Jacaranda

[Albo]

Jacaranda seedling from the local park.

[Akhi]

The one in the ceramic pot looks great for a seedling.

[Albo]

Thanks Akhi It’s the same tree only about 8 months apart.I was just growing it in the black flower pot. The local park has about 5 mature trees and are putting up seedlings all over the place. Must be 20 in a 5 square meter space.
It went nuts with growth over summer and autumn.
New growth thickens really quickly and have to constantly keep an eye on it. if you want a branch to be a certain thickness, if you look away from it, suddenly it’s twice as thick as you wanted. I suspect that’s why I don’t see too many as bonsai.
I may need to grow it larger to keep branching in proportion, but I really like the Trunkline and taper.
I’ll see what it does over the next growing season.

[Trimmy]

I've never been sure about using plants with large leaves for bonsai, even if the leaflets are small. That looks quite nice though. I have a volunteer Melia Azedarach in my yard which a street tree gave birth to. I hit it with the whipper snipper a few times and probably tried to rip it out by hand. But now I notice it has a nice bend and taper and you've got me thinking...

[Albo]

Do it, what’s the worst that can happen?

Leaf size will reduce in a pot as well as when you defoliate/trim.
The leaf size on the Jacaranda has reduced a lot from when it came from the park.
I also cut the larger leaves in half and then cut into an arrow shape to resemble a proper jacaranda leaf.