Best Bonsai Gift Trees

The Juniper looks like what most people expect to see when they think of a bonsai tree and that's probably the biggest reason for its huge popularity.  Unlike the Chinese junipers, (usually called Shimpaku) Juniper procumbens  can live indoors- another key to its popularity. Finally, it sells well, this tree tends to be very reasonably priced.

Junipers are fairly easy for the beginner to care for.  they need water and light like any tree, but they have no special challenges. Even if they're not being looked after properly, Junipers will continue to look perfectly healthy and that is probably the only real issue -  if you don't pay attention to this tree, you won't notice little things like the tips looking brown or the needles getting a little yellowish, or small webs in the interior branches and by the time you notice that something might be wrong, the tree might actually have died without you noticing it.

Still -all bonsai's are alive and Junipers - with just a small amount of care will thrive. 

If you grow your Chinese Elm outside in the summer and let it experience "Autumn", the leaves will turn color and drop - just like the trees outside.  Once the tree has become dormant, it can be kept for a month or two in a cool, dark place and thus experience a winter rest.  In the spring, you can bring it back into the light, increase the water (never stop in the winter though) feed it and watch the beauty of spring unfolding in your home).  Conversely, as the weather begins to cool you can bring you tree indoors before it turns and it will remain green and leafy year round.  This evergreen or deciduous choice is what makes the Chinese Elm unique.  It can be styled in a number of ways, but the two most popular are as an informal upright - a slanted or curvy trunk with a fairly sparse number of branches spread along the trunk or the broom style where there is a fairly clear trunk and a wealth of foliage a the top.

When its unhappy for any reason the leaves on a Chinese Elm will turn yellow and fall off faster than you can say defoliate. But when they drop due to a stress reaction ( like big changes in its environment) they will pretty quickly grow back.