AusBonsai

Hi all,

I have a bougainvillea that is destined for removal as a shed will be taking it's place so I figure it may be a candidate for a bonsai in the future, I'd like to give it a shot at least and I'd prefer to try and keep it alive rather than green waste it.

Anyway, being new to all this I'm wondering on what the best approach would be?
I know that in general gardening bougies are real hardy and will take a drastic cut back but should I cut it back first and then leave it in the ground to recover before re-potting?
I also figure that I should try and cut to roughly where I want it to be and not too high up but how high or low would be too much?

I have added a pic and it's a bit of a mess at the base but I think it will clean up alright, the right hand side has some dead wood which is easily enough removable but should I clean the rest of it up or just chop all the trunks/vines at the one level 1 or 2 foot high and worry about cleaning it up after it has recovered?

Sorry for the rank amateur questions but I could really do with some pointers before just doing whatever I think may be right.

Of the few I've collected I've cut back to roughly where I want it to be on the top and try to get as many fine roots when digging. Put in some good free draining mix, water with seasol or similar and away they go. (Protect from extreme heat etc) Some of the posts on here talk about cuttings being left on the lawn and taking root in humid climates. They are pretty hardy!

You are coming in to winter, so if it going to be cold, keep that in mind and wait until spring.

Dig up and cut back at the same time, and if in warm weather you should be fine. As usual, take as much root as you can and then pot up. Water in well, Use seasol or similar until growing back well, then fertilise

Ken

Thanks for the replies.

kcpoole wrote:You are coming in to winter, so if it going to be cold, keep that in mind and wait until spring.

Dig up and cut back at the same time, and if in warm weather you should be fine. As usual, take as much root as you can and then pot up. Water in well, Use seasol or similar until growing back well, then fertilise

Ken

I realise waiting for spring is the way to go ideally and that is when I will pot it, it's just coming to the time of year when everyone starts trimming them back around here and this one certainly needs a prune back as it is plus the trellis it's on is rotten too which doesn't help things but maybe it's best to give it a light trim now and do the major stuff come spring.
At least I have a bit of time to think about it.

matlea wrote:Of the few I've collected I've cut back to roughly where I want it to be on the top and try to get as many fine roots when digging. Put in some good free draining mix, water with seasol or similar and away they go. (Protect from extreme heat etc) Some of the posts on here talk about cuttings being left on the lawn and taking root in humid climates. They are pretty hardy!

When you do cut back to the height would you leave all the vines at the same height as there are 5 or 6 different ones and let it recover or cut right back to the base all but the one or two that you would choose to work on?

Also I will need to source some seasol or equivalent around here, there must be something similar. The seasol site has a "coming soon" section for Spain so I'll keep an eye on that.

I do have a couple of smaller ones too that were probably taken from cuttings which I will have as a longer term project and I should have a wander around and see if I can take some cuttings from the purple and orange ones for the future too. Pretty sure they would take easy enough.
Even have a couple that were cut right back in the summer when we first moved in and have sprouted new runners from the roots, definitely a hardy plant.

Depending on the final height you are interested in having the tree, cut them about there and then you can cut back further after it shoots back.
For me i would cut them about 2 ft ( 600mm or so)

with clump styles, ideally you wou have differing heights of trunks and foliage, but that is not a hard rule or anything. Just is the case to give differing heights in the canopy.
here is a progression thread on mine you might find interesting to use a reference, The base and trunks look bigger than yours but hope it helps
viewtopic.php?f=133&t=9917

Ken

Hi Ken,

Many thanks for that link, what a lovely plant that is.

It has most certainly been helpful for me to see that sequence of pictures, cleared up a number of things in my mind and I will no doubt revisit that thread for future reference.
I was thinking around 2 ft too so good to know my intuition isn't that bad.

Thanks again.

Glad to help,
Keep us posted withthe progress of this one when you do dig it.

Ken

Well I got the word from the wife to clear the area and today was the day it had to be dug. I would of preferred to leave it another month or so but no dice.
Anyway, I'm not sure if it will survive but we will see.

Hello Starfox,

Good work, looks good.
This one's red?

Kevin

Hi Kevin, cheers.

Yep this is a red one, I do now have yellow, white, purple and a mini thai varieties here too but they will all be parent plants for cuttings when I get around to it.

So last night after a beverage or two I could see a shape in the trunks aned thought no way I can look at that plant for a year without some further chopping, so I did.
There is definitely a bit of movement there. Better than what I had thought at first anyway, really hope this one lives.

Good luck. Nice multi trunk / windswept in the making.

Nice potential, agree to wind swept

Nice score and I like your choice re the windswept too.

I would also remove the smaller trunks too, 3 ov them in total as I think they will clutter the eventual design too much.
Negative space and views between the trunks

Ken

Hello, random question but is that a Burnese laying behind the pot ?

Thanks all for the comments, I didn't see the windswept look until late last night so it was a bit of a late night hack back but I'm happy it was in there considering it was running up a lattice board to begin with. When I saw it I couldn't leave it alone.

Think I agree with you Ken re the 3 smaller trunks and I'm not so keen on the tall trunk being so tall and straight either but for now I will wait and see how or if it bounces back before doing anything else.

Hi, M.J, do you mean the the dog?
Not sure if I understood correct but it's a Border Collie.