A very small window of learning here that most newbies can't seem to look through. ANY plant found happily growing in your landscape should be telling you something. Mainly that it does well outside :-). Some form of protection may be in order based on your climate and its hardiness.

IMHO nothing looks sillier than a twig in a bonsai pot, but that's just me. I would save the bonsai pots for when I have something that will look suitable in them. I grow plants for years before a bonsai pot may come into play.

randy

It was in a pot I got another tree in at the nursery. Above the nursery towered old pines, which isn't unrealistic to think were loblollies (Middle-upstate SC). I've grown this one from a seedling, mostly on a whim.

I don't know how easily they are collected, but good advice is to collect as much rootball as you can, and do it before the growing season begins (but after most of winter has gone).

Red maple isn't typically used for bonsai, though I have grown one with pretty good results. The leaves don't reduce well and the branching is kind of sparse. They also don't like having their roots messed with too much or going dry. An automated timer snafu managed to be the catalyst in killing mine (coupled with a fall from the bench) so I have no long term results to offer you. I know that some DO use [i]A. rubrum[/i] for bonsai, but they're usually up front about the results and tend to be large bonsai to make up for the large leaves.