When buying seeds from wholesaler, seeds are sold by weight. Seeds are mostly described with the following terms:

Common name

Some common names of tree species would be: maple, pine, boxwood.

Latin name

Latin name of the previous mentioned would be: acer for maple, pinus for pine and buxus for boxwood. These latin names constitute the scientific name for each species.

After the description section, the next information is technical. First, every supplier will have a monitor measure. Two measures are commonly used. The first is the count of seeds per pounds, and the second is the weight per thousand seeds.

Purity

Purity is expressed in %, and it represent the number of seeds versus the number of debris (dead leaves, stem) in the batch of seeds.

Germination rate

Germination rate is also expressed in %, it represents the number of seeds that will germinate with proper conditions.

Origin / source

The origin and source will determine the country the seeds originate from; where they were collected. Some suppliers will also list the state or province of origin.

Growing info

Growing info will refer to the needed condition for germination. Common details are pre-treatment, such as scarification and stratification, both hot or cold, and sowing technique.

Common use

Suppliers will often state the common uses or classification of species. For example, you could find all of the following:

Edible Fruit/Nuts

Fall Color
Medicinal
Rootstock
Shade Tree
Urban Tolerant
Tree
Poisonous
bonsai
Drought Tolerant.

Conditions of seeds

You can get winged or dewinged, refering to seeds that grow with a wing or two. Usually, dewinged seeds cost more since they require an additionnal step of preparation before they are sold.

You can get clean or uncleaned seeds. This usually happens with seeds that come from fruit trees. A clean seed will have the pulp of the fruit removed, while an unclean seed will almost come with the complete fruit.

You can also come across green or dry seeds. Green seeds are the freshest. The supplier has skipped drying the seeds for proper storage and is selling untreated seeds. A dry seed is not completely dry, but rather has a 5-8% humidity rate. The treatment is done to prevent decay of seeds in their shelf life. It mainly prevents rot.

Many ways can be used to accentuate the beauty of your house, and make your backyard more attractive. In your yard design, having a nice patio, a pool or even toys for the kids is great. But having a tree is often overlooked. We will develop ten uses for a tree in your backyard.

1. Create a shade spot in your backyard
2. Create a wind barrier on your property
3. Use tree as an edge fence
4. Hang your self an hamac under your shade spot
5. Have fresh fruit at reach in your backyard
6. Create a scent with a fragrant fruit tree
7. Use a small tree as bonsai and patio tree
8. Add colors to an existing flower arrangement
9. Have a tree house or a swing rope for the kids
10. Hang a bird feeder and attract beautiful bird species

As you see, this is a small list of utilities for a tree in your backyard. Other then those, planting a tree helps the environment by cleaning the air. It will also embelishing your neighborhood and give the surrounding properties, including your home, an increase in value.

There are many ways of acquiring a tree. You can sow a seed, either collected yourself or bougth. Many online website specialize in seeds, especially tree seeds. You could also buy a juvenile tree from a garden center or take a cutting of a tree you like, given it is an appropriate time of the year. You can always hope a neighbors tree will drop a seed in fall and next spring a tree will arise like magic.

For a short anwser yes. But, its like the lottery. Your chance of reproducing the exact characteristic well known are minimal. To be in context, bonsai enthusiast often praise a specific species for its characteristics that adpat well to bonsai growing techniques. For example, small leaves and small internodes are quality sougth after.

You can find these specific characteristics present in all japanese black pines (Pinus thunbergiana). But some growers have found a certain plant, that as even more pronunciated specific characteristics. From that plant, they have reproduce it by cloning technique such as cuttings or layering. This plant was attributed a name, wich is called cultivar.

To continue our example, the common name of japanese black pine is Pinus thunbergiana, but a cultivar would be Pinus thunbergiana yatsubusa. This yatsubusa is a cultivar of the japanese black being known for its short needles and short internodes compare to the general japanese black pines. Another example of a cultivar would be Nishiki Matsu which is known to offer a japanese black pine with a cork like bark.

But can growing bonsai from seeds reproduce these characteristics ? Yes and no. We say yes and no, because, you cannot reproduce 100% the same genetics as the known cultivar but you can reproduce another genetic sets that will have the same characteristics, ie: short needles or cork bark. Furthermore, you can produce an even more pronounced dwarf plant, or with leafed trees, a new color of leaves perhaps.

Bonsai seeds, as in seeds from a bonsai tree dont exist. Growing seeds from a bonsai tree will not guarantee a bonsai. All seeds are tree seeds since a bonsai is fundamentally a tree. But some trees have been found to produce seeds that will mimic the parent characteristics. The yatsubusa tree seeds are one of them. Yatsubusa, which is japanese for witch broom, is a genetic disease caused by a fungi. When a tree is affected by this disease, it will produce dwarf shoots, and seeds produce will inherit the disease because it is genetics. Chinese elms, Trident maples and japanese black pines are three known species that have this yatsubusa disease.