Woohooo!!! haighr; that mean your wisteria (the parent vine) is going to reward you with blossoms this year. The branch produces flowers, it's not an over night process. All the engergy stored up from past year growth is evidence now. So as your weather warm up, check on your vine. It's going to bloom this year!!! Congrats.
Kim
Wisteria 101 - Taking it From the Top
Kim, I believe in your knowledge and so, I will keep a watchful eye! Perhaps that pentup energy is really gonna pay off. Or, could it be that beating I gave it LOL!
Candee
Careful girlfriend, before everyone come knock on your door and ask you to go and "beat up" on their wisterias for comission. LOL.
Happy gardening.
Kim
actually, that sort of movement should help strengthen the stems and trunk as well. There were some studies when I was at Auburn that showed movement (vibration) caused stems to become thicker and stronger. So many old wives tales bear a bit of truth.
Beth
My first bonsai in training this morning ...
The pendulous flower stalks...
Lovely, and great placement, looks like the brugs are blooming from the same stem in the later shot! I can't wait!
haighr; do you know which type of Wisteria you've? I've different wisterias, I've noticed both the Asiatic wisterias are now budding out (Japanese & Chinese), whereas my American Amythist Fall just now sending out leave-buds. The Chinese blooms before sending out foliage, the Japanese blossoms after the foliages came out. Then their cousin the American will bloom AFTER both of the above wisterias' blooming faded -- a little later in the season.
This Chinese Wisteria is def. in full bloom, this is how it's today.
Dont know which kind, but sure you can ID once I finally get a bloom. Or if time will look for a closeup from another years' bloom.
Those look fabulous.
Congrats haighr on having a bloom of your very own☺It has been too cold for much of anything to be happening in my garden yet. I just read on the internet somewhere that if you peel off what looks like it will be a leaf bud,it will turn into a bloom bud. I did it to a few of the tiny buds on mine,but I really don't know which I have☻
Hi Kim,your garden is looking beautiful,ah the excitement of it all☺
Would anyone be interested in going on a dig with me this summer? I was thinking it might be fun to choose a day and a time,go find a growing,stunted tree already old and good to bonsai,bring it home and we could all post our find here to watch how they develop.
Lu, with the winter storm approaching the NE, NW. I've been missing your posting and I'm so glad to see yours this morning. Be warm and stay safe.
Happy Easter to all.
Kim
Happy Easter Kim to you and yours and to everyone. I get so busy with Spring Kim,even though there is not much spring ahappenin here right now, I don't get on the computer much. I do come in to see what is going on here, but don't post ,just lurk☺
Well posy not sure what you had in mind exactly. Steve and I have hosted two RU's early on at our mountain cabin. http://www.hhcreations.com/DG_RUs.htm There are plenty of small trees.
Were you looking to meet or just find trees at the same time different locations and go from there. The RU's got to be to much for us as well as the property, so bowed out after year 2 but it was fun.
Candee, I wished I could join you guys on those RU. But the distance is so great so I'll sit back and enjoy those pictures. Thanks for posting.
Here is the update pic. on my Wisteria in training pot today. After the blossoms are spent, it would be time for me to shape this one. I'm going to need lot of help to carry out the task. Beth, will you give some suggestion, please.
Kim
Wire for movement and a graceful line in the main trunk.If you want to thicken the trunk, encourage side branching along the trunk. You can always sacrifice those side branches when the trunk is where you want it in girth. Don't let the vine spend all its energy in making long whippy runners. You have the height you wnat now, correct?
Google wisteria bonsai images for an idea of what you want the trunk to look like in the finished bonsai (there is no such thing as a finished bonsai, we have to keep tweaking them, but that's what we like).
Beth
Oh looks like your fun is about to begin in the shaping. Love those ideas Beth. Can anyone tell me how long before I might spot a root shoot from mine that I put in water on 3/2/08? Just can't wait to get started.
Beth, thanks for the tips. I'll see what I can do with the tree....will post some pics. as I find time to tackle them.
Candee, how is the weather where you're? Still pretty cool and expecting some frost I bet? What I would do with the cutting is I would go ahead and pot it in gallon pot. Keep it watered, moist (but not soggy). Tug it away where it get bright lit light. Then water it every 2 weeks or so. Once spring arrives where you're, find a shelter spot in the garden where it would get enough sun light and water. Then ignore it for a while. It will take some time...
To speed up the process, shop for a mature cutting of wisteria from Lowes or Home Depot. (that was where I got mine 2 years ago). And work with them.
Kim
I got a mature cutting from mine that has the bloom on it shown above in the jars. I have them in a sunny window and figure not to do anything until the bloom is spent, but then what. Put it in the dirt outside and wait as you say?
Candee, the cutting relatively small. I'd put it in a 4" - 6" pot with potting soil. Give indirect but bright area. It will take some time, to grow. The wait is the hardest.
Hi haighr. Not to meet in person,just to go out and dig up an old already suitable tree to bring back and meet on this thread and work with what each of us found on that day to bonsai. I thought it might motivate me to go look for an old tree to bonsai and then post a pic for advice and discussion on what to do. I also am going to get a bag of concrete and try making my own bonsai pots. I did make a birdbath myself from concrete a couple of years ago and that worked out pretty well☺
Got ya posy. I'll look at the cabin in the spring for a small something or other, I am thinking about one of the rhodendrun wild trees along the creek?
Nice bath, will be interested to see what you come up with for a bonsai pot.
haighr,Oh My! A Rhodendrun,wild,from along the creek, at the Cabin,that sounds fabulous.
