AusBonsai

Has anyone seen this used as a bonsai?

Nope, but there is absolutely no reason why this would not make a magnificent bonsai no different to it's close relatives. I think the reason you won't see many as bonsai is because it's flowers are probably significantly less attractive than many others in the Prunus family like : Prunus x Blireana, Prunus armeniaca, Prunus Persica, Prunis Dulcis, Prunus Persica and so on.

do we have a picture or is it me

bodhidharma wrote:do we have a picture or is it me

a picture of a prunus nigra??? those purple leaved street trees....

Prunus x Blireana doesn't seem to have as dark foliage...??? clasified as bronze I believe?

paddles wrote:

bodhidharma wrote:do we have a picture or is it me

a picture of a prunus nigra??? those purple leaved street trees....

Prunus x Blireana doesn't seem to have as dark foliage...??? clasified as bronze I believe?

Hi Paddles , yes i had several small Nigra's a few years back . Very rampant growers but the look a treat .I have a 2 year old blireana grown from seed that requires some trimming i only moved it today and noticed its bolted .Nigras tend to burn very easy "wind and sun" but worth the effort for foliage and flower if kept compact .Cheers

Sorry Paddles, i have one in my back yard but i thought you had posted a picture and we didnt get it. Was checking if there was a problem.

I made the decision today to buy one, I have just come home with a grafted prunus nigra. It was a left over bare root, going cheep. I have put it into a large pot, and will leave it now. next year, when it has settled and is healthy, I will attempt to air layer a branch or two, or maybe even three LOL, in the meantime, if it grows well, I will wire the branches that I intend to layer, with the hope of producing an interesting trunk in the future...

bodhidharma wrote:Sorry Paddles, i have one in my back yard but i thought you had posted a picture and we didnt get it. Was checking if there was a problem.

no probs... wanted to drive down to your nursery this weekend.... Hubby says no....

He's worried that I will spend money I don't know why he would think this

sometimes hubbys can be spoilsports.Leave it for another few weeks until the wisterias come into flower, it will be spectacular. If you want i can let you know when they are at there best

bodhidharma wrote:sometimes hubbys can be spoilsports.Leave it for another few weeks until the wisterias come into flower, it will be spectacular. If you want i can let you know when they are at there best

I have a wisteria... Not that it ever flowers

paddles wrote:

bodhidharma wrote:sometimes hubbys can be spoilsports.Leave it for another few weeks until the wisterias come into flower, it will be spectacular. If you want i can let you know when they are at there best

I have a wisteria... Not that it ever flowers

Paddles, how long have you had your wisteria? Did you grow it from seed?

I've read that it's not uncommon for wisteria to take more than 7 years (even as any as 15!) before they will flower when grown from seed. Apparently the plant has a very long juvenile phase. I'm no botanist, this is just info I read, that I thought you might find useful

I bought the wisteria from gardenworld, many years ago.... I went into there and they had a massive white wisteria (In full flower of course) on display, and all around it, were little wisterias for sale (You get the idea)

It s grown a little since then LOL

hey paddles, sorry for late reply. i have a wiseria that flowers wonderfully. some tips to help it are to keep it a little root bound and sit pot in a tray of water during summer. lack of water causes no flowers and for some reason they like to be a little cramped. also trim it hard twice a year. once after flower and the initial groth spurt and again in winter after it has lost its leaves. prune had but also keep it to shape. do these and flowers are guaranteed as long as it is old enuff to flower

I have a prunus nigra that i dug in canberra 10yrs ago, it is easy to keep as long as you keep the water up to it in summer. It is a hardy grower, none of the problems of leaf burn that was mentioned, tho i do keep it in part shade over the hottest months. It has had some of the roughest treatment of any plant i have owned, including taking a log splitter & axe to it. It responds by growing even stronger. It is having a rest in the garden this year after another round of major work. Probably a bad idea as it has grown out of sight & is going to take a few years to get it back in shape.

As for wisteria, they can be funny beasts. I have planted a double dragon, that was in flower, into my parents garden about 10 yrs ago, it has never flowered since! They keep threatening to rip it out & i keep offering to give it a home, to no avail as yet. Will go thru it all again next spring LOL

Matt

Dearest Bodhidharma and others. I noticed in this thread that no-one had posted a picture of prunus nigra. I have about 5 in my garden and they have been there for about 5 years, ever since I had the garden landscaped. I live in a suburb about 5 minutes drive from Perth CBD and like most of Perth (which is at the foot of an escarpment), the soil is of a kind known as "Bassendean soil", essentially sand with absolutely no nutient value at all. That, and the ever increasing water restrictions is why a lot of people in Perth's suburbs are turning to native gardens or, as makes a lot of sense, composting and mulching heavily.

I had some very good quality landscaping soil brought in as part of the landscaping job and apart from the occasional "spray on" fertiliser and Seasol, the plants don't receive much in the way of nutrient suppplementation (but that is going to have to change) and I also (despite water retrictions) water with my bore twice a day.

We have just had (I think) one of the hottest February's on record, with constant days over 35 degrees and quite a few over 40. One of the worst things we endure here is what is commonly called "the easterly". It is a wind (more like a gale most of the time) that comes from the east (hence the name!), comes over the escarpment gathering speed as it flows down, and then buffets Perth, usually in the morning, early afternoon. As the easterly comes from inland and from the desert, combined with the everyday heat, unless you have a decent shade house or shade of some sort, the garden plants need to be able to withstand extreme heat. That is one of the problems I face with my bonsai. I either find shade - but cop the easterly or I protect the trees from the wind but they are exposed to the hottest part of the day without any shade. My brother, who is a builder, is currently working on renovating an old cottage at the moment and it has a large shade house at the back. When he gets around to pulling that down it is coming straight to my house. The reason for this "aside" is that in the 1st photo you will notice the tree is leaning right,thanks to the type of buffeting we normally get from the easterly.

Attached are 2 photos of the prunus nigra from my front yard. They were about 1 metre when planted and, as I said, without too much care and attention, they are now just over 4 metres tall. Given the theme of this thread, come spring, I will definitely take some cuttings and see how I go.

Good luck and the best of health to everybody in 2010, and may you all be happy and find peace. Bonsai is a great form of meditation and an excellent example of Thich Nhat Hanh's philosophy of mindfulness.

Michael