Definitely post a pic

I recommend Ficus microcarpa, Ficus salicifolia, and bald cypress (Taxodium distichum). They are well adapted to the climate of Florida and readily available. You should also join a bonsai club. You can find one on the internet I'm sure by going to the websites of The American Bonsai Society or Bonsai Clubs International or just Google "bonsai clubs". Membership in a club will get you up that old learning curve much faster. Good luck, Jack

From my reading about them, they are also known as the "old-fashioned" potato beetle. They munch in herds and can decimate a leaf in a couple of hours. When they are young, they look like tiny black slugs. When they are grown up they are disgusting yellow slug-like creatures covered with their own excrement. What amazes me is how they found my garden. I live on a farm in an area where no one has even heard of tomatillos or ground cherries. I have never encountered a wild ground cherry ever. I had never seen the adult beetle before so I didn't kill it when I had the chance, since I don't want to kill the good guys.

All trees that need to put on some size appreciate large pots, but no trees appreciate a combination of large pots and a poor soil. If you use a soil that doesn't hold perched water, you could plant your new charges in a 10 gallon nursery can if you like - you'll get great growth and vitality. Hoffman's Bonsai Soil has too many fines and holds too much water to use for small plants in large pots - so don't be tempted - and who can afford it? ;-) Do you know of any plants that use nutrients (NPK) in a 1:1:1 ratio? Me either. I know a whole bunch of plants (almost ALL) that use NPK in a 3:1:2 ratio, though. Ratios are different than NPK %s, and a much more important consideration. Plants use about 6X as much N as P, and about 3/5 as much K as N. After the calculations are done for how P and K are reported on the fertilizer box, 3:1:2 ratio fertilizers supply nutrients at almost exactly that 10:1.5:6 ratio that plants actually USE. Also, your 10-10-10 fertilizer gets its N from urea, which tends to make plants leggy. Foliage-Pro 9-3-6 is a 3:1:2 ratio fertilizer that supplies most of its N in nitrate form (helps keep plants compact). It has ALL the essential nutrients plants take from the soil (including Ca & Mg, usually missing from soluble fertilizers), including all the micronutrients, and supplies nutrients in the right ratio - hard to improve on that. Al