Doug firs have been difficult for me, but perhaps speaking with Todd at First Branch would be an option.(he has collected many) You can technically collect any month of the year, but for most folks you're going to have a lot more success in the Spring right before buds push when the tree is energy positive. (with almost all trees) I would recommend networking at the next meeting or two and see if you can plan a Spring collecting trip with one of our experienced collectors.

That's a cute one!

Come grow moss in my garden Mike!

Hi Michelle, where are you located? That might help some of our folks point you in the right direction.

You can buy window screen by the roll from Walmart/Ace/HD/Lowes. I'm still using a roll I bought a few years ago. With your Dramm, you can turn the water flow down on your input from the house, you can turn the spout upside down while you're holding it, and you can practice watering in waves instead of keeping it in one place the whole time. Kind of like you don't leave a hair dryer in 1 spot for long or you get burned. All that said, soil will still wash out sometimes. If you watch through this watering video from Mirai you can see what I'm talking about in several of the clips. They also grow moss pretty well. :)

Echo what Evan said. Just remember if you put it into a smaller pot you're committing to slowing the growth further. With spruce I usually wait until the buds start to move in Spring before repotting. Nursery stock is often especially vigorous though.

Other things that will help: 1. A really fine watering watering spout. 2. Control while you're watering to avoid flooding. 3. Leaving a "ditch" around the the outside of your pot, slightly below the rim of the pot. This allows a little movement, without the soil washing out. 4. If you fertilize with anything that contains or is humic acid, the soil particles eventually stick together pretty well.(on my trees) This shouldn't be confused with soil going hydrophobic! 5. You can use window screen on the top of the soil, and this can also help prevent washouts. -Spaghnum technique doesn't work in my yard very often.-

Send me an email at boxnicholas@gmail.com and I'll send you Darrell's contact info.

Hey there! Have you started coming to our meetings yet? Shadecloth can help, timing of morning vs afternoon sun can help, deeper pots can help, and you can also place your pots on the ground as a heat sink...which can REALLY help. I can't recommend being a part of the meetings enough. We have some members who can help mentor you and we will likely have some home workshops coming up as well for the membership. (1 just completed last weekend) The education portion of the website also has some good information including this short article by Andy Berry. Heat Protection -Nicholas

Heavy gauge wire frame perhaps? Or you could try building a frame out of wood, rebar, etc.

I also have a nice dramm

Mike I hope you'll keep us in the know as this one evolves. Great tree. Personally I like the "newer" trunk as a deadwood feature that can gain interest over time.

Last item Bonsai Techniques #1 just went up on the blog thanks to donator Sam Holm. The zoom link for the auction will be going out today!!!!

Hey Jake, I know Andy already has come down and gone. Dave might know if anyone else has expressed interest in visiting.

Congrats on getting into bonsai! Aspen reproduce by sucker, so I think the longer you have an aspen...the more likely it is you'll have suckers coming up for additional trees. I've turned elm roots into trunks, but I don't know if aspen can easily do that...or not? I would say that most people who are composing a forest do so with multiple trees that they might have developed/grown out/purchased separately, because growing from seed or sucker is going to take a long long time. Of course this choice is yours to make. There may be some special nuances with aspen, but perhaps a few more folks will chime in with some input on that. Keep in mind that if you have a tree potted and pruned, it's not likely to put on much girth and you're deciding to keep it about the same size. So it should be mostly where you want it to be, size wise.

Official Date and Time of the Auction will be April 20th at 7pm MST. Zoom link will be sent to the membership via email. Woohoo! Couple more items should go up on the blog post before then as well.

Succulents, bulbs, grape hyacinths, spirea, crabapple, violas. My favorite time of year!

I would echo Evan's response, and add...trees that have NOT been outside all year I will continue to move in and out of protection until overnight temps are 40 or higher. This is the time to do the bonsai 2-step/shuffle/etc depending on where you live!

Gotcha. From your original post I didn't know if you were making a regular habit of it. I've not had great success with bare root trees, personally.