eBay purchase...what would you do?

[bumblebee]

I have had good experience buying from this seller.

Libby

 

[bonsai barry]

Are you confident that they are Shimpaku?

 

[Poink88]

I have had good experience buying from this seller.

Libby

After my communications with him, he seem to be a good guy. The product is just misrepresented as a gallon plant and no mention that the plant will be bare rooted for shipping.

 

[Poink88]

Are you confident that they are Shimpaku?

No. This is my first "shimpaku" and do not have a positive way to tell if they are other than bringing one to the bonsai club meeting next month and have someone ID it.

The foliage are definitely smaller and much more compact than most that I've seen locally and seem to match the ones I've seen in shows (IIRC).

 

[Beng]

The color looks like shimpaku to me. Maybe immature kishu foilage.

 

[bonsai barry]

There's no reason to suspect that the seller would send a different variety. I just wondered because from the photograph, it looks like the scales are developing on a flat plane while the foliage on mine is bunched up more... Might be the photo... or it might be my bad eyesight.

 

[Poink88]

Can someone tell me what I need to do before taking close-up photos of the foliage (i.e. add a ruler for scale, neutral background, same branch taken at different angles, etc.) for possible ID here?

Thanks.

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

Probably all of the above for photos, but they don't look unlike shimpaku from the limited photos shown. They're easy enough to get and to propagate, so nothing seems out of the ordinary.

 

[Poink88]

Probably all of the above for photos, but they don't look unlike shimpaku from the limited photos shown. They're easy enough to get and to propagate, so nothing seems out of the ordinary.

Thanks Brian. They are very hard to find locally here. I even had my name/phone on waiting list with several nurseries here. I wonder why since all whom I spoke to claimed their limited stock get snagged within a day or two from display...doesn't it make perfect business sense to order/stock much more?

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

They may not be common at Lowe's or HD, but I've never been to a bonsai nursery that didn't have just rows of them. They're so easy to propagate, that anything that hits the ground with the foliage pointing up should root.

 

[Poink88]

They may not be common at Lowe's or HD, but I've never been to a bonsai nursery that didn't have just rows of them. They're so easy to propagate, that anything that hits the ground with the foliage pointing up should root.

I checked all the nurseries around me (not just Lowes and HD LOL ) and there is nothing. I know they have some in the proper bonsai nurseries outside Austin but never been to those. Good to know about ease of propagation, I will try to save the cuttings then.

Curious, if they root as easy...why do we have to be too careful about root reduction? In my experience (with most broad leaf), ease of taking cuttings usually equate to root work/abuse tolerance.