What kind of bonsai tree should i get

Buying a Bonsai tree What to look out for when buying a Bonsai. Where can I buy a Bonsai tree? Indoor Bonsai trees; a Ficus, Carmona and Chinese elm. These are all suitable to be kept in your living room, as long as you place them at a very bright spot, preferably right in front of a south-facing window. What to look for?

Some basic advice for buying Bonsai trees: Buy a tree that is suitable for the place where you intend to put it; only indoor sub-tropical trees will do well indoors, just like outdoor trees will only do well when placed outside check the list of recommendable species below With techniques like pruning and wiring you'll be able to change the shape of the plant, but usually the trunk and the root flare nebari are fixed.

When purchasing a tree make sure you select a tree with a trunk that appeals to you. Do not start with buying a species of tree that is hard to care for; it is recommended for beginners to start with an easy-to-care for tree.

Check our Tree species guides or ask before purchasing a tree! Do not forget to ask what species of tree you bought; this is important to look up information about how to care for it properly. Make sure you are selecting a healthy plant, that shows vigorous growth. However, spider mites and webworms sometimes target them. Prevent infestations with regular pruning to keep leaves from getting too messy. Juniper is also perfect for bonsai newbies because it takes well to over-pruning. Although aggressive pruning can weaken them and cause browning, the trees will ultimately recover from pruning mishaps.

These trees, small to begin with, are well suited to the art of bonsai. Native to three continents—Asia, Europe, and Africa—cotoneasters feature glossy green leaves and small apple-shaped fruits that appear after a bloom of little white flowers.

To grow cotoneasters, select a spot in full sun, either indoors or outside. Provide frost protection for plants in containers, although cotoneasters planted in the ground should tolerate freezing weather quite well.

Most varieties are cold hardy in Zones 5 to 8, but hardiness varies across varieties. In contrast with the more challenging bonsai species, these trees are drought-tolerant as long as the dry periods are short.

Additionally, because the branches of cotoneasters are flexible, they take well to shaping via wires. If you have a history of killing plants with your bad watering habits , this may be the right tree for you to try out bonsai growing methods. Just be careful not to overwater , because these trees are susceptible to root rot. To shape portulacaria trees, avoid wires and stick to careful pruning. Because they grow quickly, regular pruning is necessary to maintain an aesthetically pleasing shape.

You can keep baby jades outside for the summer, but ideally, they should be brought in when the nighttime lows hit 40 degrees. Make some edible art by choosing a rosemary plant for your bonsai hobby. Trimming at least 25 percent of the roots will help prevent the plant from outgrowing its pot. The most common pests include mealybugs that can appear on both the new growth and the roots of the bonsai, and scale insects which appear as a sticky secretion, or black or brown bumps on the leaves and twigs.

Aphids are another problem, and are usually seen as tiny white insects at the tips of the plant's branches. You can address aphids with a mild soap and water spray, while mealybugs require systemic insecticide.

Bonsai trees need lots of light to grow, and without it, they will gradually begin their demise. They require at least 6 hours or direct sunlight a day; any more than this is fine, but any less, and their growth will slow. If the light is indirect or not very intense where your bonsai is positioned, then it will need more hours of light to compensate.

Some varieties need even longer in the sun, up to 16 hours a day. Light is one of the most important care requirements for bonsai trees, so ensure you are positioning yours in a bright windowsill where it will receive the full benefit of the sunlight.

Tropical bonsai trees like to be warm all year round, and this is why they are well-suited to life indoors. As long as you are comfortable with the temperature in your home, then your bonsai will be too. Just be sure to keep it away from heating vents where it may dry out, or open windows where it may be caught in a cold draft. Subtropical bonsai trees will tolerate lower temperatures in the winter months, so they will cope well if left in unused rooms that are not heated over winter, such as spare bedrooms.

However, they will still do just fine if you want to keep them in a warmer room in the house. One of the hardest things to get right for bonsai trees is the humidity. Tropical and subtropical bonsai trees, which are the only types of bonsai you can grow inside, require high levels of humidity, as this is what they would experience in their native tropical habitats.

Homes are not usually very humid environments, so this is something you will have to create in order to help your bonsai tree thrive. There are several ways to increase humidity in your home.

The easiest way is with an electric humidifier, which you can simply plug in and mostly forget about, though the downsides of this are the initial purchase cost, the running cost, and the fact that it will increase the humidity in your whole room, which may not be something the people in your home enjoy. Another way to increase humidity around the bonsai tree is simply to spray it with a fine water mist.

