Hi, welcome to the forum. Greenman's being too modest here, but he's right about what he said. The only bonsai that can be grown inside are basically tropicals - basically because under certain conditions there are a couple of subtropical species that can be tried if you know what you're doing, but conditions must be ideal. Maples won't grow indoors anywhere, anytime, so they're definitely out, as would be anything cold hardy. You're best to start with something like Ficus as there are many different ones available all over and care is fairly straightforward, though not without problems as even experienced growers find with any species in given situations. Remember that the majority of trees are not grown 'up' to be little bonsai and then magically switched off to stay that size, but are cut back from larger trees (not as "cuttings", but as 'chops') allowing smaller new branches to grow (how and when matter for each type) on the fattest trunk achievable - except in the case of a couple of styles - which give the illusion of age by their proportion to each other. "Growing out" trees in the ground is the fastest way to get those trunks, but not practical for tropicals anywhere but in tropical climates, so large containers of various kinds ('training pots or boxes') are used vs little designer pots that keep trees from doing anything more than minimum growth, and which require roots and branches to be pruned to fit pots (which should really only be used once trees are developed and styled over time). Look at www.bonsaihunk.us/cultural.html for lots of great advice on indoor growing (and particularly Ficus), plus www.bonsai4me.com, plus try to find a local club, which is usually a great way to learn as you can watch how things are done on the spot. Whatever you do, never go by attached tags on plants for care, as they are usually so general (and often actually wrong) as to be meaningless for individual plants and take no account of particular environments. Do be prepared to spend on basics up front, like 4' fluorescent, 2 bulb fixtures with full spectrum lights. Don't waste time misting things as it... wastes time, but do use humidity trays, ones that span the width of trees' growth, holding stones and water, as long as you keep the water below the stones so pots don't wick it up and rot roots. Learn first, spend later and enjoy the ride :0)!

Yep,he's A.O.K. in my book!It's just that sometimes" Things" really do happen,a few of my seed friends have"passed', and in 2 cases friends daughters have been killed.Just tune into your local news-things happen so unplanned and we have absolutely no control over it.It does get kinda really weird when nobody has heard from someone in months,seems to make you wonder.I found about Katies passing here,even though I was still doing up a big pkg. to her to trade.The whole thing about this is-ya just don't know.Wend

I've been an IT guy since 89 and found out about the Net from a friend at UConn in 90. My first ISP was Escape which turned into Mindspring. I was still using a non-graphical brower (Lynx) when I first came across this site. Things were happening very quickly in those days! Either Painterart joined a lot earlier than he thinks or I joined a lot later than I think but my sense of things is that I was here ~92. I was still visiting rec.gardens.orchids quite a bit but gradually began to realize that I had more to contribute to GardenWeb. I tried the odd compact flourescent in the mid 90's and I had tubes for a while in 99/2000 but I didn't get my first real set of lights till 2001, three 160W Wonderlites. I knew well before that that if I had lights the winter die off's would end or at least lessen. That proved to be very much the case and I have written hundreds of thousands of words to that effect in the six intervening years. Rock on, everyone. H

Welcome newcomer! I am also a nut about desert plants, probably because I live in Southern California. Anyway, I have always found the watering schedules for mesembs to be quite confusing. This post helped me out a lot http://cactiguide.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10071. I was in fact doing some things incorrectly, and was able to correct my mistakes in time to save the plant. I hope this helps. Keep in mind that he grows his plants outside in Southern California, so there may need to be some adjustment to suite your plants needs in your area. I suggest simply talking on forums with people growing mesembs in a roughly similar climate as your own, e.g. rainfall schedule, etc. Good luck!