Rocks? If you mean decorative rocks on top of the soil, they are really not needed. Look around your neighborhood for patches of moss growing wild. Collect and use this moss. Moss seems to be one of the hardest things to grow on purpose and easy to just let spring up.

If you are at astage where you are cutting tap roots, you are probably fairly early in the training of your trees. The pot should be just large enough for the root ball on a finished bonsai. The lack of room in the pot helps contribute to the dwarfing. A plant in training shoul dhave some room to spread out.

I am looking to place the tree ON a rock with
some seashells too. I live a block from the
ocean and have TONS. UNLESS seashells are BAD
for the roots in some way.

I started it in a pot that is 6" deep. A local
friend said the roots are so fiberous I don't
need to cut back the tap. It is an Azalea. Does
it need a deeper pot? IF SO, for how long? The
tree's form is already how I want it. It now has
NO WIRE on it. Should I rewire it, IF SO when
do I know it needs it?

Hi,

Do not use the shells. Azaleas like Rhododendron do best in acid soil. The shells will raise the pH. The rest of what you want to do seems fine.

Vernon

Thanks Vernon! I was DEFINATELY WORRIED
about To USE or NOT TO Use! LoL

Jewel

Hi, it's probably best not to wire an azalea, at least without a lot of experience, as they are very brittle. You can shape it by pruning/trimming, but best after it flowers, or you'll cut new buds. It likes lots of water (and acid soil. I'd forget the rock altogether as your chances of it's surviving (unless you have help the first time) are not as good, and it won't hold enough water long enough for it to be happy.

Hi all,

A couple of points:

Mark6 may be a bit misleading - it is a myth that growing a bonsai in a small pot thus and resticting it's roots help to dwarf a bonsa. In fact this practice could lead to killing the tree. Bonsai roots need freedom to grow and produce fine hair roots to absorb water and nutrients. Resticting the pot will restrict the capacity to do this.

Another consideration is the style of pot to fit with the tree, my preference on flowering bonsai is a deeper round glazed pot.

Certainly don't put shells on a bonsai, firstly, as other contributers have pointed out, an Azalea won't like it, but secondly, to me it conjours up an image of a crass seaside momento not a bonsai.

Nick

Nix
While I have,once in a while, may have mislead people, usually attractive women who may or may not have had more than their share to drink, when it comes to basic horticulture, you can get around basic biology.
Any plant grown in a poot will be affected by the restricted growing enviroment in some way, usually by slower growth and more compact, "dwarf" growth usually things that are encouraged in bonsai. This is why plants being trained for bonsai are not jammed into a tiny pot right away. They may be grown in the ground for a while or grown in a large size training container to grow a thick trunk and develop a branch structure. Once those basics are done, the plant can go into a real bonsai pot.
Jewel's azaleas sound like florist azaleas to me, they are usual big puffs of foilage with slim trunks, so putting these into bonsai pots now is way to early unless they are cut way back to make a mame size tree.
The thickness of the trunk is related to the depth of the pot, a thinner trunk looks better in a less deep pot.

"Any plant grown in a poot will be affected by the restricted growing enviroment in some way, usually by slower growth and more compact, "dwarf" growth usually things that are encouraged in bonsai."

Uh, no, not exactly. A plant LEFT ALONE IN A POT will sometimes dwarf itself because of stress. In bonsai, the primary mechnism for dwarfing leaves and getting compact growth is by pruning top growth and root growth, not root restriction.

"This is why plants being trained for bonsai are not jammed into a tiny pot right away."

Again, not entirely accurate and a little misleading. In general plants being trained as bonsai can't be jammed into a small pot immediately is due only to the proximity of healthy feeder roots to the trunk. In other words, most rootballs aren't small enough physically to be stuck immediately into a bonsai pot. Removing too much root at one time kills them. The gradual reduction in roots allows the plant to grow roots closer to the trunk, producing a MORE EFFICIENT, YET SMALLER, root ball

Thank you all for your ideas. I have taken from this one very important thought, shells will harm rather than promote my Bonasi. I never said how old my Bonsai was and everyone took it to be a youth. AND... let me point out that the pot IS meant to be flat in only SOME Bonsai, some grow in DEEP crevices on rock faces in the Orient, some grow on rocks, some not, rocks will NOT kill it UNLESS you don't know how to care for it properly. YES root pruning IS what DWARFS, not the pot. Try doing various types of trees and you will find that SOME Bonsai can be in a TINY pot and the ROOTS STILL GROW OUT OF IT, thus the PRUNING is the key factor in dwarfling NOT ONLY the plant, but ALSO the leaves in some plants.

