So in an effort to bring calm into my life this past year, I decided to start taking care of plants and promised myself if I could keep them alive, then I would buy myself a Bonsai. After doing research, I decided that i would do a Chinese Elm as they seem beginner friendly, and would do pretty well outside on my patio. I live in Zone 10, on the west coast of Florida. It arrived yesterday from Amazon ( i know, not the best place to get one, but a girls gotta start somewhere, lol) I was pleasantly surprised after the horror stories that I had read about the types of trees beginners get sold, this one seems to be fairly healthy, a few leaves in the apex area seemed a little dry and crunchy, but lots of little buds and some new itty bitty leaves. It's about 60 degrees and sunny, so I gave it some water and its been soaking up sunlight

I'm interested in getting the trunk and the first couple of branches a bit bigger, I've been reading that putting it into a growers pot instead of the cute little bonsai pot, will help me reach that goal, my question would be...what time would be a good time to do that? From what I've read, the answer would be spring, but being here in Florida the temperatures are already spring like...should i wait until March?

My focus right now is just keeping it healthy and growing.

In Bonsai we define repotting as the activity to put it in smaller or same size pot. That includes root pruning and must be done at the right time of the year.

What you are intending to do to your tree. Put it into a bigger pot and fill more soil around the existing root ball without disturbing it is called uppotting. That can be done any time of the year.

Good luck with your new tree.