Bonsai Fuchsias

Someone gave me three long white pots and the first thing that came to mind was to try my hand at using them for bonsai fuchsias. I have never done any form of bonsai, so this will be a learning experience for me.
To start out, I chose:
Preston Guild - Small white and blue flowers (up front)
Vinegar Joe - Small white and red flowers (middle)
F. magellanica - Small pink flowers with a hint of blue in the corollas (the back)
All of these grow pretty fast, so I don't know how well I chose. I wanted to be able to see results by next summer.
Looks like I will probably be wrapping Preston Guilds trunk with wire first. But they've just been planted and it is October, so I am going to give them a bit of time.
I hope to see lots of other people try this! I only collect upright fuchsias and I would imagine that the trailers would make very nice bonsai as well.

There's an art to this method Pedrick, I suggest you do a little research first to have success.




Choice in plants makes a difference too in success.
Good luck on Bonsai!! Its great fun!


Sylvia

Yes, there is a website devoted to fuchsias as bonsai that hummer_girl posted a link to here. I believe it is in the sticky at the beginning of the forum. And there is a local expert nearby to guide me once they have begun to grow a bit.
So fortunately, I will have lots of information available to me as this progresses.

http://www.bonsaigarden.net/sitemap.html

Yes, it is in the sticky at the beginning of the forum ;-)

Yes Hummergirl is just full of Info , that comes in very handy.
Keep it coming Hummer , I always learn something from your threads.!!!


Sylvia

PC, thanks for the link, I had several of my new fuchsias in hypertufa pots, they're the ones with small leaves and flowers, suitable for Bonsai or container plantings. I check it out to see what I'm doing wrong, I always am, I have a tendency to start something new and not read the directions 1st, Jim

Well, for one thing, once they have begun to fill these pots with a root ball, I know I have to take them out and move them into real bonsai pots with the wires and everything to secure them and provide stability. But I felt these pots would be a good start for now. Bonsai pots are not cheap ;-)
I have the wire for wrapping the trunks so I can bend and form them. Once there is enough trunk to work with. Since it is almost winter, I figure I have time to study and think about which traditional form I'd like to apply to each one.
I have a small bonsai pot I've been hanging onto for years, waiting to see what I'd like to put into it. Right now, I am having a struggle between a fuchsia called 'Ben Jammin' and a start from my dwarf Italian white peach. It is a true dwarf. A friend gave it to me when it was already 10 years old, it is now 30 years old and still only three feet tall. A natural bonsai form which I have never, ever had to prune. Now five little starts are doing fine and one of those would look great in a real bonsai pot. The fruit on this tree is barely worth eating, but the show it puts on every spring just blows me away. It has these huge double dark, dark pink blossoms. And because the growth is so compact and the distance between nodes so very short, the blossoms too, are packed dense.
Hmmm, maybe a bit large of a pot would be better for it. And 'Ben Jammin' can go into the smaller pot which has been waiting so long!

Can't wait to see what you come up with, PC.
WIB,
SW

I decided to combine two efforts in one of my selections. I chose an Amber Rose for the bonsai pot I've been holding onto for years. Both the leaves and blossoms are small. And it has a mounding form to it that will be easy to shape.
And I've decided to include it in my efforts to try growing fuchsias indoors like blooming houseplants in a sunny southern facing window. So far, it is doing very well!
Of course, once it has filled this pot with roots, I will have to take it out, wrap the root ball and wire it in place. That is a long way down the road though.
Next week, I will post a photo of the progress the initial three are making. Vinegar Joe is blooming right now.

We had two nights of below freezing temps here and not everything could be covered. Since it is my purpose to only collect fuchsias that can make it through the winters here without much assistance, I left the three future bonsai out in the open.
As you can see, Preston Guild in the front is just fine, as is F. magellanica molinae in the back, but Vinegar Joe in the middle has some burned tips. Not too bad! And a good example of how the varieties can differ in their abilities to deal with extremes in weather!

This message was edited Dec 11, 2009 10:49 AM

The indoor bonsai, Amber Rose, is going to bloom! I wove the two trunks together and have put a coil of wire around the trunks so I can begine to cause them to lean over across the empty space of the pot. I have some ideas about what to cover that bare space with. A very tiny leaved ground cover instead of the usual mosses often used. I am also looking into some miniature grasses for the large bonsai. They only get about 2" high.

My bonsai experiments are going very well. The three larger ones I planted in the white containers all need to be wired now and pruned. Eveything is growing like crazy all of a sudden. This is a photo of my little Amber Rose, which double dutied as one of my experiences in growing fuchsias as indoor blooming houseplants this winter. There wasn't enough room for all of them, so Amber Rose recently graduated to going back outdoors. The two sticks are just to keep the two starts going in the direction they currently are. I have been twining the trunks around each other. And you can see the wire coil I made to just gently support them until the trunk thickens and is more sturdy.

That is going to very pretty.

The bonsai trio that lived outdoors all winter here, have suddenly grown allot and it is time to do some serious pruning and wiring of the trunk. Plus, the root ball needs to be wrapped and wired. But I have decided to wait to deal with the roots until I have selected nice pots to put them into.
The indoor Amber Rose bonsai is in bloom and also doing very well. So I am going to start a new bonsai thread with that one.