Clerodendrum Care

[Stewart_Toowoomba]

Great set of posts everyone!

What about root pruning? When and how hard can they generally tolerate a good root pruning?

I have a large one that i purchased a few months ago and have just been watching it - the leaves look quite light on and thin at present. Do they generally loose some leaves in the winter - similar to a deciduous ?? If it is early spring then i'll do it over the weekend!

Thanks all.

Stewart

[xtolord]

Like i said I have two clero,

One is already "established" = lots of feeder roots, few lateral roots, no tap roots.
This one I usually root prune when new buds are forming / bulging.
I've so far removed about 1/3 of the root ball. I've not really tried to to remove 1/2 or more.

For the other one "still in training", there are relatively no feeder roots, so no real root pruning so far.
Only slow progressive reduction of the tap root, and reducing lateral root that are getting too long.

For the leaves, they turn yellow and fall off here too.
Every 6 months or so.
Basically it goes like this for me.
New buds > Grows into leaves > Flower > Leaves turn yellow > Leaves fall off > Tree is "naked" > New buds > cycle restarts.

I usually cut them off when they turn yellow, and cut back the new growth and potentially repot and root prune.

The one I have cannot be made into a mame or shohin.
Unless you sacrifice the flowering and force new growth every time.

Hope it helps.
Sidenote : I'm in Mauritius = no frosty winters.

[xtolord]

I did some experimenting on the one in training during the weekend.
It does not have any old wood, more like semi-green wood and green shoots
I did not get any bend on the semi-green wood, more like a negligible undulation that will disappear as the twig like trunk thickens.
When I applied more pressure to bend it, it snapped.

The green shoots were ok to bend. I even got it into spiral shapes.

I was using a 3mm wire

[Stewart_Toowoomba]

cheers xtolord!


I am going to repot mine over the weekend and will post some pics too.

Stew

[MattA]

Stew, Mine lose a few leaves over winter & also get some chlorosis on new growth but once it starts to warm up they shoot away like crazy. I think you will be fine to repot yours now, I am about to dig & replant one of mine as well as plant out a heap of cutting struck last autumn. Great material for bonsai, they really should be used more.
Matt