white cedar Melia azedarach

[delisea]

White cedar (Melia azedarach) is one of the few Australian natives that is deciduous. It has has an explosion of flowers in spring followed by orange berries that stay on the tree after the leaves fall. It is fast growing but can have long internodes if fertilised in the spring. It is found through Asia including Japan. It is such a good bonsai species I have never seen a Japanese one

This one I grew from seed. Excuse the leggy branches, I was trying to figure out how to get it to flower. The flowers appear from terminal buds if you are wondering. My aim is to get the tree about 25-33% shorter. For now I might let it run to see what those berries look like, improve the bark and close over some scars.
It was supposed to be a root over rock, but it became a rock sitting in between two trunks when the root over the rock snapped.

white cedar 2021.jpg

white cedar 2018.jpg

This was it in 2018.
Is it a good species for bonsai? I don't know but it has been fun to grow.
Cheers,
Symon

[melbrackstone]

I've been keeping an eye out for one in the nurseries over the years, but never seen one. There is one on a main road near here, and it's glorious when in its yellow autumn colours, and flowering madly now.

Thanks for the push, I'm going to have to look for some of the seeds when they fall.

[Keep Calm and Ramify]

Amazing development over the last 3 years.

[Pat3222]

Wow, that's come a long way in no time, love your work!! We've got a couple of these sitting at my work, after seeing yours there will be one less tomorrow. Hoping for more updates on this one please

PS Mel if you're ever down Geelong way give me a holler..

[Sno]

That trunk developed an amazing amount in 3 to 4 years . I like the longer branches to the trunk , it shows off the flowers well . The rock is a bit odd but a lot of my trees are odd too .

[delisea]

Hey Mel,
The seeds stick around for a while it is worth looking under trees now. I found them difficult to germinate until I gave them constant warm temperatures (25-27C). The mother tree of this one is in my backyard and only seems to flower every second year but this might be because of the plagues of tip moth caterpillars I get. Wompoo fruit doves feast on the fruit some years.

wompoo fruit dove on a white cedar.jpg

Cheers,
Symon

[delisea]

That trunk developed an amazing amount in 3 to 4 years . I like the longer branches to the trunk , it shows off the flowers well . The rock is a bit odd but a lot of my trees are odd too .

Thanks sno. The rock is very odd it is part of its history now. I can't decide to keep it or ditch it.

Cheers,
Symon

[dansai]

Looks great Symon. I have had a few rainforest trees and have always found it hard to any sort of ramification. Usually there is one strong shoot that just takes off straight up at the expense of every other shoot. Maybe its my neglect. Too many trees

[Pat3222]

G'day Symon, thanks for sharing, you've inspired me to try one of these. Any tips on getting started? We had one in a ten inch pot at work that was dirt cheap, pretty humble beginnings about a metre tall. Not many branches but some subtle trunk movement which I'll improve when repotting as the base has a nice curve. There's not a lot of info here about them, would appreciate any general advice. Thanks in advance.
Pat

[Eric L]

This is terrific, I've got 4 mature trees in the garden so they are always seeding and I pull them out and toss in the green bin. Last year I potted 4 with good movement in the trunks and let them grow, green bin is tomorrow and I was just wondering whether to keep them or not, this has changed my mind There seems to be no info on them, did you wire it or just clip and grow?

[delisea]

Hi Pat and Eric,

Any tips on getting started?

did you wire it or just clip and grow?

It's great others are having a go I'm sure someone will be able to produce a nice tree sooner or later. Here are my observations.

They are tough as old boots. I get tip moths and have two small garden trees that are totally defoliated several times a year. They look dead, then in spring they race off again. If you get tip moths keep a bottle of pyrethrin spray next to the tree, you will need it.

The branches are very brittle. If you want to wire in shape you need to start when the branches are green. Take the wire off after a couple weeks to avoid cutting in.

They have large compound leaves which don’t appear to reduce much. IMO this means you need to aim for a pretty big bonsai or it will look out of proportion.

To thicken up the trunk get it in a big pot fertilise like crazy and let it run. For the one above I might have left it run for two years at least once. Let it go well over two metres before cutting back in spring. Remember that thickening of the trunk is proportional to the amount of leaves and the amount of time you leave them on the tree.

Scars heal quickly. But think about the front you want to avoid scars looking at you.

Buds come from the base of leaves; I can’t remember if they can appear elsewhere.

Once you have a structure and want to get some ramification things get difficult. Do not fertilise at all in spring other wise you will get long internodes. Fertilise in late summer/autumn. You need to cut back the top branches regularly otherwise they will shade lower branches which will very quickly die off.

This leads to flowering. If you cut off branches, you won’t get flowers as the flower buds develop on the terminal buds. What to do? Perhaps only cut in early spring, get it in a tight pot full of roots, don’t fertilise until autumn and cross your fingers.

IMG20211002165400.jpg

IMG20211002165432.jpg

Cheers,
Symon

[Pat3222]

G'day Symon, that's a stellar guide you've written up, just what I was hoping for. Thanks very much, really appreciated. Into the big pot it goes, I'll pop some pics up when I have something worth showing. Cheers
Pat

[delisea]

No worries Pat. Good luck with it. I'm sure there are other approaches that will work, see what works for you.
Cheers,
Symon

[demps]

That is a cracker white cedar symon! I have seen some large trees lately all just coming into leaf and have thought how they would lend to small pots and ramification. You’ve given me the kick up the ass to give them a go.

[Eric L]

Thanks for the info Delisea, mine are in 15cm pots , might up them to 30cm this weekend to give their feet a bit more room