AusBonsai

I bought this about ten years ago from a Nursery that was closing down in Creswick, as it stated..Stunning colour.. for the first nine years i just grew it on (in the same pot). It put its roots down through the pot and into the ground so i just kept feeding it and it grew and grew. It was on Manchurian pear stock and NEVER gave me Autumn colour. Two things kept me from binning it, the first being that the graft was nearly perfect and the colouring from the graft to the new leader was very nearly the same. Last year i dug it up, heavily root pruned it and wired its branches and stuck it in the pot you see here. This year it has given me a hint of its potential and i have decided the tree is worth persevering with. I will start defoliating and developing branches on it and see how it responds. If you look closely it has two root stock branches down low which i thought was from the grafted stock so these will come off. A long way to go and we will see how it responds. Oh, by the way, I now have a Manchurian pear growing from where i dug this out.

Hi Bodhi , mate definately worth keeping . If you can't find a tree today one will appear tomorrow or 10 years down the track . If that's darker plum foliage i see in the rear of the shot from below the graft then the old roots from removal will be plum unless of course the fruit have sprouted from the pear if its produced fruit which should be the case going on the age of the tree ? .

Cheers Alpine

alpineart wrote:. If that's darker plum foliage i see in the rear of the shot from below the graft

Manchurian pear rootstock Alps but the graft is that good you cannot notice it. Wish i could graft that well

Hi Bodhi

Congratulations this will be a great tree with perseverance.

I have had a Bonsai Bradford pear (Pyrus calleryana) for many years that looks remarkably similar. Even here in Sydney where the climate is not particularly suited to pears it produces some flowers and small fruit of similar size to typical crabapples. The color in mid winter is simply spectacular - deepest red.

The bark is very fissured and on mature wood almost black, making a good display on its own. The original graft has fully disappeared.

Unfortunately the leaves do not reduce much.

regards
Dennis Mc

I like it, the line & form are laid out, only needing time, definitely a keeper worth devoting the years to develop further Please get it in an oversized pot & drive it hard

If you don't want the manchurian pear sucker, send it to me, they often produce interesting low movement from fighting their way to the surface, combined with the angle of exit from the root & its the start of bonsai heaven

Not that it matters very much but the rootstock is more likely to be Callery pear, Pyrus calleryana. Most commercial growers use a variety named D6 as the rootstock for pears. D6 has quite vicious thorns among its leaves and produces tiny (6mm diam) fruit that are almost black. The D6 stock I have growing here seem to keep green leaves through winter as well.

I also like the shape of this tree and the branches are starting to develop some good shape too.

There are a few issues which need to be overcome, I have a grafted crabapple which has a graft fairly high on the trunk.
Things to consider:
You will have to remove branches below the graft because foliage will not match.
Typical growth for a deciduous tree would have the first branch coming from about one third of the height of the tree.
To overcome this you can decide to grow the tree taller.
Or bring the branches down before they grow out.

Looks like you are going down the way of the second option, bringing the branches down. To do this on a deciduous tree can be difficult to pull off but beautiful bark and great colour along with a nice trunk line all say this is a keeper.

Ahhh. Thanks for identifying something odd I've been growing on - the D6 stock complete with spines. Tough as.

Definitely a keeper Bodhi, it looks gracefully set up, and ready to build complex branches. They don't ramify all that readily, but the bark, the flowers and the autumn colour make up for it. I particularly like the pot with the yellow leaves, very striking.

Gavin

dennismc wrote:Unfortunately the leaves do not reduce much.

I hope i can reduce them some what as it will look very spectacular with a lot of leaf

MattA wrote: Please get it in an oversized pot & drive it hard

Ta Matt, and driving it hard is the intent.

shibui wrote:. D6 has quite vicious thorns among its leaves and produces tiny (6mm diam) fruit that are almost black. The D6 stock I have growing here seem to keep green leaves through winter as well.

I am not sure here Shibui as it has thrown lower branches that are definitely Manchurian Pear. The root stock i left in the ground is also Manchurian pear. No thorns and same leaf as my other Manchurian pear.

Gerard wrote:To do this on a deciduous tree can be difficult to pull off but beautiful bark and great colour along with a nice trunk line all say this is a keeper.

I agree totally Gerard but the colouring makes it worth having a crack.

GavinG wrote: They don't ramify all that readily, but the bark, the flowers and the autumn colour make up for it. I particularly like the pot with the yellow leaves, very striking.

Hi Gavin, yes i have found that out (ramify) but nothing another 30 or so years wont fix . i will leave it to you in my will

Thanks for the thought Bodhi, but I'll be gone long before your will comes into effect. Actually, I'll be gone fairly soon if my wife finds out i've just ordered another load of mulga tube stock...

You'll just have to keep posting it. I'll post my old pear tomorrow.

Gavin

Typical growth for a deciduous tree would have the first branch coming from about one third of the height of the tree.
To overcome this you can decide to grow the tree taller.
Or bring the branches down before they grow out.

A thread graft from the top into the root stock could be possible to fix this if it concerns you Bodhi?

It is amazing what a difference a year makes. This tree was rewired and fed well over the year. The colour is wonderful and a lot more leaf cover. it is starting to take shape

bodhidharma wrote:It is amazing what a difference a year makes. This tree was rewired and fed well over the year. The colour is wonderful and a lot more leaf cover. it is starting to take shape

Wow colour is beautiful this year! refinement in style is going well too - much more compact shape

It is getting cutter and cutter. Wish I could grow them here.

Lovely tree Bodhi
I am liking the broom outline you are developing. I assume the leaves do not reduce very much?

Ps you need to graft a cutting onto another base then you will have a pear of them !

Ken