it's going to need some time to recover and get used to the new pot. make sure you maintain it's water level consistantly. and keep the sunlight level consistant too. it should bounce back just fine...they're pretty hardy, all in all. that leaf-drop can be annoying tho!
i've had a couple of the bonsai
trees before - bought them as well established
plants and managed to keep them going for a while. those pine
trees, that are usually used, are hard to maintain, tho
and i never saw anything but them offered when i was looking to purchase one.
i've seen azalea and a couple of different fruit
trees done as well. saw some really nice specimens at the
flower show in march! and one of the vendors had minature
plants that are perfect for bonsai, so i got a few...the mini umbrella and 3 varieties of mini
roses (actually they're serissa). 4 for $10 couldn't be walked away from !!
a
plant as large as yours is now could probably still be used. i'm not sure as i've never started one from scratch - i've also never had one long enough to have to transplant it and do any maintanence on the roots.
i don't know if it would be a good idea to start this
plant as bonsai - you've just repotted it. might want to get some other kind of
plant or
tree to work with.
the thing with bonsai is curtailing root-growth as well as shaping the limbs into a certain designs. originally, the
plants/
trees that were used were small
plants taken from nature. that didn't work too well when bonsai was introduced to the western world and became very popular.
so, they started using full-size specimens and stunting the growth by cutting the roots and putting the
plants/
trees in small containers. wire is used to form the limbs. light (or lack of) can also be used to help the limbs grow in the direction you want.
check the
bonsai site for more info.