AusBonsai

I was offered this Chinese wisteria by one of the local club members. It was part of a hedge that has been there longer than they have been in the house (30+yrs). More than a bit of digging and grunting but its out & home. They couldnt understand why I would want it (and she does bonsai!), its full of rot & way too big I LOVE Wisteria and I LOVE BIG trees Another multiyear project but not as long as the Double dragon, this baby is well on its way already.

Matt

Nice score Matt. Definitely not too big. Never too big mate but I would flat cut it in haves and have 2 sumo style trees. As long as you water them well, Wisterias will take roots quite fast at any size. This is the best time in queensland to do this job. Not sure about your micro climate though.
Cheers,
DK

kvan64 wrote:Nice score Matt. Definitely not too big. Never too big mate but I would flat cut it in haves and have 2 sumo style trees. As long as you water them well, Wisterias will take roots quite fast at any size. This is the best time in queensland to do this job. Not sure about your micro climate though.
Cheers,
DK

HHMMM 2 sumo's or one in proportion beauty...HHMMM I think I will go with proportion rather than just fat, as well as avoiding the rot issue by making such major chops into the trunk. It has great branching all round so very little needed to bring this one into bonsai spec. The advantages of it being hedged for decades. The rot while fairly major is not an issue either as it has formed over the same sort of time. From my experiences, its only when you make Major chops that rot becomes an issue and then only if there is not enough growth to keep pace with it.

I got a good amount of root with it and while I know I could have reduced them to fit a smaller box I opted to keep the extra length and reduce them next season when more fine roots have formed to support all the growth up top. Rot can also be an issue when making major reductions in roots so I will juat have to watch her and pay extra attention to it.

Matt

That's fair enough. As to the rotting issue, I have collected a lot of wisterias in the past couple years and found that the main reason for rotting is not due to big cuts but due to lack of water and soil condition. Wisterias can rot underthe bark with no cut at all. There is a creek near my place that has heaps of japanese floribunda wisterias (may be due to seeds travelling down stream?) and only the ones on dried land rot. The ones that grow in the middle of the creek (in the water) thrives and have no rot in their trunks. I have experimented with a few of my cuttings at home and the same result was found.
Good look with the recovery and I would love to see the progress of this beauty.
Cheers,
DK

Cheers DK,

I had read similar information in the past about them not rooting when kept wet. I usually keep my wisteria on the wet side, however I have also seen wisteria grown very dry that had no rot at all, it had also never had any major or even largish cuts made.

Matt

gday matt

nice trunk it has a real penjing feel to it, i would be tempted to go with that and grow branches to make horse eyes, you can find what i mean in Lindsays world of bonsai, i found it very interesting how they do it, basically making a uro but it looks mor natural!

i would keep the tree on the taller side as the racemes of wisteria can be long and they hang. im not sure which has the long racemes though as i havent kept one.

nice!

Jamie

Hey Jamie,

The chinese species (which this is) has the shorter racemes but I think they tend to have more on them than the japanese. I wont be doing much to the trunk other than cleaning out any rotted area's and making sure there is somewhere for water to run out. Then clothing her in branchs, most of which are already present just needing filling out. On looking this one over this morning, it has numerous holes from previous borer attacks, all part of the works of nature. There is also a natural uro amongst the many scars & veins of this trunk. The hollow areas extend right thru to show daylight from the other side in a few spots. The more I look at her the more I am in love with her! Bring on spring 2011 and maybe let it flower. There are loads of flower buds starting to swell now but I will be taking them off to concentrate its energy on growth.

Matt

About time I started updating some trees. This one pumped flower buds for weeks & weeks until i thought it was only going for flowers & no growth. Finally it happened & as per wisteria it has already had its first prune, cutting back to the first couple of leaves, depending on internode length. This is it before pruning, sorry forgot after photo's & it is already shooting away again, you could see more of the trunk.

G'day Matt, lovely specimen and it will make a fine Bonsai one day. Knowing the Newcastle area quite well you have to be wary of borer in Wisteria. I have collected in the Newcastle area (in-laws used to live there) and the Wisterias i collected were loaded with borer. They are sneaky and hard to detect. Looking forward to the progress of this one.

New growth is thumping away after it was cut back & whats happening.... its trying to flower again I have known garden plants that would flower 2-3times over late spring early summer if cut back so its not really that big a surprise given how many buds it had to begin with. I am 2 minds as to let it flower or not, the pot is full of roots and its growing strongly, I am just not sure if the energy needed to flower is asking too much at this stage.

Bodhi, thankyou for sharing your experience with borer and collecting around Newcatle. It is something I had started to wonder with a number of trees having been troubled by them or having remnant scars of there attacks. This wisteria is no exception, she bears a number of holes that could be no other than borer. How do I find any other live ones in the trunk?

Matt

That's an easy one Matt. Look for fresh sawdust on the soil and exiting the holes.

That wisteria is looking great Matt, I will get the camera out today and post a few pics of the generous donation to the archie bonsai collection.
Like your larger Wisteria this one is going nuts, new growth everywhere, just about time for its first haircut.

archie1979 wrote:That wisteria is looking great Matt, I will get the camera out today and post a few pics of the generous donation to the archie bonsai collection.
Like your larger Wisteria this one is going nuts, new growth everywhere, just about time for its first haircut.

Archie,

Look forward to seeing it, they do thump along if given there needs. I have seen them grow 12feet in no time.

Matt

Hi guys, only new to A.bonsai but have been collecting 'potted trees' for quite a while.....
Been lurking for a couple of weeks, reading past threads.
I'm in the Newcastle area. When is the best time to collect wisteria's from the wild (next door neighbour's garden)?
Should I prepare it first? I will have access to it throughout the year.
What book would you recommend for A-Z of Bonsaing Wisterias?
Thanks!

Gianni wrote:Hi guys, only new to A.bonsai but have been collecting 'potted trees' for quite a while.....
Been lurking for a couple of weeks, reading past threads.
I'm in the Newcastle area. When is the best time to collect wisteria's from the wild (next door neighbour's garden)?
Should I prepare it first? I will have access to it throughout the year.
What book would you recommend for A-Z of Bonsaing Wisterias?
Thanks!

Hi Gianni,

Welcome to Ausbonsai, how bout you pop over to the cafe & introduce yourself to everyone.

With collecting Wisteria the best time is late winter before the buds start moving, the flower buds start first & if you can get it out before then should be pretty easy. No need for root work in preparation, this one was simply dug & potted. I would recommend removing all the flower buds as they develop so the tree isnt putting out energy on them that could be used for roots, growth will begin once it has its roots settled & all the flower buds have finished pushing thru.

There isnt a single book on growing Wisteria as bonsai, if Wisteria are a passion could try & find a copy of Peter Valda's book Wisteria, or any of the myriad bonsai books that has a species guide included. They are pretty easy care as long as you keep the water up to them at all times.. They LOVE WATER and fertiliser and if you get that right they grow like crazyy

Matt