I am all for new beginnings and since my established 10 year-old bonsai has some aversion to bloom, I would love to try a bonsai and perhaps force it to bloom on a regular basis.
This thread is begun for the beginners and with the kind help of our mentors, anyone interested in a bonsai wisteria beginner class is welcome to come join and follow along this venture of producing lovely blooms on a minature specimen.
Now let's begin:
Wisteria 101 - Taking it From the Top
I'll be here as a beginner,learning. My one yr. old Chinese Wisteria is out in the back yard waiting patiently for Spring☺
How did you start yours posy - from a cutting? I am wondering how to begin one from my mature plant, take a cutting and root in water or soil?
Hi haighr, I bought mine for $20. last yr in mid summer from a garden place.It's not a bonsai yet. It had a bloom on it when I bought it which didn't last too long because I had a hard time figuring out where to plant it. I relocated it twice,but the third time is the place it will stay.
I understand from Lilly_love that it takes root very easily from cuttings for bonsai and if not contained, the roots pop up and start growing from the ground. Have you read some of Lilly_love's threads on bonsai yet?She has wonderful looking Wisteria that are blooming,great pics of the growth and blooms. Lilly_love will stop in I'm certain and help out,I am too new to bonsai and Wisteria to offer any first hand info. I am going to go out soon and wire the Wisteria main trunk to get it to start growing a fatter, bonsai-looking trunk .(Kim)Lilly_love has a pic or two on one of her threads showing how she did it. I think she just put a cutting in dirt.
I'm relatively new at bonsai, I've found however, as I gained experience in learning each individual plant's unique culture. I gained more confidence in attempting to manipulate the mentioned plant to shape them into bonsais.
Also when I learned of the "apex dominant" about plants, pruning becomes an enjoyable task.
I'll include my other post for those of us here that haven't seen it.
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/709664/
Just to share with everyone the promisising Chinese wisteria's buds; these are slowly but surely becoming bigger every day. Spring is almost here in our region.
Kim
Promising Kim?That is an understatement if I ever heard one☺ I would say you have unlocked the secret to the blooming of Wisteria. It looks great☺I can hardly wait to see the blooms when they are open and hanging in those gorgeous clusters☺
LU
Lu, go to your garden center and ask for some triple phosphate fertilizer. I bought them from our local co-op here. Give your Wisteria a dose of that, scratch them in to the first inch or so of the top soil. Water them in. Also don't hestitate to give your vine a 'hair cut'. Try that and see what would develop next. :-)
Kim
I'll get the phosphate today but I will have to wait to do the other two things because the ground is frozen. It was only 5F the last few nights and even warm up in the day time wasn't enough to unfreeze the ground out there again.
Zone 5b can be a total deep freeze winter or thaw out month up here on the border of New York State☺I tromp out to the wisteria plant every day though and there is a certain beauty to it that I enjoy seeing right now. Maybe it's the way it is so skinny yet sturdy -looking☺
Thanks Kim, I hope I can be brave about the "hair cut",but I think I will be more apt to pull it back into a "pony-tail" without a trim☺
LU
Thanks Lu, I've not thought of your specific zone, I was communicating to you as if you were my next door neighbor. lol. Yes, it's best to prune your wisteria (in the northern zones) when indeed the ground is thawed out.
Remember, with bonsaiing, if you wanted to keep the specimen dwarf, prune it and gradually shape it into your training pot. If you should choose to let the trunk "fatten" up, keep it in big pot, and let the tap roots run free. Again, do this just before spring arrives, in your zones.
Kim
Ok Kim. I am armed with the knowledge from you to give it a go, come the thaw☺
Hang in there with me. My potted wisteria looks like it's slower to put out buds, but it's getting near. The small 2 training pots, one is breaking loose with buds, the other isn't yet. I'll post more pics. soon.
Good,the more pics,the more I learn. Do you have any idea why Haighr"s Wisteria won't bloom? I hope mine doesn't do that too Haighr☻ I wonder if the phoshate would help while you are trying to bonsai it? Are other Gardeners around to help out haighr who have experience with nonblooming? I saw on one of the other threads someone ripped there's out after about seven years because of no blooms.
Believe me, planted in rich garden soil, your wisteria will put out tremendous leafy growths and looks like a jungle, but it will NOT bloom. Wisterias grow in the wild here in the SE, last two years drought have pushed them to bloom like you have never seen them before.
Here again are my training pots among with others that I'm working on. I've two Mountain Ash (sorbus), and a flowering quince that is also a candidate for my future bonsai.
