On the wonderful joy of discovery----------yeah !!

Hiya All,

living on this tiny island in the ocean,you normally start Bonsai with something local [ Yellow poui for example, or the West Indian cherry ] and quickly get the standard trees / shrubs - Fukien tea, Elms, Sageretia.
If you are like me, time spent away will add on the Indoor oak [ Nicodemia -> Buddelia [ spelling?],Olea, and so on.

Using a refrigerator, you can have Celtis [ especially if you hang out in Louisiana, and the backyard],Gingko,and Maples.
The swamp cypress does not need the fridge. The Chinese celtis does not need cold either.

I am not really a lover of Ficus, or Junipers, unless the Juniper is some really ancient Shimpaku.

So you settle down and learn about health, the 1,2,3 branch placement for volume and balance, negative shapes and then the mind wonders to discovery and research.

Driving around the island, you start to see possibilities - Logwood [ which I do not really want to grow,] Fustic, Zantho-s and Oxys [ names too long to write,] and you have three new local species.
More time passes and Oxalis f. shows up.
Presently I am working on 5 more local types, unidentified thus far.
Seems that there should be at least 25 more local types to find.

The test is first to see how well a shrub or tree branches, or if there is some other special quality - seagrape and buttonwood come to mind. Our buttonwoods feature amazingly attractive bark when they age, much more beautiful than the I wannah be a Juniper thingee.
If you pass the test for branching, a goodly sized trunk for the illusion,is not a problem, even the most slim of trees down here cross 3 inch [ 8 cm ] diameter trunks in the wild.

There is also the soil mix.

I wonder how many are doing the same away?

Oh and I forgot to mention, Tamarinds and Japanese Black pines, easily grown from seed. I just have to master smaller needles on the pines.
Thanks for reading.
Khaimraj

* Oh and as a Imaginative Multiple Figurative Allegorical painter, I love research. Brings out the Scientist in me, always stepping of into the unknown. Same for Bonsai.