I spent 16 months dwarfing it already, I literally brought it to the BRINK of death TWICE on purpose to cause SHOCK it since the trunk did not thicken enough to my liking, as my friend [I mentioned above] a Bonsai Master taught me. HOWEVER he died this past Fall before my training was complete, and I needed to know about shells. I meant crushing them up instead of pebbles, but did not know the PH factor of them as I am new to coastal gardening. He HOWEVER did tell me to SHOCK "Only ONCE or TWICE" with GREAT CARE and ATTENTION, then RE-POT at 16 months into the smaller pot [he said he would look at the roots to tell me the size of the pot BUT he is not here now to help me]. He ALSO said if you shock it and do not restrict growth immediately, you might have to start all over and shocking it too much could kill the plant all together. He said this is FORCING, and that some Bonsai need it to stunt. This, he said, would be the only other way to thicken it other than all else I had tried. I ALSO have been feeding it SPECIAL food for ACID loving plants since it's beginings, and have fed it MORE of it to thicken and dwarf it, as he told me to do.

ON A PERSONAL NOTE:
I myself would NEVER place a Bonsai in a glazed pot since my Master told me the glaze promotes slippage of the plant in the pot if it is moved or bumped about too much, thus breaking the fragile fiberous roots off again and again, and that can terribly weaken the plant and the end result be death of the Bonsai you took so long to nurture. I was just asking what SIZE is most prefered according to all other aspects.

My Master was 92 years old and I am saddened I had no time to learn more. I wish daily I could find someone again who was so kind and caring to teach me the art further. He never had a bad word to say of anyone, and ALWAYS saw good in everyone, even if they only had the slightest spark of it in them. He CHANGED a LOT of lives. Mine included, I will NEVER be the same.

AND HE TOLD ME:
"The idea of Bonsai is to CALM, NUTURE, and RELAX one's INNER MAN." So PLEASE don't argue over an art dedicated to peaceful growth and HARMONY among plants and people alike. I see LOTS of good points in everyone's replies to my post, TOGETHER we can keep Bonsai an art, but APART we only tarnish the art's purpose friends.

Jewel,

My condolences. The master you speak so highly of sounds like a great teacher and a remarkable person. Have fun with the Azalea, I'm sure it will turn out great.

Vernon

Thank you, indeed he was Vernon.
The leaves are all new and getting the waxiness for Spring.
I will be putting it outdoors in the second week of March,
if the temps keep warming up here by the coast.
I just received several plants in the mail from friends all
over the U.S. I plan to plant out in the same week. I also
got a couple rubber tree plants I put in the same pot. They
need some Iron though, and so a trip to the nursery is in
order in the next week.

Jewel,

You will find in any hobby or interest that people will have their own preferred methods. Some of these go against accepted principles, usually because the people concerned have tried them and they have worked for them. On a website such as this, everyone has a chance to put their view, this will often lead to disagreements and I think most people on here will have agreed to disagree at some point.

Many bonsai growers grow for harmony with nature and relaxing the inner man etc, and that may be born out of a desire to try to experience the ancient culture, Zen or whatever. But not all. Some grow purely as a horticulural pursuit, infact it is important to realise that bonsai is an individual interest and so resect each others reasons for being a bonsai grower. There was a 20plus postings thread a few months ago around this issue.

Regarding my comment earlier about my own preference for flowering bonsai to be in a glazed pot, any good quality glazed bonsai pot will be unglazed on the inside for the very reasons you mention.

All the best

Nick

Understandable Nick. :)

That is very good to know about the pots, I prefer
earthen pots myself since the glazed look to me is
not as natural as say unbrushed pottery. I prefer
the hand turned when available, but have pot the
red clay pots when needing something to start one
in. I never did like the painted or glazed ones for
Baonsai, unless the art it etched into the pottery
itself with a tool. I do however love chinese sayings
drawn into the pot's outer surface after the turning
is complete while it is still somewhat damp. It is a
personal touch that adds a warmth to each individual
Bonsai for me.

Jewel