Prunus Elvins

[tex048]

Oh how that name always makes me want to break out into Elvis Songs

I am a little impatient at times - althought bonsai has helped with this.
I have been looking at this Prunus for sometime now and have been unsure where to start.
I enjoy the flowers and the intersting trunk/s but have been perplexed for a while

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I recently found a old broken pot in the bush and wanting to make some use of it i decided to (slip pot) with a angle change my prunus into it.

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Any advice or comments on pot / potting or thoughts on work that could be done over winter to do styling would be greatly appriciated.

Tex

[GavinG]

It's determined to go straight up, isn't it?

Maybe it's time for a bit of nastiness. The base is very good indeed, but then it just gets longer and longer, and straighter and just damn straight. Would you consider, next late-winter, cutting it back to about a third of it's height, planting in a grow box, then wiring some of the new shoots out sideways? You will need to pinch back the ones that grow strongly up, to get the growth out wider as well. Aim eventually for a mushroom-sorta clump on that great base, about two-thirds of the height it is now. Grow the first set of shoots long and thickish, and cut back hard, then gradually thinner and thinner, keep it tight. It will take some years to go gradually from thick to plenty of fine endings, but that base is well worth the work.

Good luck.

Gavin

[tex048]

HI Gavin

Its not nastiness, its feedback and its what i asked for - so thanks

This tree has had very little styling work done to it only pruning to keep down the grow, it has been ground grown for sometime so that might account for the straightness of the branching.

I understand it needs some serious work this winter and while it will be a shame to lose the flowering for a season or two i'm keen to get it in the right track.

Tex

[GavinG]

Nasty to the tree, Tex, not you. Hack hard!

Gavin