AusBonsai

For quite some time, I’ve kept an eye out for flowering apricot.

Yesterday I found some bare rooted. Not bonsai. Nowhere near it.

I’m surprised that more aren’t on the market.

Are they difficult to cultivate?

How do people go about propagating?

i have grown prunus serrulata flowering cherry from seed before with okay success maybe 50% so if you found seed it might be worth trying. I haven't tried from cutting but i would probably try to airlayer rather than take cuttings just from the successes i've had with both methods on other deciduous species.

I found a 1 year old cutting of mume at a bonsai nursery cheap along with a flowering plum too so they must grow from cutting too, whether it grows from hardwood as well as softwood i'm not sure

They are easy to propagate from cuttings. I believe Prunus mume are readily available from Ray Nescis Kenthurst, Sydney.

Roger

Daluke wrote:For quite some time, I’ve kept an eye out for flowering apricot.

Yesterday I found some bare rooted. Not bonsai. Nowhere near it.

I’m surprised that more aren’t on the market.

Are they difficult to cultivate?

How do people go about propagating?

Not that difficult to cultivate Daluke but can be difficult to shape. Especially the garden varieties with double and semi double flowers. They tend (for me at least) to over flower and under produce vegetative buds. So you are always losing branches here and there because they have nothing to grow from. I'm sure there is a technique for getting more buds where you want them but I haven't found it yet. Seedlings and single flowered kinds are much more easy to ramify but then they don't flower as easily until much older.

Have you had much luck propagating?

I’ve seen a few specimens in NSW - they don’t seem as readily available in Victoria!

Daluke wrote:Have you had much luck propagating?

I’ve seen a few specimens in NSW - they don’t seem as readily available in Victoria!

I grew a bunch of seedlings the year before last. I have taken cuttings of these seedlings 2 years in a row and they struck very easily. Again, cuttings of mature, double, garden type varieties, much more difficult, but not impossible.

When do you take your cuttings, Mike?

I’m in Sydney and am selling many! From 40 years of age to cuttings several years old and flowering