Hi - I'd love to see your other plants! Well, as far as bonsai goes, dwarf varieties aren't used much because they grow so slowly. I know that sounds weird, but in bonsai, the first thing you want to do (except with a much older, developed tree) is to 'grow it out', giving you more options to style it, giving it the fatter (though hopefully tapered) trunk you want to give the illusion of age (along with new smaller branches - usually after chopping some percentage of the tree down from whatever it was to begin with - anything from ~ 6-8" to 10' tall). Yes, you want a miniature tree, but not if it looks like a 4 yr old sapling incidentally stuck in a pot, so you need to work with it over time to get the right effect. You're in a perfect zone for CM, though you'll probably want to give it some protection from Dec.-March either by mulching or else keeping it in a shed, with some lighting which it'll want in early spring. Try to find a local bonsai club - it's the best way to learn, watching people who know your climate doing things while explaining them. Do go to www.bonsai4me.com, www.evergreengardenworks.com, www.bonsaihunk.us/cultural.html and learn about bonsai - it's not the same as growing A. violets!

Thanks so much, Lucy! That's exactly what I was beginning to figure out, and what actually prompted my post--that dwarf varieties, although advertised by nurseries and hybridzers as perfect bonsai, don't really develop the trunk we need. I'd asked a question about that in my original post, then took it back out, leaving my question more open and general. My nursery carries the large grower, red 'Dynamite,' which I had been seriously considering until I got to reading online about the dwarfs. The brilliant red blossoms would outshine my center of attention, the African violet, but we usually don't have summer shows, and I'd get to enjoy the red blossoms between spring and fall shows. It's the bark, tree shape, and small leaves I'm actually after. Yes, I am in a perfect area for crape myrtle and have an abundance around me that I can root in the spring or air layer even. And I can dig up any size CM (pink) tree from my mom's old place this spring when I know more about what I'm doing, but I'll start with nursery stock that I can place on my front porch and in my garage and study it awhile before I go to chopping on it. Good to know about winter treatment. I can winter over in my garage and move to my lighted and warmer breezeway in the spring, or possibly place the pot into the ground and mulch around the tree.

Thanks for the sites. I'd found them through one of your previous posts and have been busy reading there and on this forum. As I figured out a long, long time ago, there's a lot to learn about bonsai! And you're so right; it's way, way different from growing African violets and any of their gesneriad relatives--or anything else, for that matter. I've been protecting some parsley hawthorns in my yard for several years now for future bonsai. I'm sure I'll be needing advice on them, too. Lucky me! I see there's a Little Rock bonsai club.

I keep saying I'll fix up a Picture Trail page of my violets and other gesneriads, but it's still in the "One day" stage. And one day, I plan to show my bonsai there, too. Thanks to all of you more knowledgeable members for nurturing us beginners.

Betty

One other thing - leaving them to grow out in the ground (vs a pot) is much better as it's a lot faster. You might (in spring) dig up whichever ones you're interested in, place a tile or something under the rootball (spread it out a bit) and replant, so it'll grow more laterally rather than mostly downward. Leave it for ?? years. You can however, in season, work on the top by chopping, pruning, etc., though if you take too much foliage in one year, it'll slow down development. Have fun!

Betty, I have the addys of the local clubs and also mine in Hot Springs. - jimh