每日吃瓜

Hi everyone!
I recently made my first foray into bonsai and purchased this bonsai from Home Depot. When I try and ID it (was grown by Costa Farms), the only type sold through Home Depot by them is fukien tea bonsai. When looking at the leaves however, it doesn't appear to be a fukien tea bonsai at all. Could you guys help ID?

krak256 wrote: I recently made my first foray into bonsai and purchased this bonsai from Home Depot. When I try and ID it (was grown by Costa Farms), the only type sold through Home Depot by them is fukien tea bonsai. When looking at the leaves however, it doesn't appear to be a fukien tea bonsai at all. Could you guys help ID?

Your post contains enough clues to figure out what it is. Google for Costa Farms + 每日吃瓜. It's the last one on the page.
What I see on their site - including your plant - are not real bonsai though.

Not real bonsai? I did look at their site but their example pictures can't be enlarged to ID the leaves. From what I Googled, the leaves on my plant don't match fukien and don't match any other type of bonsai that Costa Farms lists.

Auk,
I see that you are saying my bonsai is a Privet (Ligustrum). I thought it may have potentially been that but the leaves on my plant are wavy whereas the Privet appears to have more sturdy/thicker leaves. Is mine just in poor condition? Thanks for your help.

krak256 wrote: Not real bonsai?

No, not real bonsai. If your plant doesn't have a label with a name, and if the seller cannot tell you what it is, don't buy it.
Your plant is what is called mallsai - a mass-produced, low quality, cheap product, with decorative stones and dead moss - something you won't see on real bonsai. The plant has no bonsai value and though it can be trained into a better bonsai by a knowledgeable person, its current potential is very low.

Yes, I think its a privet.

AH now I understand what you mean by bonsai. Much appreciated Auk.

Thanks for the help IDing. And you are totally correct, definitely fake moss and decorative stones both of which I plan to get rid of.

I would say privet too, having two of them, and looking at these leaves... it is the same species.

Thanks tubaboy. If you don't mind, could you share pics of your privet bonsais? I would love to see how they should be pruned/shaped. Thanks!

depending a little on what you want to achieve.. Keep in mind the basic ratios for realistic bonsai: A tree is normally only 6 to 12 time as high aas the thickness of the trunk just above the roots. That would mean that your plant would have to be reduced to maybe 10 cm, including the crown. So the main trunk could be reduced to the first branch, spruting just above the ground :ohmy:

To give you an indication what this meand;, this is a privet in my garden, that I started last spring:

Thanks leatherback. So I should prune the top of my plant to reduce its height. How do I increase the trunk base thickness?