people advise me to plant a seed, that would be my first seed, i already have a japanese maple, 2 pinus sylvestrisses, a juniper, a chinese elm , a serissa foetida variegata, a ficus gingseng and an olive and i would like a outside tree. and my question is: what seed do you recommend for me and advise would you give me?

I believe cotoneaster are quite easy to grow from seed, I've collected a number of seedlings over the years from my garden courtesy of the local bird population, they should make a reasonable small bonsai in say 5 years. I would say however that you will save a lot of time by collecting whatever seedlings/saplings you can find, of whatever variety is native to your area, then you know they should do well
Dave

interesting i thought cotonester too . i have just seen an awesome forest/clump planting that the seeds were planted very closely together (10+ seeds)and after 3 years he had a nice shohin piece. they turn a briliant red in the fall. i am planning a simmilar planting in spring

i might do a cotoneaster, but probably not by seeds.
i changed my mind when i went to bonsaiclubmeeting we had today and also a giant post on a dutch forum.

For growing from seed, Larch is a very good species. Fairly easy germination, fast growth (To get a 3cm trunk you need only 5 years, if treated properly) and they are very tolerant to drought, heat, cold etc.

Oak spp. also germinate well, buyt need a bit more time to grow into larger specimens.

Crap-apples grow and germinate quite well, and would be a nice option. 1 year old seedlings can already be 1cm thick, 50cm tall.

I have seen several posts by people stating: Do not go the growing-from-seed way. Personally, I disagree. For me, a combination of getting pre-grown stock, nursery materials, 'randomly found' and seed-grown works best. The seedlings are long-term, nursery material & randomly found gives you something to work on right away, but may have serious challenges in the root/taper areas. Pre-grown stock is expensive but may be styled into a realistic bonsai over a few years.

If time is not your main concern (And no, I do not believe 25 years are required to get to realistic bonsai from seed) growing from seed may be well-worth it.

Naturally, the question is: Do you grow bonsai to own masterpieces or do you grow bonsai for the fun, and challenges, of creating something yourself. If you want to own masterpieces, the quickest would be to get a job, save 5K euro, and buy one. The slowest would probably be to buy a 50ct seed package..

hearing that a larch is easy and grows fast and that we have a larch FREAK at our club, he only has larches, fifty of them! so he can give a lot of advice. what kind of larch would you recommend?

No experience at all of Larch - BUT I came across this recently which may be of interest - stevetolleybonsaiblog.blogspot.co.uk/ - Steve talks about Larch in his 'Dispelling the Myths' post, and lots more besides..

Dave

ironhorse wrote:

No experience at all of Larch - BUT I came across this recently which may be of interest - stevetolleybonsaiblog.blogspot.co.uk/ - Steve talks about Larch in his 'Dispelling the Myths' post, and lots more besides..

Yes, he has good points. You often see Larche with horrible crowns. In my view they only make good bonsai as somewhat larger trees, so you have less trouble with thikcening branches (ALthough you do need to thin out the canopy often).

As klong as we do not have the culture of family-trees, I think Larch is a good species to work with, especially because of the fast growth.

Kitty: As before, I have a Kaemferi in my growing bed for you.

ever considered air layering...larch can be airlayered guite easily .its a cheap way to gain some stock and spend little money. plus gives you something to work with while your seeds are growing

could you explain what airlayering is? i have seen it multiple times but i don't really know what it is, maybe i know what it is but i don't know the english name for it.