collection of potensai

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please may I have some comments.
first is a japanese hornbeam second is a dawn redwood and the third is a black pine.

It probably would help if we knew what each of them was. The second one looks a bit like tall, skinny bald cypress, but considering where you live . . .

the first one -- considerably shortened -- seems to hold the most promise.

Put them in the ground for a few years to fatten up.

I agree. Planting them in the ground, if possible, will certainly allow them to gain some girth. Place a a flat tile under the roots as you plant them.

so by having them in these big pots will not fatten them up enough ?

The answer to the question is yes it would but in the UK climate not nearly as quickly as growing them in open ground would. Please don't take this as a harsh criticism but some people might not class what you have here even as potensai (being little more than whips or seedlings) and you will have to be prepared to wait a long time (min.5 but more likley 10+ years) for material such as this to develop into anything worth styling. The good thing about growing on from whips/seedlings is that you have a degree of control over the tree in that you can do some wiring and basic shaping (not necessarily styling) while the trees thicken in the ground. People that do this tell me it is a challenge, but if you have the right approach (and a heckuva lot of patience) it is very rewarding. The downside is that you still can't guarantee that the tree will develop into something worth taking on to the next stages of styling.

If you do make it over to Bath in ten days time, the one piece of advice you will get from pretty much everyone you speak to is to consider investing in decent quality raw material at this point (possibly even while you wait for your whips and seedlings to pull into shape.) A look back through this site will throw up numerous examples of people wishing they'd had this advice years ago. Many of us, with the benefit of hindsight, wish we'd spent the £100 we had in our pocket at the beginning of our hobby on one piece of decent quality raw material than on the ten pieces of inferior stuff we bought. From some of your other stuff on other threads, I think you have possibly begun to work this out for yourself. It's very much your personal choice how you want to "grow" your bonsai, and if you have youth and time on your side, there is no reason why you can't bring on starter material and work on more established potensai at the same time.

Sorry this has gone on a bit, so to end - I will lighten things for a minute and say that whatever method(s) you choose, while it's true that to find the one prince/princess you have to kiss a lot of frogs, bear in mind it probably does help to start with a good-looking one in the first place.

Love the frog analagy Fiona

kingbean

Fiona has hit the nail on the head as I was one of the people who wished I had had this advice way back in 1993. Bonsai Ceramics has taken over now somewhat but that is a different story but the fog analagy is still the same even with clay

Good luck and hope to see you at Bath

Regards

Andy

thanks to both of you I will try my best to get to bath