ChnZ

Hey everyone. My name is Cory. I live in Southwest Missouri. I'm taking up the hobby of Bonsai. It's always been very interesting to me. I just purchased some seeds on Ebay for both the Brazilian Rain Tree, and the Umbrella Thorn. I've heard both of these are easy to grow from seed. Does anyone have any experience with these? And can anyone offer some advice on how to do this and what I need? Whichever seed I decide to start working with will be an inside tree.

Marrero

Even in the tropics and with fast growing trees, anything planted from seeds requires at least one year grow before becoming something to start training to become a bonsai.

Bonsai kits that come with a pot and seeds are deceiptful.

Plant the seeds, let them grow. While waiting, get some cheap plants from ebay sent to your address and practice arrangement, trimming, and repotting. By the time your seeds become trees you will have the practice to not spoil what took you waiting time.

centaura

Hmm... this is a hard question to answer, because the knee-jerk reaction is to list the reasons why starting a bonsai from seed as a beginner is not always the best idea. Most folks here won't have any advice for you, since few people start bonsai from seed. So, in this case don't take a lack of responses personally - there's just a lack of folks doing that out in the bonsai world. I've worked with grown brazilian rain trees, but when I've experimented with starting seeds I've not had much luck. They always seem to stay too wet or get too dry, and if they do germinate, they usually die quickly from one of the above issues. I love tropical species and wanted to try to grow some species that you can't get commercially, but have since given up. Kudos to you for trying,

-Centaura