I just returned from a trip to china, whereupon I saw A LOT of very old bonsai. This has inspired me to try my hand at it myself.

I know from various readings, that bonsai is not a "hobby flavor of the month" deal, but I am starting to develop a strong love for gardening around the house, and would really like to experiment w/ bonsai, to at least give it a shot.

for starters, I've picked up 2 japanese boxwood plants (1 gal pots) from the local home depot. I've planted 1 of them into the ground, and another one which I planted in a 2 gal pot (because the old pot had tears and such, and also the roots were starting to clump pretty heavily within the 1 gal pot).

I've also wrapped some copper wire around some branches simply to experiment w/ what the branches can do, and to what extent the branches can be manipulated. The intent is that I'll eventually do a trunk cut once the main trunk reaches ~1.5 inches, so the experimentation shouldn't effect the long term goals.

anyways, I'm reading up as much as I can on whatever aspect I happen to stumble upon... BUT, as I've learned from everything else in life, nothing prepares you better than hands-on experience.

that said, are there things that are crucial to the initial development stages of a bonsai that I may have missed? what are some things I can do to better prepare myself and my potential bonsais for a more successful future?

thanks,

Jeff

i guess i should clarify, that my current course of action is:

1. make sure the boxwood plants are healthy and thriving as a pure boxwood (not as a bonsai)
2. make little to none serious pruning
3. wait for trunk to grow to desired 1.5" size
4. trunk chop to ~5" above soil
5. prune to develop a new primary
6. trunk chop at 10" once new primary has reached good size
7. prune for final primary and wait for decent development
8. dig up and transplant into bonsai pot.

this is obviously going to be a LONG process, but i'm looking for some input on where in that outline i may want to look toward some crucial steps. should i dig up (in the case of the one planted in the ground) and pot it earlier?

i picked the 2 boxwood because they were the most "tree like" shrub i could find, and also the 2 I picked out had some nice characteristics at base of the trunk.

i'm certainly open to planting a bunch more in pots, to vary my experience, and give myself a better chance of 1 real bonsai emerging from the learning experince.

Here is a boxwood I have been working on. I followed the same 'garden center' route, but was able to find a specimen that I liked that I felt required no trunk thickening. I also have a juniper and others that I have begun to play with.

Matt