where to find Bare root stock for future bonsai

[dustbust]

Its fall and im looking to get some quality bare rooted trees to grow out for bonsai. I understand that most of these trees will either need a tourniquet, tile, cd, hole in tile or some other preliminary root work done. Plus time for the trunks to thicken.

I live in zone 4 and want a variety of trees to work with. Looking for stock in the 2-6' range. If anybody has good experience and wants to share thank you.

 

[coppice]

Zone 4? Look around in local ditches for some larch.

 

[Alex DeRuiter]

Probably won't find much 6' bare root stock in the way of eCommerce, but there are good sources out there. Also, best time to get bare root stock is in the spring.

Matt Ouwinga at Kaedebonsai-en sells lots of seedlings. Great guy.
Brent Walston at Evergreen Gardenworks sells a ton of everything and is also very reputable and helpful.
Bill Valavanis sells a lot of seedlings as well. Another kind and helpful person. Most of his stuff seems to be mail-order, but you can also call them.
That's just a few that I've dealt with personally. All good experiences, so you won't get burned. Lots of other people out there and I'm sure many of them will be suggested. Good luck and have fun.

 

[rockm]

I can vouch for Bill Valavanis' bareroot seedlings. I grew these AMur maples from seedlings I bought from him 15 or 16 years ago.

 

[dustbust]

larch, very good.

I have ordered from Brent before. Very pleased with his stock (all growing out). Im the guy whose dog ate his order (I emailed Brent and asked what to do. He got back to me with detailed advice. What an awesome guy!!!)

I am however looking for untouched material on the cheap. Basically what Brent himself does, buys bulk bare root material for cheap, chops the taproot and sticks them in a pot for a year to get a nice radial spread then pots up with the escape method to put on some serious growth.

 

[Alex DeRuiter]

Matt and Bill are great sources, in that case. They both sell a lot of bare root seedlings. I think this year Bill was selling a bundle of ten Trident maple seedlings for like $30-40 and free shipping.

 

[jk_lewis]

www.musserforests.com

 

[timhanson81]

Have you looked at Brent's article on bare root stock? (http://www.evergreengardenworks.com/bareroot.htm)

I have yet to buy anything from them, but Heritage Seedlings (http://www.heritageseedlings.com)has an interesting selection of species and a nice catalog worth checking out.