It was so nice to see everyone and join in from home! And I thought the meeting went' very smoothly. Even without covid I think this would be incredible to continue if possible. I love to drive down occasionally, (wish I could every time!) but it just isn't practical for me to drive 8 hours round trip regularly for a two hour meeting. The Zoom option may even open the club to members from other parts of CO and areas of the Rocky Mountain region.

Cool Oak @Mike Horine ! Did you collect this one?

Here's another one. Steve stumbled on one small boulder with three shohin sized trees on it a few years back (One sub-alpine fir and two engelmann spruce). He collected the two spruce and I dug this fir. Shohin sub-alpine fir / Abies Lasiocarpa

Here's that article: https://www.rmbonsai.org/post/what-are-best-bonsai-species-for-beginners I should also mention that I believe the club has soil available. But I'll let @Andy Berry or someone else in the know answer that for sure.

Hi @Jesse Snelling Welcome to bonsai! 🙂 I'm sure there are club members using a wide variety of substrates, but here's what I do, as well as many professionals around the country. The three main components are Akadam/Lava/Pumice. for most conifers I mix these at a 1/1/1 ratio. For deciduous I up the Akadama ratio to 2-3 parts, or even go straight akadama for Japanese maples. For a large collection it's cheapest to buy in bulk and mix your own, but for a small collection or just starting out I'd recommend buying quality pre-mixed soil. I haven't bought from them yet, but I would give these guys a shot if I were in your shoes: https://www.superflybonsai.com/collections/superfly-soil As for species, deciduous in general will be more shade tolerant. (Amur maple, elm and larch are the first few that come to mind as good hardy starts. If you get even a few hours of direct sunlight in your yard during the day you can likely keep most conifers happy as well. (Juniper, pine and Colorado spruce are a few good hardy starts. The club also just published blog post on good trees for beginners. I'll go find that and attach it shortly. Good luck! And keep up the research, you're doing a great job planning ahead! 😉