Best Place Near Central Florida to Buy Bonsai?

[Triphamr]

Greets all!

I'm eager to start studying the art and though I'm not ready yet (I need to finish up my book) I wanted to see if I could get some suggestions on where to buy my first tree.

Online sales are ok, for supplies, pots, books etc. but has anybody had luck with receiving trees shipped from online retailers? I live in central Florida, south of Daytona Beach in Port Orange and there's nowhere around here that I know of who sells Bonsai trees or supplies. There's only one nursery in the area and they usually have fully grown trees of the various Florida varieties, nothing Bonsai related at all. What I need to do is find a good reliable online source for stuff.

Does anybody have any tips for me, a person just starting out - how would you suggest I go about it? Bah if that was too broad of a question, help with a retailer in the area would rock. =)

Forgive me, I'm a novice but enjoying my recent discovery.. if only I would've found this secret passion 30 years ago.

Thanks in advance!

[kdodds]

Are you looking to start with indoor or outdoor trees? Whichever you pick, I would choose a slightly older, mass produced specimen to start with and possibly several smaller year or two year trees, also common.

[Triphamr]

Outdoor mostly, to start with at least. I have a few areas around the yard where I plan to set up some displays, depending on the trees I choose. I kinda figured I should start off with an older tree, I wanna make sure I don't kill my first one! Thanks for the suggestions.

Now about those supplies... anybody have any suggestions there?

[Kenshin14435]

Triphamr,
I went lookin' around for you and found 2 sites that might be helpful in your search.
Heres one for the American Bonsai Society. I have it pulled up on a link so it should show all major Bonsai clubs in Florida.
[url]https://www.absbonsai.org/USAClubs.html#FL[/url]

Heres another that goes to a site called Bonsai Societies of Florida. I don't have much time so I didnt get to look through it, but I would say to give it a shot.
[url]https://www.bonsai-bsf.com/[/url]

There ya go.
I might come back and look a little more for ya but just look around the site and there are some websites to go to for supplies.
Good Luck and Best Wishes!

Ken

[Triphamr]

Ooohh nice links Kenshin, thank you! I'm off to go look them over now.

Do most people order supplies online or am I just one of the unlucky few?

[Gnome]

Triphamr,

I don't hesitate to purchase supplies like tools, pots and books on-line. You can also purchase soil or the various components but shipping gets expensive.

Starter trees are a pretty safe bet as well as they are usually pretty young. I would think long and hard before buying an older, more expensive piece of material sight unseen.

Here are some more links for you, I have purchased from the first two and have found them reliable.

[url]https://www.dallasbonsai.com/[/url]

[url]https://www.trappist.net/estore/merchant.mv?Screen=SFNT&Store_Code=BM[/url]

And one closer to you, I have no experience with this one.

[url]https://www.miamitropicalbonsai.com/[/url]

Norm

[moulman]

Call Jason at Schley's Bonsai - he is near Daytona, and shipping from there would be short and fast (or maybe you could go there and look).

He has some very nice starter material - elms and junipers, etc. Also some Bald Cyprus starters. He's good on customer service too and prices are good.

Here's his link.

https://www.schleysbonsai.com/

[Kenshin14435]

Ok, I went looking again at one of Norms suggested sites(dallasbonsai) and found an ad. I thought it wouldn't hurt to go to it so I did. It explains soooo much on video. It's very helpful to me.
Here it is

[url]https://www.bonsaichannel.com[/url]

I will keep looking an if I find anything I'll edit this post or add another.

Ken

(edit)Ok, after looking I figured out that the bonsaichannel site is controlled by dallas bonsai. In most of their videos they tell you to go to their site to get better detail.

[Triphamr]

Thanks for the awesome links everyone, very helpful and moulman for the link to a place in Daytona, I might have to drive up it's not far at all!

A nice community of helpful people here, so glad a happened upon these boards.

Thanks again!