first thaught i was thinkin kingsvill boxwood, would be a nice choice, cause they ar not very high mintnence as far a puning, and ther bark ages pretty quickly

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Treebeard

Jay, good idea for a thread.

I'll dare to be different

Well, my suggestion would be a cotoneaster, probably congesta, but no way would you get a 5 gallon one for 13GBP in the UK!! You would more likely get a 3 litre (3/4 gallon).
What you do get though is masses of branches, which equals lots of choice for styling. The final bonsai would be shohin.

Regards,

TB

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Jose_Alberto

I would buy an Eugenia, those can become pretty in a short time...

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gilbycantu

Personally I would go for a Bougainvillea. For under $20 you could buy a 32 inch high bougie with a 2 and a half inch curvy trunk with a nice taper. I've been dreaming about bougies alot lately. Weird.

--Gilbert

pdbbonsai

Do we make a list of 25 to choose from ? Or do we just give one answer? What are the 25? Why is the sky blue?
Do pigeons play dead?


I would agree, if I had 20 bucks to roll for a tree, I could get cotoneasters at my favorite nursery.

Oh, I dont mean to complicate the thread, but some nurserys are more expensive than others...and some cheaper. At wallyworld I could get two or three one gallon sizes of many different juniper cultivars for 20 bucks.

Here are my top 10 nursery specimens for under 20 bucks. I was listing my top 25 but after my top ten they all were about equal.
1-10 in rank of my favorites of being able to style within one week of being home.....#1 being top.

1 cotoneaster
2 juniper (any)
3 barberry
4 quince
5 amur maple
6 potentilla
7 spirea
8 gingko (seedling of course)
9 mugo pine
10 scots pine


My reference material....and the nursery that hosts our bonsai group...can be seen here. They are moderately priced but the material is excellent, specializing in alpine, dwarfs, bonsai and japanese gardening.


http://www.edelweissnursery.com/stockpg4.html

Paul

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bonsaial1

I would have to agree that a juniper is probably the best bet. Redwood would be second, followed by cotoneaster.

How about doing this for real? Anyone game?

1. 20.00 limit
2. Nursery doesn't have to be new, since nursery's seem to be a risky venture these days.
3. Post before tree here
4. Make bonsai and repost, doesn't have to be in bonsai pot, could do a virtual of pot though, after posting finished tree.

I could make this another contest with a stand again. But then I couldn't play. I would like to do this too!

Sound fun?

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