It really depends on just how far into Bonsai you want to go as to what tools you will need. For just the odd tree or two, Liatris has a couple of good ideas - a bent fork as a root raker and a cheap pair of nail pincers ground to sharp edges for a basic branch cutter. My root raker is a bent phillips screwdriver and I've had that one for 20 years now. I don't have one of the expensive shop bought ones.

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This is an Aussie native LilliPilli (Acmena Smithii Var: 'Hot Flush') I purchased from a normal garden nursery (and I got

Photo 1. I particularly liked the leaves on it and it had an 'interesting' lower trunk.

Photo 2. When I cut it back to see the basic shape I realized the trunk wasn't as good as I first thought .

Photo 3. But no matter, I decided to keep going with it. In that photo you can see two branches on the left growing sharply upwards - better view of those branches in photo 4.