Where do you get good starter material

ripsgreentree

I have started this thread to get some idea as to where all of you have found your best bonsai material, and what techniques did you have to apply to this material to make it your best?
Do you think that rootage is important for good bonsai?
If you do, how do you correct the roots that you find in the average nursery material.
Do you think that we can grow our own bonsai material from scratch?
ripsgreentree

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ripsgreentree

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Soildoc

Rip,

It seems like my best starter stuff comes from the local co-op. I have tried starter from a bonsai nursery, but I haven't been as happy with that as I have with the stuff from the co-op. Seems like the trees from the co-op are older and have more trunk development. Even then, I generally put the trees in open ground and pour on the fertilizer for a couple of months before I starting pruning and wiring.

I think rootage is very important for good bonsai but I haven't figured out how to treat the plant to get bigger roots for the surface.

As far as growing our own stuff from scratch, that's where I think I'm headed. Even though I'm happy with the nursery stock, it is somewhat limited as far as variety.

Bonsainut

Doc and Rip, *
* *I love the bonsai stock hunt. *I go from nursery to nursery, being very very selective now not to buy junk. *I love to go through 500 5 gallon junipers and pick one awesome pontential.
* * *I love to buy over grown items that are about to be potted into the next higher size pot(and tripled in price usually).
* *I love to buy an on sale 15 foot tall Chinese elm and ask the sales person If I can prune it, and dump the debris. ya know trim it a little so I can get it in my car. *Then cut *it off to *3 feet tall and just watch his eyes...
* *I love to go to Japanese owned nurserys in LA and look for items they consider yard bonsai and sell tons cheaper then regular bonsai in the bonsai section. *Same plant just a fraction of the price.
* *I love to be at our clubs sales twice a year on the night before the sale and set aside the primo pieces at 1950's prices, oh yes.
* *These are a few of the things that I love...
*

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Lethal Use of Farce

Gary Biggs

Glenn,

Nee-Hai Bonsai.

Gary

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TreeBay

When I started, I got my starter stuff at Lone Pine Gardens in Sebastapol, CA. It's not far from miniature plant kingdom.

They have 4" and 6" liners of many popular bonsai species and several unusual ones. A few of the area nurseries would have 100 or so of these available.

That was my definition of starter material at the time. Then, later, I would look for material at older nurseries, things in antique metal cans, club sales and estate stuff that is handled by a club auction.

The GSBF Mammoth Bazaar (in February in Oakland, CA) is another great place to find interesting things, as is their convention in Late October / Early November.


Lone Pine Gardens
6450 Lone Pine Rd
Sebastopol CA 95472-5623
707-823-5024

Brent Walston has some excellent stuff too that I have seen through forum postings, and has Internet sales.

http://www.evergreengardenworks.com/

Regards,

Matt

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Jase1972

Melbourne, Australia!

David Chauvin

Rips,

Let's see. In the last year I've gotten starter material (anything that has not received bonsai training)from:

Begging- I tracked down the manager of an old strip mall and asked for some of his abused landscape junipers and he agreed. Another business owner also let a friend and I dig a few junipers from his landscaping. These were bare rooted and repotted into grow tubs in a coarse soil mix to promote fibrous roots. We lost one of five.

Nursery crawls- An old overgrown nursery had several chinese elms (2" dia trunks with very nice radial surface roots) that have been trunk chopped, root pruned and put into grow boxes to develop. This spring they have responded well with lots of new shoots. A really interesting pfitzer juniper was also found here for very little cash. It was also bare rooted and repotted to recharge.

Collecting from wild- One decent cypress with average flare was dug, but I have a quite a few trees from previous years that are some of my most promising stock.

Bonsai nurseries- Bonsai Northshore is my favorite for specimen quality trees. Livingart Bonsai is very good for starter stock. I got several starter (three gallon) black pines that were cut back (last summer) and repotted into grow pots (this spring) to develop shohin size bonsai. I also got one larger black pine to be styled this June. This tree was grown for landscaping and had been cut back two years ago. The rootage is ok, but not great.

I've finally hit the point where I've become much more selective in what I bring home to keep. And yes, roots are very important. Rootage is not as important with junipers, but with deciduous and pines I will never again get a tree that does not have it or has no chance of developing it through bonsai growing techniques (grafting, layering, etc.).

As far as developing from scratch,,,,growing from seed or seedling does not interest me all that much. I prefer to get material that is well on it's way. Thank goodness there are field growers out there doing the dirty work. ;-)

Best Regards,

David

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Thaddeusjd

As a relative novice, I am still colelcting my starter material.
What I do like here in Kansas is a place called Family Tree Nursery. Their "bonsai" stock is over priced and not real well developed, but their nursery stock is excellent. They had some really nice young Hawthorns earlier this year. Plus, I found over the weekend a collection of broken 1/2 inch natural pavers they were trying to get rid of, so that was nice find.

Being Kansas though, I cannot get good tropical plants or some of the more "exotic" temperate plants. For those, being a novice, I like a place in Colorado called Tiny Trees (they have a website). The starters from TT are always well priced and in good shape. I have a very nice Olive from them and some nice white/green bamboo. Plus, I can learn from the ground up with a 2 yeard old seedling, learning the basics of growing and not killing my plants before I move on to more complicated techniques. I try to keep my plants within my skills range.

Also, I have some nice Hawthorn and Crab Apple seedlings from the Arbor Day Foundation, which were also in good shape and failrly well priced.

-james

Moni

I, too, have gotten the 10 footers and had permission to cut them down on the premises. I am still grinning after reading that one. "Wide eyed" does not quite describe the reaction. They all see me coming, now. My best one is an old juniper that a neighbor was having dug out because he was tired of it and wanted something flowering in that spot. I am also developing quite a collection of dwarf trees from a grower friend up here (Oregon). This has become his specialty and it will be interesting to see how they work out. He has not developed them for bonsai but now that he knows me..........well..........he is starting to use the word bonsai in his description of uses for these trees. At the moment, though, it is mostly people into rock gardening that are buying these trees. Neat, huh?
Moni