Prunus Perversion

[TimS]

Welcome to Prunus Perversion, a sister thread to Maple Madness

The idea is the same, this will be a parking lot for any and all Prunus related goings on, with pretty much all my prunus not anywhere near being deserving or ready to have a dedicated thread. It will be a mess of unfollowed progressions, no logical update schedules, seasonal disinterest and gratuitous flower photos.

Over the last 10 years since i began bonsai, i've had a crack at a huge range of species. Some with more success than others, and some that i've just never gelled with at all. It became more and more apparent to me that energy spent growing species i don't enjoy is energy wasted, and i should really just focus on those that i do like. Hence; Japanese Maple and Prunus becoming the staples of my growing, with a few other special deciduous that have their own threads, as i move completely away from conifers whatsoever.

Mostly i am intending to focus on ume, but to Watto's great relief there are a few plums and the odd cherry about the place too.

So, these first few posts will be relatively boring since it is winter and few are currently flowering, but what the hey.

[TimS]

I went on a trip up to Bendigo for the Kings Birthday long weekend, with a primary motivation to go see what was happening at Moon Gate Bonsai. After a relaxing weekend i stopped in on the way home, and after an hour or so there i left with a boot full of prunus.

The first is this very large Prunus Mahaleb. I've been keen on these since watching Tony Tickle videos featuring his, and given i'm a sucker for rough stock that needs 20 years of work, this one went into the car pretty quickly. Love the dark bark and the twist in the trunk. I'm envisioning what i call a ''turtle back'' where most of the branching and flowers will be held above the main trunk line. I wired one branch down you can see there, i'm not convinced it will stay there, or it may stay there and eventually become a jin, no idea yet


Garden Chair in the background for scle

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Hand for scale to the base

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[TimS]

Another from the trip was this baby Mahaleb, should be a good little tree in time i hope

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[TimS]

Next also from the Moon Gate trip are three unknowns, presumably all wild plum


Quite like the twist in the trunk of this one, some carving required where i removed a thick knobbly group of branches that were annoying me

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Beautiful charcoal black bark on this one

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No idea what i'm going to do with styling this one yet

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[TimS]

And last post of the moment, I've been looking for a shidare ume (weeping ume) that wasn't $250+ for quite a while with little luck, but finally found this one today just down the road from me. Still not exactly cheap, but certainly better value than what i have been seeing

Nice pink flower, i'll have a crack at propagating from it as well for future potential bonsai use, but worst case scenario it goes in the garden as a garden tree and gets spared the bonsai guillotine.

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[KIRKY]

Tim, love this one. Is that a green bud on your first Mahaleb lower left?
Cheers
Kirky

[TimS]

Tim, love this one. Is that a green bud on your first Mahaleb lower left?
Cheers
Kirky

It's a weed leaf hahaha, i did a lot of weeding of them when i got them home but it was trapped behind the trunk i discovered when i went to look at the tree after your comment

[KIRKY]

okkies

[SuperBonSaiyan]

Those mahalebs are massive. Can't wait to see them flowering. That'll be an epic show.

[TimS]

Those mahalebs are massive. Can't wait to see them flowering. That'll be an epic show.

Same, should be a fantastic show of flowers from them, and a bit of a counter point to the ume i'm slowly putting together

[TimS]

Here is my garden tree Alboplena ume beginning to flower. Super super early flowering this year, maybe 4 weeks earlier than i am accustomed to. This one hadn't even gone fully dormant yet! I went through and defoliated it today; i figure i look at the foliage all year awaiting this time, buggered if i'm going to look at it through the flowering too

Lots of long extensions there to turn into cuttings, and some branches with interesting movment to try air layers on come spring

The tree in the front garden

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Copule of shots of the flowers coming on the branches

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One solitary bee was hanging around so i watched it for a while go absolutely bunta over all the pollen it had to itself

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[TimS]

I am incapable of waiting for anything really, so i got stuck into the big p.Mahaleb today

When i saw it at Moongate i had in my mind that something a bit more exciting might be possible with it than the upright tree i found. I wasn't sure what i'd find below the soil and if it would be of any use into changing the layout of the tree, but i took the punt and purchased it.

I do like a semi cascade/ cascade prunus and it's been in the back of my mind for a while, so i thought hell i'd see if one of the stumps i picked up might be possible, and this one had by far the most potential

Here is what i started with. Benches in the baground give a bit of a sense of scale for this big mamma jamma

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Here is the base as it sat in the pot: ie not very exciting

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'

After ferreting around in the soil the base turned out to have this really cool section hidden under the soil that twisted up to where the original soil line in the pot was

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and once cleaned it is a bit easier to see

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I flipped the tree back and forth trying to find a way to lean it into a cascade and hide the very straight and very taperless branch fork originally headed upward

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And there is heavy rootage at the point the soil line was in the pot so i took a few goes to get it all lined up in a way that hid the branch fork, but also kept important roots below soil line. Eventualy i ended up with this which i'm pretty happy with a first styling point with a very long road ahead of it. Bricks were employed to hold the angle for now

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[TimS]

i Noticed today while doing the mowing that my alboplena has it's first crop of ume fruit.......don't think i'll be able to get any umeshu home brew going anytime soon

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