Had a long day at a student orientation for college that lasted 8 hours. Decided to stop by a Home Depot’s nursery near the school before going home. Glad I did because there was a lot of good candidates! It was great. I got so tired because I stayed there for 3 hours looking through their plants and deciding which ones to leave. I found 10 that had potential but had to cut back because I can’t afford that many plants. Ended up with 5 good ones and I know what to do with them already.

Most of my trees are 7$ and so are these, except one. I saw too much potential in it to let it go and you’ll see it at the end. This was the most I’ve spent at one time. It was such a good day at a nursery.

Cape Honeysuckle, Tecomaria capensis.

Let’s start with the Cape Honeysuckle. I bought this little guy because of his half dead trunk. It would make really cool deadwood like some of the other bonsai I’ve seen. It has a nice branch going the other direction of the leader as well. Lots of potential here since it has branches all over the upper part of the tree.

Little John Bottle Brush, Callistemon citrinus.

Bought two of these. They have nice nebari and taper for $7 each! They also have okay branch placement and general shape already.

Juniper, Juniperus sabina.

This Juniper was nice overall. It has that scar that runs halfway across the trunk. The only drawback is that it’s basically a stick, only at 1/2″ thick. That’s where the branch placements comes in. There are branches are varying levels that will help build taper as it grows.

Pieris japonica

Okay this one was bought because of it’s trunk. It is 1″ thick with a root flare so I’m expecting nice roots when I re-pot it. The trunk isn’t straight but is uneven and bumpy which makes it really interesting. The branches low in the trunk are good for styling purposes as well.

Royal Robe Potato Bush, Lycianthes rantonnei.

Finally the one that costs the most. This Potato Bush was 22$ but I see so much potential in it that I just had to take it. I haven’t been able to find very many examples of this plant as bonsai but it has good qualities. The flowers and leaves are small but I’ll find out about how well it back buds when I style it.

Thanks for reading. I had a great time at the nursery and I was surprised to see so many plants with potential. Normally when I visit a nursery I don’t find anything interesting and normally go home without buying. Or if I get lucky I’ll find one. This time was crazy because as I looked through the gardening section, each area had something cool to look at.

Does anyone have any stories about a good day at a nursery? Whether you found a lot of plants or scored a good plant, it’d be great to hear about it.

One of the trees I gave up is this. Cool trunk but no taper and no branches except at the top. Another tree I gave up was another bottle brush. It had nebari and okay taper but the branches at the top weren’t good.