I got an email from a web visitor (Rick) who is adventuring into the world of starting bonsai from scratch. He is having some wonderful success with it too. Here are the pictures he sent me and he has also given us some great information on these trees.

He calls the pre-pre-pre bonsai!

I guess he has it point. It will be a few years before they start looking like what we consider bonsai trees.

He also gives us some advice and thoughts.

I learned that a good trunk is everything in bonsai, shoots and branches can be developed in months-a few years and will also work in a pot, but a trunk doesn't develop that well in a small pot.. (might be something to look into for your own set of trees?). 
My new plan: gather some 10 yo trees from my parent's garden, cut them to about 15 cm, let it grow and cut back again to 30 cm, let it grow out again and cut back to 35 cm. This seems a good way to have good girth at the bottom, nice taper, hopefully good nebari and then branch selection, etc can be done. 

 

1. Probably an Elm, very nice litte tree I found in my parents' garden. 
2. Don't know what kind of tree, found it on the banks of a ditch, it was already bended like this so it might be good for a cascading-style bonsai?
3. Chestnut. I actually planted it into full ground last week, on some rocks in order to have a bonsai-on-the-rock style.
4. Unknown cutting, chosen for its branch structure, already developing new shoots but hopefully it's also rooting.. 
5. Result after chopping some sort of fast growing willow, new shoots develop rapid after only two weeks! 

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