Wonder if there is any breeding going on in the bonsai community?

That's where Grimmy got those Red Cedars!

Sorce
 
I've always lamented the fact that there's very few if not zero cultivars of some sort of American maple species that can even come close to JMs or tridents... There's thousands of acres of red maple around me, and I've seen tons of variation in my lifetime living here... smooth bark, rough bark, thick plated bark (corky?), straight n' tall to scraggly n' sprawling, with fall colors that go from lemony yellow to dark maroon... - there's gotta be at least one mutation with small leaves/twigs/internodes... maybe I need to do what the Japanese and Chinese did a thousand years ago and start searching for that one elusive tree to propagate...

Forget the groupies! I've got some searchin' to do!
Search on Acer Rubrum 'drummondii'

Fifth photo down
https://capitalbonsai.wordpress.com/tag/autumn/

southern subspecies of acer rubrum, smaller leaves tighter internodes. Needs more protection north.
 
Search on Acer Rubrum 'drummondii'

Fifth photo down
https://capitalbonsai.wordpress.com/tag/autumn/

southern subspecies of acer rubrum, smaller leaves tighter internodes. Needs more protection north.

Now I just need to find it's Yankee cousin... I'm quickly getting discouraged by setting up cold frames, heating cables & mulch and still loosing plants that require them year after year...

So far that list includes tridents, Korean hornbeam, Bald Cyprus, and I think my Chinese elm after this past winter... Hopefully it's just late to the party and will bud out soon...
 
Now I just need to find it's Yankee cousin... I'm quickly getting discouraged by setting up cold frames, heating cables & mulch and still loosing plants that require them year after year...

So far that list includes tridents, Korean hornbeam, Bald Cyprus, and I think my Chinese elm after this past winter... Hopefully it's just late to the party and will bud out soon...
Couple of my chinese elms are late to the party too. Not dry. Just not doing anything either.
 
The past two winters have been exceptional. I lost some locally collected specimen quality trees this spring. However, my Louisianan collected bald cypress weren't among the lost. They've weathered more than a couple of subzero winters here in N. Va. with no problems. If you have Florida-collected BC, you might want to look into La. or other more northerly sources. The Fla. trees aren't as winter hardy as trees from further north. I've also had no problems with Tridents.

I overwinter in a 15 inch deep cold pit with a board cover. Trees are placed on the bottom of the pit and the pots are covered with 18 inches of shredded mulch. I don't use any supplemental heat (which can do more harm than good).
 
Short answer, I know of no commercial nursery breeding specifically for bonsai traits.

Somewhere on the west cost someone is producing cork bark Japanese black pines from seed. They so far have been ''true to type'' developing real cork bark, though the vendors only guarantee 50%. My sample is small, only 3 were old enough to show bark, so for my oldest 3, I had 100%, sample size to small to predict anything about the ''average'' for the seed source. but I have picked up a few more this year, we will see what they do, a 5 to 10 year wait.

JM, satsuki and flowering quince breeding is being done in the USA, but mainly for the nursery/landscape trade. Fortunately, part of the landscape market includes rock gardens, fairy gardens, trough gardens, railroad gardens and other types of miniature gardens, so commercial breeding does include selection and development of trees with traits desirable for bonsai. The ''miniature conifer'' collections are a craze all unto themselves. Yes, especially with conifers, selection of the anomaly is done more often than actual breeding, but just take a look at all multitude of Chamaecyparis obtusa cultivars in the US and it is obvious places like Islei and Stanley & Sons have raised hundreds thousands of seedlings to find some of their choice little miniatures. Unfortunately to my tastes too much attention has been put into developing yellow and white variegated foliage forms of conifers, but that is my taste.

So there is no ''for bonsai only'' breeding going on, but lots of breeding for compact, dwarf, multiple bud producing cultivars (yatsubusa) and other oddities for the miniature, and dwarf plant markets. I suspect the bonsai only'' market is just too small $$$ to support commercial breeding just for that market.

How can I ''un-see'' a pink thong or Smoke's bevy of groupies?
 
Besides the little "crack" elms with quarter inch leaves that made me lovulmus in the first place...

Every Elm like that I've seen around here, if you look close, has a really bad Elm Leaf Beatle infestation.

I had a squash fest last year with a couple on mine. Only a couple due to my legion of Jumping Spiders!

Sorce
I have a couple of the "crack" elms you mention. I didn't know they had a name. I thought they were just the ugly duckling elms in my growing area.

Japanese Beetles seem to want to feast on my American Elms. However, I now a Bayer product and the infestation has stopped the last few years.

Most American Elm stock I have growing rarely goes beyond 1 1/4" leaf size. Most leaves are less than an inch and closer to 3/4" usually.
 
I know this is a very old thread, but there's a lot of potential in my opinion with the dwarf rhododendron species for breeding new azaleas (or just using as bonsai outright!) Many of them aren't very cold hardy (zone 8 or so in ground) but besides the good stature and small leaves, there's a smorgasbord of interesting traits: fuzzy or otherwise colorful foliage, a broader range of flower colors, etc. but what really got me thinking was the bell-shaped flowers.

Imagining a kurume-type azalea with golden bells in the spring...
 
Forgive the mind of a dirty old man, but I thought you meant members of the community breeding. The mind reels at the possibilities . . . .
What ya think we would make?

Also
The answer to ops question is yes. Via cultivars and cutting selections.
 
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