The do not thicken up very fast. They get long branches, but after a year they are only about a cm thick when grown from small plants, in my experience..

Your right, they're too busy making sucker to get any thicker

leatherback wrote: The do not thicken up very fast. They get long branches, but after a year they are only about a cm thick when grown from small plants, in my experience..

1 cm, isn't that quite thick?

It is tiny. I had a forsythia with a trunk of 35cm diameter trunk

Are we talking centimeters here? 30 cm is the length of a school ruler. A branch would get to about 1 cm in a year? Isn't that thickening quite fast compared to junipers for example?. Maybe I got my scale all confused. 35cm sounds like a massive trunk

Yup, 1cm in a year is a lot compared to a juniper. But not so much compared to some maples

35cm is massive. It would be about 14 inches. I sold the tree because I could not move it alone, and my wife dislikes bonsai; So I prefer to have trees that I do not need help with to move. Got a nice deal on it too

leatherback wrote: Yup, 1cm in a year is a lot compared to a juniper. But not so much compared to some maples

35cm is massive. It would be about 14 inches. I sold the tree because I could not move it alone, and my wife dislikes bonsai; So I prefer to have trees that I do not need help with to move. Got a nice deal on it too

Wow I am going to have fun learning with this forsythia. I didn't know they grow so fast. Man I need to get some maples next year!!!. Know a good way to find maple? I am working with nursery material, all my trees are nursery grown bushes.

leatherback wrote: ...my wife dislikes bonsai

Yours, too?! Mine tolerates them, with the occasional evil eye.

eangola wrote: Know a good way to find maple?

Tridents are fast growing, and leaves can be reduced to very small sizes.
Japanese maples are good, but avoid the lace leaf variety.
Red maples here in the states work fine, but may take a while to develop (...bonsai :whistle: )
Hedge maple's good.
Fine one in your local nursery or get one from a field, and give it a shot. They can be very expensive, so for your first go-around, you might watch your wallet size.

brkirkland22 wrote:

leatherback wrote: ...my wife dislikes bonsai

Yours, too?! Mine tolerates them, with the occasional evil eye.

Same here....

leatherback wrote: It is tiny. I had a forsythia with a trunk of 35cm diameter trunk

My experience, with these, is about a thousand skinny shoots, sort of like this.

How long did it take to get 35cm?
I saw some cool forsythia bosai online though; ... www.google.com/search?q=forsythia+bonsai...Xly4MKHV7XBVwQsAQIGw