Hi, well bonsai literally means 'tree in a pot', though as Josh said one can train a tree in the ground to some extent, but it's not a bonsai (have you never seen the original Karate Kid movie? So many people got turned on by the bonsai being taken care of by the sensei (teacher), though all it really showed was him doing a little trimming. There are many ways to grow a tree so it can live in a pot for a very long time, but it takes time to learn the techniques and just how to keep the trees alive for any length of time because each species has different needs, the majority of them have to live outdoors for life (though not in the ground except for a few years initially to speed up trunk thickening) to be able to go through cold dormancy in the winter. That applies, of course, to most of us in climate zones where they grow naturally. However, tropicals can be grown indoors, though most often with the help of supplementary lighting, special set-ups for humidification (a spray a day does nothing for any plant) and very careful attention to watering correctly. Bonsai cannot be grown in the same way as house plants... plop in a pot, water weekly and trim on occasion - they won't survive very long at all without knowledgable care. A misconception people often have is that the trees are special type called 'bonsai', but in fact they're just regular trees that are grown and trained to look interesting and (usually) old, which is why fat trunks are important to most styles (though not all), but rather than waiting decades for them to be large, you'd take a 3-5 (or often more) year old tree with a decent trunk and then 'chop' it back to be very short, grow new smaller branches, and have the illusion of an ancient tree! There are schools of thought that more closely follow traditional Japanese styles, which are quite formal, and others (not as many) that like the Chinese 'penjing' which tend to be more landscape creations (large interesting rock in a shallow tray with tiny pines hanging off the sides, and maybe a tiny figure of a fisherman (called 'mudmen') or whooping crane down below. Bonsai actually originated in China thousands of years ago. Today, especially in the west (Europe included) many people are growing in more naturalistic styles, still training their trees, but not in such formalized styles that follow some rather rigid rules. People also often say that bonsai are 'tortured' to become what they are, but in fact it's nonsense because they get treated like royalty in all respects (when done right :-) and easily outlive their in-ground relatives by many years if things are done right. You will see scads of what we call mall-sai in places like Wal-Mart, etc., tons of Chinese elms and Junipers (really just 3-5 yr old cuttings) stuffed into tiny pots (we only do that once they're developed into bonsai, but no one told the people selling them by the gazillion - imported from China and all trained in the same unnatural "s" shape or similar styles) and they all have the same utterly useless and often worse 'care tags' on them... please ignore as you don't want to end up with those, at least not until you know what you're doing and choose to do it because they're cheap. Good bonsai (some are 3-4' high and as wide across, though most are smaller, and some truly tiny) are grown from (mostly) nursery stock, cheap but healthy and more developed. I also strongly suggest you do a lot of reading before running out to buy anything because even a week in 'ignorant' hands (nothing personal :-) can be the end of a tree. Online places to read basics are bonsai4me.com, evergreengardenworks.com (mostly for conifers) and bonsaihunk.us/cultural.html for tropicals. On the website Bonsaisite.com there's a subforum of book reviews which is also a good place to start, and the best place of all to learn - because you see how things are done first hand and terms (which in books can be confusing) explained. You don't really want to hear more right now do you? I get a bit carried away sometimes!

We had scotts lawn service come out and they've treated the lawn for weeds twice, fertilized twice and aerated the lawn. However prior to doing any of that, the lawn still looked exactly as it does in my pictures. We've also had 10+ inches of rainfall and it continues to rain all this week. They mentioned no sign of chinch bugs or disease. Perhaps I should check the pH and apply Lime if necessary? This post was edited by VinceFLA904 on Wed, May 22, 13 at 17:12

Having two nearby masonry surfaces (brick and cement) means it gets hotter and stays hotter longer. Even if you can't get it in the ground right away, it will do better set on dirt, grass, or other surface that will stay cooler.

Flavia is on point here! The plant looks extremely stretched here, to the point it's curving on the crown. If you give it more light now, the plant will stop stretching but the rosette might become too heavy for the plant to support itself. It might seem a little pre-mature to do this now, but you might consider beheading the plant a couple of inches from the top and root it. You will end up with 2 very healthy looking plants. Remember make you always sterilize any tools before you cut your plants, nasty infections can kill delicate young plants like yours in weeks with no cure whatsoever. And always allow fresh wounds to callous over - dusting sulfur powder on fresh wounds are always advised.