Impossible Question to Answer

[ardent_gardens]

If you could get your hands on sloe...that mature bark is absolutely freaking insane...and... not found here. Black gnarly bark...with the simplicity of a white bloom...and slow berries that are fat,plump and blue.

Now they have been heard of being grown here. But... not for bonsai ...Jason Schley has a dead trunk of one. Again...the bark is wicked cool on more mature trees. You want to create movement though. A dream piece from the UK. I would own one...if there was one readily available.

Species:
Prunus spinosa, called blackthorn or sloe

Took the words right out of my thumbs. I can’t find it for sale anywhere

 

[Paradox]

For native North American species, I have been playing with these:

PItch Pine, Pinus rigida
Seedlings I collected in my area to develop. Seem very promising, get interesting bark early
Others have been growing these as well. There are a few nice larger collected specimens. Unfortunately around me they tend to grow ram rod straight trunks so I opted to try ~2 year old seedlings I collect then can bend movement into.

Juniperious horizontalis 'wiltonii'
A cultivar of this native species I found at a local nursery. Found a few that had already really nice sized trunks for the size of the plant.
These are ground growers typically. Been playing with them for a few years. Jury is still out on how well they work for bonsai

There are a lot of people trying out native NA species. They just dont get talked about as much as the more common non native species used for bonsai

 

[Cmd5235]

I'd like to see more hackberry, hornbeam, maybe box elder. BE can look very interesting with some age

B

Hackberry- very yes. Hornbeam- very yes. Boxelder- even I can’t really get behind that, and I have several

 

[Gabler]

What are your thoughts on Halesia caroliniana (Carolina silverbell)? Dirr and Heuser say it's easily rooted from cuttings. Also, Callicarpa americana (beautyberry) is supposed to be very easy to grow from seed, as are Euonymus americanus and Euonymus atropurpureum.

Overall, I'm thinking my best choices would be trees that are easy to propagate that have unique characteristics which set them apart from traditional Asian species.

 

[milehigh_7]

I, uh,....have a lot going
For next year I have planted:
Two different flowering cherries
Katsura (Cercidiphyllum japonicum)
Korean Fir
Korean Hornbeam
Pacific Madrone (because I badly want to make this one work)
Western Larch
Zelkova

Still to plant are:
Sitka Spruce
Dwarf Pomegranate
Sweet Bay Laurel

Seedlings that survived a full year:
Korean Fir
Dwarf Flowering quince
Serviceberry (Alnifolia)
(One) Bald Cypress
(One) Sitka Spruce
Dawn Redwood
Katsura
Zelkova
(Two) Flowering Cherry

I could of sworn I had some Princess Persimmon in there as well, but I couldn't find a log of it somewhere. Maybe just a fever dream thinking I bought some seeds. I'll look through my pile of seed bags later to confirm or not.

It's important to know that you likely won't get dwarf pomegranate from seed. Poms do not germinate true from seed.

 

[The Barber]

If you're wanting to go native, I think Amelanchier (Serviceberry) is one that gets overlooked often.

 

[PaulH]

Hornbeams
Seiju elms
cedrus brevifolia
Taxus brevifolia
Acer p nishiki gawa
Beauty Berry
cryptomeria
ume
silverberry
cork oak

 

[Kievnstavick]

It's important to know that you likely won't get dwarf pomegranate from seed. Poms do not germinate true from seed.

Thank you for the reminder on that. I had forgotten it was a cultivar until now and I reread the description.

Worse case I get some pomegranates to grow as some fruit trees. Gotta love them pomegranates.

 

[brentwood]

Hackberry- very yes. Hornbeam- very yes. Boxelder- even I can’t really get behind that, and I have several

I've seen some amazing specimens, and in nature they're often the prototypical haunted house tree - it's a tough sell, I get it tho.

B

 

[Gabler]

Hornbeams
Seiju elms
cedrus brevifolia
Taxus brevifolia
Acer p nishiki gawa
Beauty Berry
cryptomeria
ume
silverberry
cork oak

This is an excellent list. I hadn't heard of Cedrus brevifolia, and I didn't know Taxus brevifolia was so cold hardy until I looked it up. Apparently, it grows in Alaska.

I want to promote Carpinus caroliniana because it is significantly more cold hardy than any of the available Old World species, and it is very tolerant of wet soil, which makes it easy to keep. For similar reasons, I prefer Ulmus americana to its Chinese counterpart.

There's a native species of silverberry that I want to try, so that's on my list, along with beauty berry.

I'm growing regular green Acer palmatum var. palmatum from seed, but I would consider picking up a 'Nishiki Gawa' and taking cuttings and/or air layers.

Unfortunately, I can't grow cork oak here, but I am growing a hybrid Quercus lobata x macrocarpa in an effort to get a cold hardy tree with corky bark and reasonably-sized leaves for bonsai. If there's a hybrid Quercus macrocarpa x suber, then I want it.

I'm interested in trying different species of Prunus to find one that's somewhat resistant to fungus, but it might be tricky for me to keep them healthy. Every stone fruit I've tried to grow has been sickly, but perhaps that's because I've been growing commercial fruit tree cultivars, not healthy, wild-type trees.

I'm not really interested in cryptomeria.

 

[Gabler]

How healthy is 'Nishiki Gawa' compared to the species? I'm not a fan of how weak and sickly other cultivars tend to be, but the bark is cool, and I love trees with orange fall foliage, so I might be interested. Also, how easily do cuttings root? Air layers?