This is an easy and low-cost solution. However, bonsai trees love humidity so much that you will need to spray them several times a day. This might not be possible for you if you lead a busy life or are not home often. An easy-care solution is to set your bonsai tree on a pebble tray. This is simply a tray filled with decorative pebbles, on top of which you pour water. Place your bonsai pot on top of the pebbles, and as the water evaporates, it will create humidity around the plant.

Make sure you keep the water in the tray topped up so that it can continuously create higher humidity and make sure the water level never reaches the top of the pebbles, as it will get absorbed through the drainage holes and could make the soil much too soggy. Bonsai trees should be planted in soils specifically formulated for use with conifers or bonsai plants, which will ensure the soil has a texture and nutrient value appropriate for these types of trees.

They like to be in well-draining soil with good air circulation, where water is able to flow through and out of drainage holes to prevent soggy soil and root rot. To allow your bonsai tree to continue to thrive, it will need repotting so that its roots have space to spread out.

However, you must be careful not to repot too frequently, as restricting the space it has to grow is one of the ways that you manipulate a plant in order to create a miniature version of the original. You need to strike a fine balance between restricting the plant's growth but also giving it a little growing space so that the roots don't suffocate each other and lead to the plant's demise.

Young bonsai trees will need repotting annually, and the length of time between repotting can be drawn out further as the tree gets older. A mature bonsai tree will only need to be put into a new pot every five years. There are some signs to look out for that indicate your bonsai tree needs to be repotted. If the leaves on the tree start to yellow, then this is usually a sign that the bonsai tree's roots need more space and fresh soil. Another sign to watch out for is if buds start to form on the stem.

If this happens, you should trim the roots during the repotting process. The best time to repot is always immediately after winter, at the very beginning of spring. The plant's roots will be storing energy from its dormant season and should be potted on before they use this energy to grow the roots. To repot your bonsai tree, carefully lift it out of its current pot, being careful not to disturb the delicate roots.

Select a pot only one size bigger than the current pot so as not to overwhelm the plant, and fill the bottom with fresh bonsai or conifer specific soil.

Lower the root ball into the new pot and pad the edges out with more fresh soil. Water the tree thoroughly to help it settle and continue care as normal. The tree should be at around the same height in the new pot as it was in the old pot.

Propagation of a bonsai tree depends on the type of plant you are using. Most can be grown from both seeds and cuttings, though you will need to identify the species of your bonsai and follow the specific propagation guidelines. A bonsai tree that suddenly starts to lose its leaves, or have leaves turning yellow before falling off, is usually a sign of a lack of water, or an irregular watering pattern.

Water your tree more often, and see if this problem improves. Conversely, leaves that turn yellow very slowly are usually caused by continual overwatering. Most bonsai trees like to be kept in moist but not soggy soil. Try to fulfill this requirement by checking on the condition of the soil as often as possible, usually every few days. If the top of the soil is dry, you should water the plant until water runs out of the bottom drainage holes.

Discard any excess water so that the plant is not sitting in water. If you maintain proper care of your bonsai trees, then the chances of getting a pest problem will be reduced, but sometimes, plants can still get infested with pests despite our best efforts.

Pests that can affect bonsai trees include scale insects, spider mites, meal bugs, and aphids. Unfortunately, much like bonsai trees, many pests tend to like high humidity, so always be on the lookout for pests. A pest problem spotted early before it has had a chance to become a heavy infestation will always be much easier to treat and resolve.

In the first instance, washing the plant with soapy water or hosing it down can remove most pests. Repeat this daily until all signs of pests have gone. If this doesn't work, you can try neem oil, which is a natural and completely safe oil that kills most pests, effectively without causing harm to plants, people, or the environment.

The Ficus tree is by far the most popular type of tree to use as a bonsai tree by beginners. There are up to 2, species of Ficus, but the most commonly used Ficus for bonsai trees are the Ficus ginseng and the Ficus retusa.

The Ficus ginseng has a rotund trunk that bears a resemblance to the ginseng root, while the Ficus retusa has a curvy trunk which sometimes mimics the shape of a letter 'S'. Dark green leaves are typical on Ficus trees.

These leaves come to a point at the tip, helping rainwater to drip off in their natural habitat. Most Ficus species produce flowers, though some of them remain hidden in the fruit. This subtropical shrub works well as a bonsai tree as it can be kept indoors all year-round, or kept outside in summer.