Could you post a pic of it before you remove it from its spot and I will do the same? It would add to the pleasure of the post if I saw the spot in the wild it came from.
Would you like to set a date you will do it and an approx. time? Then I will go hunt for one at the same time you dig yours up? I think I am going to a wooded patch near here that has a wild, white Wisteria that is growing near some big,old trees. That whole area went through a flood back in '72.
Anyone else that would like to go on this dig with us is more than welcome☺
Will try that posy. We may go up to the cabin tomorrow but not sure we will make it to the other side of the mountain yet so may be a couple of weeks down the road. We are just going to check on a few things and trout season is in so may do a bit of fishing. It may still be a bit early to find any small rhods if there are any? The ones that have been there are quite huge, and not sure how or if they send off shoots.
That wild wisteria sounds delightful. Will keep you posted and sure others will join in on this interesting project.
The article this idea came from said the object of going on a "dig" was to find a tree or bush that nature had already "stunted" and would have been growing 20 or 30 yrs.
in that condition. It's interesting to think of it that way because if you tried to buy a bonsai that old, it would cost a small fortune. And guess what haighr,one of the places they suggested finding some was along a Trout Stream as the side banks usually have stunted trees clinging to rocks or outcroppings from receded high waters. We used to go trout fishing all the time when younger and I remember seeing just such growth all along the sides while fishing. Now I would probably break my fool neck stomping the streams,looking for bonsai☺ Another place they suggested was on cliff sides where wind and weather stunted growth that was quite easy to remove,along with the actual earth and rock it is clinging to,then pot the whole thing up and there you have it,instant, old bonsai to work with.
So along these cliffs and the creek where we fish is a plentiful goldmine? I did find a few rhods that were at the base of some of the established rhodo trees, but they may be difficult to eject as they appear quite root bound.
One side is all cliffs and on the closest side all rocks, sand and that is where the rhods are lined.
Slight problem with the wisteria I cut and have in the jar. The little flower bud just dropped off??????? It was the only one I had and now it is gone, I believe this wisteria is just not meant to bloom again.
This message was edited Mar 30, 2008 1:24 PM
It is probably just as well that it dropped if you are trying to root the cutting. Flower buds are a huge hormone sink that will definately slow root development.
I will join in on the wild tree bonsai dig. Actually I have already dug some trees and am waiting to see if they are going to make it. I have two wild plums, one red maple, and a fox grape sitting in pots on my patio. The plums look perfectly happy, but the grape and maple look like sticks.
Don't overlook urban collected plants. If someone you know is going to re-landscape or dig up bushes like junipers, be there waiting with your hand out or with a shovel and a bucket. Forsythia that has been allowed to grow wildly can have some very thick trunks. It handles servere pruning and makes a beautiful spring flowering bonsai. I just missed the renovation of the Plains Welcome Center by a week. They dug up all the hollies and there were some interesting varieties there.
I would suggest looking up internet articles about collecting yamadori. Plants growing among rocks send their roots into crevices that may require a pair of crowbars and wood blocks for fulcrums, in addition to shovels. I carry a pair of loppers with me so that I can cut roots from the pines that interfere with my digging.
Good luck,
Beth
OH MY! Everything seems so simple till one tries to put it into practice. I will be excited to try this,but will leave directions with family and friends in case I do not return,trapped forever,clinging to the side of a cliff,holding on to a 50 year old potential bonsai I could not resist that has grown roots to the center of the universe☺
I am still trying to go get that White Wisteria and still haven't tried to make a pot for it. I did go and get a 50 lb. bag of cement,man oh man,cement is heavy☻ I wanted Portland Cement,but it only came in 80 lb. bags so there was no way I could lift it.
Maybe tomorrow I can go check out the Wisteria to dig up and start my cement pot☺I remain hopeful but at this age everything makes me too tired so I just stop what I'm doing and go take a nap. The real problem is, I never get back to what I was doing,bummer!
How is everyone else doing with a bonsai from the wild?
Haven't gotten one from the wild yet, not sure I'll be able to use the rhods as they are rooted pretty solid, but will try.
Here is a pic of a bud on my wisteria, hopefull will have some blooms this year.
What a great photo haighr. I certainly hope the buds I have are blooms☺I will try to get a pic tomorrow,but the buds are still too small to tell which they will be.
Thanks, those are flower blooms right??? Not just leaves?
haighr, I don't know for sure. I hope Kim or Turtle will stop by and tell us for sure. They look like Blooms to me☺
Hi Lu, Candee, I afraid that look too much like a leave-bud. Refer back to your picture of the blossom on your cutting in the jar above. By the way, did that flower fully develope while being rooted?
Nope, it fell of. The sticks are still just sitting in the jar now with leaves. Got fingers crossed then eventually root.
Gonna have blooms for sure, just need the rain to stop so I can snap a few pics of the full scale blooms.
Fantastic haighr☺
My buds all turned out to be leaves☻I'm too disappointed to take a pic of the darn thing.
Sorry about yours, Lu, maybe next spring. Candee, congrats! Enjoy the blooms.
Kim
Sorry to hear that posy, I know the feeling have had many years of the same. I tell you I swear by that little beating I give mine. It bloomed so profusely after that hurricane that split it years ago then never again for 4 years and so this year I beat the trunk with my rubber hammer and voila got lots of blooms. I believe that gentleman from WI that wrote a book when he said sometimes a plant needs a bit of trauma to produce and he suggested beating the trunk with a rolled up newspaper. Might be a fairy tale but it seems to work for me!