Multi-Trunk Jacaranda
Posted: July 18th, 2023, 7:13 pm
Let me share my Jacaranda. I bought this one about 1 year ago, at a local market. This Jacaranda was a single trunk, in a spiraling form. There's a lot of these trees here, and some along the avenues by my house are amazing. Their forms are very noodle-ly like some cultivated Japanese Maples. Very often they have multi-trunks from very low, less often do they have an umbrella canopy. I enjoy running my fingers through the leaves. So I bought it, at what seemed like a steep price, $95!? I think? 
Since then I hard cut the trunk, and the Jacaranda bounced right back. I did not repot, and although water runs off and erodes the soil base a little, the plant is thriving. I partially defoliated during the growing season. Recently I hard cut the trunk again. So the thickest trunk in the photos is the original. The other two grew in the last year. I lack the knowledge of leaf reduction, and besides the plant's not at that stage. The leaves can be a pain, as they pushed out against any plant until I raised the pot up. The plan is to make more branching and major boughs, perhaps letting the trunks grow 10cm taller over the next season and probably more than doubling the branching at the canopy. Probably repot next year. Fertilise once per month with whatever (Neutrog, or PowerFeed) and give a soil tonic in the 3rd week of each month.
The root surface is terribly basic, one large root. This is my biggest frustration. I am aware Jacarandas do not flower well in pots. I really wish to make the great nebari we find at the foot of the avenue trees around Brisbane. Advice here is most welcome.
On a side note, I owned a Ponciana which was smaller and dividing well. However possums repeatedly knocked it off my benches. These trees are types I find inspiring when I walk around. The upward-spiralling chaotic form is rare to see in miniature.
Since then I hard cut the trunk, and the Jacaranda bounced right back. I did not repot, and although water runs off and erodes the soil base a little, the plant is thriving. I partially defoliated during the growing season. Recently I hard cut the trunk again. So the thickest trunk in the photos is the original. The other two grew in the last year. I lack the knowledge of leaf reduction, and besides the plant's not at that stage. The leaves can be a pain, as they pushed out against any plant until I raised the pot up. The plan is to make more branching and major boughs, perhaps letting the trunks grow 10cm taller over the next season and probably more than doubling the branching at the canopy. Probably repot next year. Fertilise once per month with whatever (Neutrog, or PowerFeed) and give a soil tonic in the 3rd week of each month.
The root surface is terribly basic, one large root. This is my biggest frustration. I am aware Jacarandas do not flower well in pots. I really wish to make the great nebari we find at the foot of the avenue trees around Brisbane. Advice here is most welcome.
On a side note, I owned a Ponciana which was smaller and dividing well. However possums repeatedly knocked it off my benches. These trees are types I find inspiring when I walk around. The upward-spiralling chaotic form is rare to see in miniature.