They’re undoubtably lovely, but bonsai are hard to keep on a balcony in Sydney. The problem is you just can’t leave them. I always lose them over the summer holidays, when a dry spell will combine with a breakdown of the automatic watering system.
This is a maple that was a present a year ago. Deciduous bonsai are the worst. They are bare for a good 6 months, and if you have remembered to water the sticks over Winter and they come good in Spring, then you have to step up the care for their delicate growing season. I had this one set up for a daily drip watering over Christmas, but a bird or the wind knocked the drip line out of the pot, so my year of care was undone. I had a hornbeam seedling the year before but managed to kill it too, just from neglect. They really can’t survive dry roots, and the little pots are desiccated in a few days. And the whole idea is to have an impressively old tree, right?
Figs are a much better bet. This one was a gift many years ago; one of those novelty ones with a rude shape, and it survived in a tiny pot until I moved it into flat one. It’s really tough.