Can this be bonsaied outdoors in a rock garden? It's the conifer farthest right on the upper tier of the rock garden, just next to the waterfall. It just went into the garden last week and obviously can't grow to its full potential in that limited a space. I just loved this one because it had real twisty- turny, almost zig-zag branches
I do not know about the confer, I cannot see why not, but I am jealous of the garden. Very nice snapple. A few well placed bonsai will look very good there!
Thank you for both the compliment and the encouragement.
Technically, bonsai means a "tree in a tray (pot)", so anything in the ground that is manipulated to an interesting shape is a topiary.
Yes, you can keep it pruned and shaped to a bonsai-like form with little difficulty. The Chicago Botanic Garden uses Scot's Pine liberally in its Japanese garden island landscape. Because your tree is a mounding plant, you'll need to select a vigorous shoot/leader and train it upward while keeping the remaining lateral branching in check via judicious pruning, or plant the tree high to take advantage of its cascading habit, which would be much more difficult to achieve, given the site you're dealing with.
Al
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Thanks tapla, for both the explanation of what bonsai really is and for the info on working with this plant. It sounds both challenging and fun.
Good luck - Scot's Pine is a fun tree to work with - so have some (fun) with it.
Al
