Hi - Any tropical plants (the kind you get at the supermarket, Wal-Mart, etc.) are fine.

I recently purchased alocasia cucullata to maintain as a bonsai.I reside in Northern Ontario where the "growing zone" is listed as 3-4. What are the requirements for maintaining such a plant , winter and summer in this part of the country?

Hi - There are some very interesting tropicals at www.floraexotica.ca (Mtl.) and they also have a showroom open by appointment. I'm not spamming here, but have ordered from them and their stuff is very nice - not "bonsai", but very good raw material to work with.

Well, the two most important things you need for being successful growing tropicals-sub tropicals indoors are: higher light levels-8 to 12 hours a day and humidity...not water but higher humidity levels in the air. As long as the air temp stays above 65 degrees there won't be a problem. You can grow almost any Ficus, Jade and plenty of other types with little trouble.

As far as Alocasia goes, I think if you Google the name plus 'care' you'll learn about the plant and then if you know about bonsai, you can apply techniques to it. But if it's a question about 'bonsai-ing' a particular plant that you aren't familiar with in terms of keeping it alive and well, bonsai becomes irrelevant - there's no magic to the techniques, just a knowledge of growing trees in appropriate environments *for that tree*'s needs - the bonsai part (providing you 'know' bonsai) is just a matter of making various decisions about styling, pots, soil, etc, based that plant's needs.