Buying your first Indoor Bonsai Tree

Welcome back to Indoor Bonsai for Beginners!

You should now have your 4 essential indoor bonsai tools and I bet you are itching to being pruning something! No worries...you are close! Today we are start talking about picking your first indoor bonsai tree. Exciting, isn't it!? Today we will talk about which trees are the best for beginners and what each has to offer.

Before we begin a note about growing your own indoor bonsai starter from seeds. There is nothing wrong with this method. In fact, this may seem like the most economical way to go but the drawback...it can take over a YEAR before you can begin pruning your new indoor bonsai. Why wait a whole year? It's much easier to head to your local gardening shop and pick up your first starter indoor bonsai specimen. Why? Bluntly, because we want to get started creating our indoor bonsai NOW! So...let's get started!

JAPANESE RED MAPLE

This is a great starter tree for the indoor bonsai beginner and a beautiful tree to boot. The leaves of this indoor bonsai will be a duller red in the summer. However, the real show is in the fall when the leaves turn a vivid red/orange. Another bonus is that this is an easy indoor bonsai to prune. The leaves can be shrunk down to one or less inches which is perfect for the upright informal style of indoor bonsai. It is easy on the pocketbook and you can find these mainly online or at your local nursery (call ahead - not all nurseries carry this). The color is what makes it my first choice for an indoor bonsai.

JUNIPER


Many fondly call this the "Karate Kid" tree. It is the type of indoor bonsai which is the most recognizable by the general public for being a bonsai tree. In truth, it's not a tree...it's really a shrub. There are a wide variety of junipers you can choose from. With it's distinctive needles and easy-to-shape trunk, the juniper really epitomizes "bonsai". Junipers are economical and are the easiest to trim and form. Another bonus, they can easily be purchased from your local nursery.


So, for our first indoor bonsai tree we are going to begin with ...... (insert drumroll)... the Juniper. Hey wait a minute...didn't I just say the Japanese Maple was my FIRST choice? Why pick the Juniper then? Junipers are probably more easily found at your local nursery -vs- the Japanese maple. Also, the cold hard truth is that your first indoor bonsai will probably die. It's a sad fact but the art of indoor bonsai is all trial and error. You don't ride a bike the first time you get on it...you are going to make mistakes. The same applies to indoor bonsai you are going to forget to water...water too much...bottom line...the odds are your first tree is a goner. The Juniper will allow you to practice your skills and to make the mistakes on the cheapest test-subject possible.

So be prepared to go to your local nursery and pick up your juniper. Best to get a 5 gallon size to start with. When you pick your juniper make sure to consider the natural shape of the trunk for your new indoor bonsai. While you can "train" a trunk to conform to the shape you'd like it to be...you aren't a miracle worker. Start with a trunk shape that says BONSAI TREE to you. Got it? Good.

Before you head out to get your first victim it's a good idea for us to go over the history of Bonsai. I know...you want to get started already, right? You need to learn how to walk before you can run. Until next time!