Ask-a-Dave's-Gardener: Looking for the official name of a "puzzle" tree/plant?, 1 by tapla

tapla wrote:
IF the thread's author wants to keep a mulberry in a pot on his patio, it can easily be done. It would require an annual early-season pruning, some in-season touch up to keep it tidy, and regular root pruning at 2-3 year intervals, which should be a regular part of maintaining all woody material in containers over the long term anyway. If the owner of the plant would like to impose limits on the vigor with which the plant was genetically endowed, a complete defoliation once or twice during the growing season will do that nicely, and provide the tree with a pristine cloak of foliage after it's completed. That's rather easy.

This is easy stuff, and not beyond the ability of anyone who wants to make the effort to grow one. I help people apply a wide variety of techniques normally reserved for bonsai to improve the vitality and appearance of their houseplants and containerized woody material on an ongoing basis. Am I endorsing Morus as a wonderful choice of woody material? No. But I am saying it's no big deal if you want to grow the plant in a pot.

Here's one, 4 years in a pot (see pic), then recently chopped and just starting on it's journey. I have another, also under development in a pot, but no picture of that yet. It's well contained and happy/healthy.
It's sort of difficult to convince someone who's done it and seen it done repeatedly that it can't be done. Keeping the tree happy and attractive in a pot is pretty elementary stuff. Making a believable looking bonsai out of same is a separate issue and where the difficulty factor comes to play.

Al







This message was edited Jul 25, 2015 3:52 PM