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Osage as a bonsai tree

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Hillbilly:
I used to grow bonsai and really enjoyed it. I just finally realized that I don't have enough time right now to take care of them, the little trees are like having more kids to take care of. Watering is especially a worry when you want to go somewhere for a few days. I know what you mean about the privet-had a couple nice privet bonsai at one time, too. You can find big ol' privet stumps, cut them back, and regrow the whole branch structure from sctratch in a few years. How about posting some pics of the osage or any other trees you have.

kylerprochaska:
ok this is too cool...I've been wanting to get a bonsai tree started but how do you keep them mini?  I know there's gotta be a trick to it and I can't find any info on google

Badger:
  Steve, I used to bring home a pile of privet seedlings and plant them on the side of my house, I would mow them like a lawn a few times a year with a high adjusted lawnmower. After several years i would pick through them to see which ones had nice trunk development. fairly good percentage. I would then dig them up and start training them. I know what you mean about time. Last few years for me have been a bit crazy and the plants show it. I only have a few left and they are just hanging on, I hope to change that soon. Steve

Badger:
Kyler, no real trick, just read up on the soil mixes you will need. heavy pruning while you are training and then every couple of years I pull them out for repotting and root cropping. Seldom do I loose one on a repot. Keeping them small is just a matter of keeping them cut back. Steve

Badger:
   Bonsai is actually a lot of fun. The word bonsai simply refers to a method of displaying something. I always preffered to look for not so common specimens of trees that looked like they had potential. You can find them on hikes through the woods or parks or just browsing through nursery stock. Just look for young plants that seem to have an interesting root and trunk development that you can envision training into a bonsai. Often yu can pick up a nice plant, prune it, wire it, give it a couple months to heal up and it will look great. I do that for gift bonsais. For myself I prefer to just spend about 20 years torturing and beating the hell out of it and seeing if it survives. I play with tecniques such as water deprivation, letting it almost die then watering. I use fire, I lay a small pile of hay under the tree and then set it on fire buring off all the small growth. I pull branches off leaving nasty scars instead of cutting. Sometimes I wash away most of the dirt as might happen in a flood, or tip one over exposing half the roots as might happen in a windstorm and then train the branches to grow straight up from that position. Of course most of that was 20 years ago in my pot smoking days LOL. Steve

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