I'm new to the world of bonsai so I figured the best way to learn is to practice and I figured the best way to practice is to pick up some cheap nursery stock and go to town. I live in Wilmington, Delaware and I was at my local Lowes two Saturdays ago and they had these dwarf Mugo pines on sale for $1 so I bought six of them knowing full well that half of them would probably die if they weren't technically dead already. I brought them home and did some bare minimum pruning, only cutting away anything that was so brittle and gone that it was nearly falling off. Two of them have come full circle. The other four...not so much. So my question is this. What should I do with these four :lol: ? If I cut them back to the base can I expect ANYTHING to come of them next year? Would removing the dead needles do anything? Should I immediately douse them with gasoline and sacrifice them to the fire gods? Bear in mind that all of them were in EXTREMELY rough shape when I bought them and, well, they were one dollar. Also, like I said, I fully expected to be tossing most, if not all of them, in the trash. I have over 80 houseplants that are absolutely thriving and probably 65 of them are big box retail rejects acquired over the past 25 years for $5 or less so I'm obviously a sucker for rescuing forlorn plants. I'm hoping I can salvage something, ANYTHING, out of these guys, even if only for the stories I might be able to tell.

Thanks in advance for any and all guidance!

The 4 i the first picture are unfortunately dead. Cannot be safed. The second picture with 2 do not look too bad, and will do OK.

Read up on pines. Do not ruthlessly ct back: Branches do not easily create new buds, so never cut beyonf the green, and trim at the right time of year.