Hello all,
I am new to bonsai and I am struggling a little bit to find material. I mean, its not hard to find some basic juniper and hack away at, but I would really like to find something that I can refine rather than starting from scratch so that I have something a little more appealing for my small garden. Does anyone know where I can find something reasonably priced in the area that isn't a finished product, but also not nursery material?
What’s “reasonably priced” mean to you and what species are you looking for?
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Thank you! As far as reasonably priced, what i end up seeing is completely raw material for say $30 on a nursery juniper or so, then if its had a single styling $150. If it comes from a bonsai shop, the raw material seems to be $150+.
One species i really want would be some Japanese maples, but that does seem to be wither seedlings or a fully curated tree that then can be well over $1000. With maples its also hard to find nursery stock since the goal is usually to have a trunk that has no movement for their larger trees that one could maybe convert.
It is also very possible I do not know the right places to look as well.
Perhaps part of your problem is your not attuned to what to look for in nursery stock. Another problem when nursery stock hunting is most people do not go often enough and give up after one trip. If you want a Japanese maple in the Denver metro area your going to have to pony up to a nursery stock tree. The main problem with Japanese nursery stock trees is that there all grafted and most grafts are not done well enough for Bonsai. Look for a Sharps Pygmy maple at the Bonsai Nursery in the NURSERY department not the BONSAI department. Your going to have to spend a lot of time developing a tree, your not going to find a tree/bush and turn it into a Bonsai in a years timeframe. Patience is needed on your part. The first thing you should learn is how to keep them alive first and then worry about trying to turn something into a Bonsai. The following post was created by the President of the club for people just like you: Nursery Stock. Here is another link to Nursery stock knowledge: Nursery Material. Finally here is a link to Bonsai Tree Vendors: Tree Vendors. There are several vendors that sell what you want, none of them give away their trees. Your going to have pay a fair price for them, it does take many years to grow and offer these trees for sale.
If you want a good beginner Bonsai tree then go look for a nicely shaped Japanese quince or a Boxwood. Here are a couple examples of what can be done when you find a good one, the Boxwood is about a $40 tree from Lowes, the Quince around $60 from Nicks Garden Center:
I've had luck with seedlings on Etsy. They are seedlings, sure, but they are in good health and you can grow them relatively, if I understand correctly.
Got cherry blossoms for around $14 a seedling and maples around $8.