Bonsai- anyone into it?

[teslagirl]

I got quit ekeen in Oz but left all my stuff in Oz five years ago when we came to the UK for 'a year'....

Anyway, I want to get stuck in again, recognising that in Queensland it's a much quicker hobby in that you can get a ficus looking good in 2 years there- and it's ALL outdoor! Anyone on mumsnet having a go? Can recommend a type of tree that a relative 'beginner' should try here? Any recommended books? Forums?

I do like the idea of finding natural specimens out in the wild which have managed to find a foothold in a difficult place thus may have already 'bonsai'd' themselves to an extent! And no, I'm not about to dig up national parks lest this discussions gets hijacked by the M/N thought police....

bump?

I have a horse chestnut about 15 years old, which a friend grew from a conker and passed on to me a decade ago. It's quite big for a bonsai, but I'm hoping to make it smaller as it matures. I also have a couple of hawthorns that self-seeded in my garden, which are just youngsters now but which I'm planning to bonsai.
I have a couple of young oaks, not bonsai, which I harvested from a field edge: the acorns had managed to shoot, but I knew they would be cut down when the farmer ploughed, so it seemed ok to dig them up. Anywhere like that near you?
I've not achieved anything much at all, but I love to look at bonsai. And the discovery of the possibility of doing it was the only thing that ever made me really feel that it will be bad to die some day: just as they start to look nice, I will be dying of old age, if I've managed to hold on until then.