Bonsai?

[BrotherShamus]

Just wondering,

Next year I plan on getting a decent living space, and I've always wanted to try getting into the art of bonsai trees. Its seems like a fun, relaxed dudely hobby. Just wondering if anyone else has tried it/wants to try it, and has any thoughts.

[Rev Paddy Cakes]

I have had and loved them in the past. I have also been a bit too Dudely (read, lazy) in the past and killed most of them. They have to be moist. Can't get dry. Maybe this is a good way to think about them. The bonsai is to water as the Dude is to Caucasians. Just keep on fixing them a drink... I do plan on getting another one soon.

[BrotherShamus]

Cool! At what stage in their life should they be bought?

[milnie]

Almost any tree or shrub can be a bonsai if started young, If you've got a few spare decades to spend time on it.

[meekon5]

I believe the Japanese actually used to go out and find saplings that where a year old from the wild, then cultivate them from then on.

[BrotherShamus]

Interesting. I've been thinking about getting a fukien tea tree. they look great when properly cared for

[Masked Dude]

Long ago, I had lots of bonsai trees. I also mostly played with some sort of penjing. (Penjing, ??, is the original Chinese art from which bonsai and hòn non b? originated.) It was a school of thinking that you let the tree grow on its own, and only prune away the parts you don't want. It was basically the lazy man's bonsai. No wires or weights, just let it grow, care for it (mostly removing the tap root), and trim what you don't want. Like a haircut.

My favorites were my juniper, which I got from someone else, thought it was dying, buried it outside, and now it's ten feet high. I got another one from my professor who passed away. Unfortunately, they passed it on to me too late and it had died. I still have the pot and plan to grow another in his honor. (Magistre, vivere est cogitare.)

It's a relaxing thing. My next idea is to get some of the maple saplings in my yard and foster them. In the past, I used to take in neglected trees, foster them, and give them to others. I can't say for sure any of them were cared for after that, but that's on them.

[RevKHyler]

My favored bonsai is a sometimes finicky pine tree that a squirrel or bluejay voluntarily planted in a planter box a couple of years ago.  I do better with evergreens for some reason.