This too shall pass . <| sep |> 1 . It ' s tricky because in the beginning , you know so little that everything looks like it might be bonsai material but it ' s not that straightforward at all . Only decent starting material makes decent bonsai but it takes 35 years of just looking at trees and working with them before the penny drops . 2 . Getting plants through winter is troublesome . One day indoors and you might wake a tree up and then where you going to keep it ? Buying a plant from a nursery may not be dormant , you don ' t know sometimes , so putting it straight outside is equally dangerous . We lose more stuff in winter by poor preparation and planning than in the summer . 3 . Read first , buy supplies later . However DO identify sources of components for making bonsai soil this is usually a huge issue when you don ' t have access to a club or a big bonsai shopsupplier comes up here all the time , especially in the US . 4 . treesforsale # USA