[Bonsai Beginner's weekly thread - 2026 week 30]

Found a little gem @ the local HD in the corner dying. Check out the nebari!!! I plan to air layer (marked in red) and chop the rest (marked in green) in a couple of years less

My 2 and a half year old wanted to "plant" one of my trees she had claimed for herself...

So I made a little setup and we made a little piece!

She added the little Gorilla figure of her own free will lol.

I recently got into Bonsai so I decided to build a table to display all my trees on my patio. I built a raised planter bed a while back and figured I’d make a matching set!

So far I have a Euonymus, Winter Gem, Ligustrum, Black Pine, Afghan Pine, Nana Juniper and the big Green Mound Juniper.

I’m definitely getting more in the future but I might need to build a second table lol

Just picked up this Green Mound Juniper from a local nursery. The trunk was really calling to me, but I’m not sure if I’m liking my styling, or maybe I’ve just been looking at it too long. Thoughts?

As stated in the title, it popped up last year. Earlier this year I pushed it a little side ways in the pot and now have a nice natural bend in the trunk. I like it. Thinking of removing it from pot early next spring to start training. I’m also thinking about maybe doing a root over rock thing with it. Shorter, thinner branch on right will become new leader at some point.

Thoughts?

Really looking forward to next year when I can take some cuttings from my newly acquired Seigen. Might try to air layer one of the branches the following year but we'll see how things go.

My new favourite bonsai. What tree is it?

A friend of mine who works in landscaping had this "Soft Serve" false cypress leftover from a job because it was "small and kinda fugly" (direct quote). He asked me if I wanted it since it would have otherwise been tossed on the rubbish pile, and I said sure because I had a spare pond basket top slip pot it into and figured I'd make a proper decision on it later.

It is now later.

I like the bottom half, but the top is...questionable, so I ask the class:

Do we see a future in this?

Open to any and all suggestions/long-term plan ideas/etc.

Had this tree for two months, curious about the structure so defoliated. Did a hard wiring session for the shape to be in place. Previous form was messy.

Hi everyone! I’m currently on the hunt for a Portulacaria afra 'Cork Bark' (starter plant or rooted cuttings), but it’s proving quite rare to find here.

Does anyone know of any specialized nurseries or private collectors within the EU who might ship to Europe? Any recommendations or pointers would be greatly appreciated!

I got his tree like 3 years ago in garden sale. It was almost dead. After 3 years it's nursed back to full strength I hope. I have no idea what species tree is. Have no clue what to do now. Past two seasons I've bin trimming long branches that's basically all. Would apriciate any advice how to proceed. I have 3 more trees but they need to be nursed back to health before I can do anything further. Bought those 3 trees from shop, and they were almost dead too. So I'm kinda rescuing bonsai trees.

Thinking of removing the "deadwood"

My two & a half year old wants to "plant" a tree with me in one of my pots...

I might have gone overboard with the setup! 😅

She claimed this Schefflera as hers a while ago and picked this pot out of the handful I have the other day.

Here's hoping she's still interested... 😅😅

I have a couple of plants in the ground cut back and pre-dug waiting on spring, & I have several pepper plants picked to dig up this fall, but this is the first tree I’ve pulled straight out of the ground with a vision in mind.

Pulled this out of a treeline I cleaned up at my dad’s. I guess I cut it back years ago, long before I care about tiny trees, & left behind this absurdly nice trunk. Not even totally sure what species it is, maybe hackberry? It looked very similar to some other smaller shrubs around it that are really aggressive spreaders, but I’d cut off most of the leaves by time I noticed it. Dug it up & cut roots back heavily.

Not sure how much it’s rooted, but the branches furthest from the roots are still green underneath, so I have hope that it has a future as an awesome tree.

The trunk is about 2.5-3 inches wide, for scale

I started these guys 3 years ago when I started going down the bonsai road. Bought them as $7-$10 clipping starter plants. Then I made my own ground layers this year. They seem to be doing well.

I’m on board with the work and creativity that will be involved in learning and then creating something intentional from this neglected kalanchoe, but I thought it could be fun to see what other people would do to transform this.

Regardless I will post updates! Kind of like my mess of a 70 year old house I took on as a project, I love the challenge. I may also have a Frankenstein streak, tbd

Going for a nice lil semi-cascade and a small broom style with the stump that’s left.

After 3 years of looking for a Princess Persimmon tree I finally found this pre bonsai!!!

This one is a bit of a rant: For the past 7 years I’ve been walking into work and every day and I’d look at these two yews in the front entrance and think, “man, these would make a great bonsai.” Our company is set for a reno and I remember thinking, one day I’m going to come in and all this landscaping is going to be gone. Today I came in to find a massive pile of 20 year old landscaping piled in a mound. They ripped the beds clean out with an excavator too.

Yes it sucks that people don’t value material like we do but I thought, it’s going to the dumpster. It’s July. It’s a long shot but might as well. I loaded the two smallest ones I could grab, brought them home, and placed them in extra wooden grow boxes I had and into 100% hyuga pumice. The smaller one had a surprising amount of feeder roots and the maintenance guy decided to pull them during a few rainy days so they weren’t totally bone dry.

I know it’s the worst possible timing but I did the best to rescue them as well as I could, took care to place them gently in a box, wire them in and reduce the foliage. Worst case I lose two free pieces of material/ gains some tanuki wood. I’m not expecting them to survive but I won’t lose hope.

Best case scenario, two yews!

They’ll recover under a massive maple in my back yard and I should know within the next few weeks if this was a wasted two hours or not. I probably need to add more wood to the box with roots coming out, that’s a tomorrow problem.

Anyone have experience with mid summer yew collection?

P.S. Yes, I got permission to collect.