Leo in N E Illinois
The Professor
- Messages
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- USDA Zone
- 5b
Been doing bonsai to some degree or another since I was 15 or 16 yrs old. I'm 65 now. Only been serious since maybe 2002 or 2004. At any rate, I have killed at least one of everything I have tried. The goal is to learn consistent care. When care is consistent and within range of what the tree will tolerate, you can have a nice long lived tree. I kept a pomegranate going for 39 years, started with a cutting. Left it out too late into the autumn, and a hard freeze killed the roots. It took a year to die, but die it did.
Note to self: Pomegranates do fine down to around +25 F or - 4 C, for short periods of time. They possibly can tolerate colder, it was 12 hours of +19 F, or - 7 C that killed it. Key was during this time the roots froze to the ambient 19 F. I found I don't have to worry if the night time temps are 25 F and above. Oh well. Stuff happens.
Basically, I have killed some really tough, resilient trees. That is no honor. To anyone asking though, I will suggest Amur maple, and any of the locally native maples. I have Ulmus rubra, Slippery Elm, and Ulmus pumila, Siberian Elm and also American elm, and find them near indestructible. The Chinese elm is pretty hardy too. I winter my lace bark trunk Chinese elm on the ground outside right now.
Bittersweet, Celastrus is another I have found pretty durable. Got left on a shelf, did not get set on the ground, yet leafed out as normal in spring. Not sure which species I have, given where I found it, it is probably the non-native, invasive species rather than the North American native species.
I've had bald cypress and Dawn Redwood. Of the two Dawn Redwood is faster growing and more winter hardy in my area. Both are "easy", but for indestructability, you can't beat dawn redwood, Metasequoia.
I have a number of azaleas, and since the passing to the great compost heap of my pomegranate and oldest JBP, an azalea is my longest in my care tree at the moment. But I have killed a lot of azalea too. They are good reliable performers if you keep your care of them "inside the lines". So seriously they are a good one to learn to master, they have specific requirements that are different than a juniper or an elm, but once you figure out what the narrower range is, if you can be consistent, they respond very reliably.
Hinoki, Thuja, and Pinus banksiana are proving to be better adapted for bonsai cultivation in my care than I had previously thought.
So pick your target, and take a deep dive into the range of conditions it will tolerate.
Note to self: Pomegranates do fine down to around +25 F or - 4 C, for short periods of time. They possibly can tolerate colder, it was 12 hours of +19 F, or - 7 C that killed it. Key was during this time the roots froze to the ambient 19 F. I found I don't have to worry if the night time temps are 25 F and above. Oh well. Stuff happens.
Basically, I have killed some really tough, resilient trees. That is no honor. To anyone asking though, I will suggest Amur maple, and any of the locally native maples. I have Ulmus rubra, Slippery Elm, and Ulmus pumila, Siberian Elm and also American elm, and find them near indestructible. The Chinese elm is pretty hardy too. I winter my lace bark trunk Chinese elm on the ground outside right now.
Bittersweet, Celastrus is another I have found pretty durable. Got left on a shelf, did not get set on the ground, yet leafed out as normal in spring. Not sure which species I have, given where I found it, it is probably the non-native, invasive species rather than the North American native species.
I've had bald cypress and Dawn Redwood. Of the two Dawn Redwood is faster growing and more winter hardy in my area. Both are "easy", but for indestructability, you can't beat dawn redwood, Metasequoia.
I have a number of azaleas, and since the passing to the great compost heap of my pomegranate and oldest JBP, an azalea is my longest in my care tree at the moment. But I have killed a lot of azalea too. They are good reliable performers if you keep your care of them "inside the lines". So seriously they are a good one to learn to master, they have specific requirements that are different than a juniper or an elm, but once you figure out what the narrower range is, if you can be consistent, they respond very reliably.
Hinoki, Thuja, and Pinus banksiana are proving to be better adapted for bonsai cultivation in my care than I had previously thought.
So pick your target, and take a deep dive into the range of conditions it will tolerate.
.
