AusBonsai

called past my old school teachers place today who is no longer a school teacher but now happens to be a nursery stock grower after a quick chat i asked him if he had any chinese elms that i could use to bonsai, he went into his nursery and came back with 2 chinese elms for me and said i could have them for $2 what do you think of them not bad for a few bucks he also gave me another japanese maple for $2 aswell! score!

here is the other elm and the Japanese maple. feel free to give me some advice on what i should do with them or some ides on styles

cool, for Starters.
Pot them up into larger pots the end of winter and spread the roots out flat
Let them just grow madly for a few years

Ken

G'day Grasshopper,

Most of us would say "Put them in the ground and GROW on for a few years". I would say over winter wire the trees for shape(Trunks Only). Then just before spring cut the wire off and prepare an area to use as a grow bed/box/pot, whatever you have available, and then YES grow these trees on for a couple of years atleast. You wont be able to achieve any real amount of trunk thickening if you leave these trees in nursery pots or bonsai pots. So yes a great bargain you've got there but a little bit of time to invest for your $6.

Depends on what you want from your bonsai Grasshopper.
If you want little sticks in pots them put them into bonsai pots and you'll have sticks in pots immediately (and for many years into the future too).

If you want impressive bonsai that tell a story then you'll need to follow Ken's (and Sid's (humble apologies Sid, your reply must have come in just as I was posting so i did not see it ) advice - into larger pots or the ground and feed them so they grow big to promote impressive trunk thickness. Cut them back once or twice each year to promote taper and movement. In a few years you could have impressive trees.

At my place you would have paid $6 each but they would have had the roots trimmed and arranged proberly for bonsai. $2 would hardly cover the cost of pot, mix and time to strike cuttings/ seedlings and pot up so its quite cheap.

If you want impressive bonsai that tell a story then you'll need to follow Ken's advice - into larger pots or the ground and feed them so they grow big to promote impressive trunk thickness. Cut them back once or twice each year to promote taper and movement. In a few years you could have impressive trees.

Ken's advice?

these are ones that he wouldnt sell to a nursey because they look a little ugly or the leaves are not nice and green or for what ever reason, thats why he gave them to me for $2 each.i like the idea of creating something good (like the tree deserves) out of something that was going to be tossed out, he gets rid of plants he doesnt want and i get free or $2 stock for growing bonsai's but i will definetly be following kens advice and putting them into the ground to grow the trunks and hopefully in a couple of years make a decent bonsai out of them. then ill take it back to the guy and show him what i did with the trees he was going to throw out. i will probably end up giving him one to keep

sorry i will be following SIDDAH'S advice of getting trunk shape and then growing them for a couple of years

and kens advice also about spreading the roots out flat

$2....$2 ....

Congratulations the grasshopper You sound very happy with the trees, I would be too. I bought $2 trees all the time as well when I was starting.

Some of the $2 I got back then was in little seedling tubes not like these.

Enjoy them and please keep us update.

Best regards.

Hi Grasshopper

All I can say is that all the advice above is some of the best you will get so take it all in & you will be one day a very good bonsai person, but stick's in pot's are all over the place & really great bonsai are what we all would like to have & I'd say that the people posting on your post have some very very nice Bonsai's in there collection

Regard's The Hacker

bargain

i went back to see him today and picked up another 4 Japanese maples and 1 more chinese elm, paid $10 for the lot so i will have plenty of stock growing for the future. they will be all trunk wired and put into large growing pots for the first few years of thier life and i will be following the advice above like you said i wont get any better advice than what i get on this site. thanx to all for your wealth of knowlegde i appreciate it

Great GH,
It is good to snap a few up when you come across them cheap. Come here and I can give you a few for free
Another great thing about joining a club is that members often have this sought of thing to give away. My Chinese elms are self seeded weeds