Kim
Day by day, the buds are getting more and more developed. This small one is loaded with those buds. :-)
Kim
I just love flowering Quince but not as much as flowering Wisteria☺Your efforts have certainly been rewarded Kim. I must remember NOT to water the Wisteria which is awful for me because I water everything even when I know I shouldn't☻ I am getting better with my indoor Cacti Garden. I am proud to say I went a whole week without watering them,a record for me with any plants☺
There you go! Someone is making progresses. Congrats. ♪♫♪☺
☺I hope to try going two weeks without watering the Cacti,starting today☺This will really help me break that habit and hopefully the Wisteria will bloom and bloom and bloom.............well, you get my drift☺
Best wishes. Just don't do like my youngest girl did in years past. Every time she came home from college, I'd load her up with houseplants, and cacti. I told her to reduce her watering frequency. Next trip she came home to visit with her dried out cactus....and exclaimed. "But Ma! You told me not to OVER watering them -- so I didn't water them at all". LOL
Um, I do seem to be an extremist about it so I appreciate the heads up because it could happen here too☺I am trying to get it just right and I do have a fear about that very thing☻If I land on your door step with dried out plants, I promise I won't call you Ma, but I sure will say, "But Kim! You told me not to OVER water-- so I only watered them once a month☺
LOL, you may call me sis, Lu. LOL.
Kim
OK sis Kim,♫I will not over or under water,☼I will not over or underwater♫she sang as she hid her water can on herself☺
Okay, what to I do if my soil is too rich for my wisteria? Can't think of anything else that would keep it from blooming except that one time after the hurricane.
How are you guys making those smiley's btw and the other little pics?
How do we go about starting these bonsai wisteria, shall I get a cutting now and root in water?
haighr; It's still winter there where you're. If you do the cutting now, root them indoor. Use water rooting, or pot it up in potting soil and keep the soil consistently moist, that will do.
Take a cutting about 2' long. Choose one that's pleasingly plumb. They're like willows, rooting can be had at anytime during the year.
This was last year's blossom of my Chinese Wisteria in a half whiskey barrel.
I have tried to post twice, but my beloved daughter keeps bumping me off line for her Spanish project.
Does anyone here have information about how often bonsai should be allowed to flower and/or fruit? The reason that I asak is that I ran into a post on one of my favorite sites, where I go to dream and sigh, that indicated that at least one year in three it was advisable to not allow the plant to put its energy into production of flowers and fruit. The indication was that too frequent flowering could weaken the plants, which after all are in a state of balanced stress by the limitations imposed on them by pot size, somewhate reduced soil fertility, ect.
Any thoughts or information on this? I am posting here because the wisteria bonsai are valued so for the flowering beauty.
Beth
Beth,
From observing my wisterias, they typically bloom profusely in the spring. But when autumn arrives, the cool temp. induces them to put out scattered bloom then. No harm in that I don't think. Bearing fruits and/or seedpod would be the difference IMO. Bearing seeding would be more taxing on the plant, but flowering is a way for them to express their joy?
Haighr; to make different symbols and smileys.
Click on "Start">programs>Accessories>System tool>Character Map
then browse through the desired symbols and paste them to your text.
Kim, are any of your plants in the typical bonsai pots? I think that was the point of the bonsai artists statement, that the reduced root surface area and foliage amount was stressful to the plant. The hormone sinks caused by flower buds and fruit could be potentially damaging in that they pull nutrients away from the leaf and phloem that the plant must produce to stay healthy.
I want more information about this because I am more interested in the flowering bonsai than I am in the conifers. Yeah, I know that conifers flower as well, but typically when the candles of a pine are pruned that takes out the male and female strobili for that year. Most of the info in the books that I have available deals with conifers rather than flowering broad leaf plants. The pretty pictures are there, but hard information is rather lacking.
Beth
Ah! Beth, I need to do my homework. I'll see what Harry Tomlinson's practical guide to bonsai's art & cultivation book has to say about the subject. Will get back with you on that.
Haighr, all I do to get those little symbols is put num lock on and then hold down the Alt key at the same time you hit a number on the key pad to the right. example-alt 1 is ☺ alt 14 is♫alt 5 is ♣ alt 6 is♠,well you get my drift☺
Hey Beth,
I scanned through the book, and couldn't find any discussion about such topic. By the way; this is a good book, I highly recommend it for us newbies at bonsai art.
Kim
Thanks so much, I just had no idea there were so many symbols to select from♥ I will get a few cuttings this evening and get one started in water and one in soil.
I did give my in ground wisteria some severe 'hair cut' yesterday. The weather is spring-like here this week. I've noticed some promising buds on those that are growing in ground. My 2 training pots wisterias, the nonbudding one? It's now showing tiny flower buds!!! Yeah!
Beth, I currently don't have any wisteria in a real bonsai pot yet. 3 in training pots. One Standard. I'll keep you and everyone updated with those as they make flowers this spring. It's getting near.
haighr; good lucks and have fun.
Kim
This small wisteria sinesis in a training pot is putting out 60+ inflorescents and is getting for a spring display. :-)
It's going to be quite a specimen once all these inflorescent elongate and unfurl. The second pot was late to put on buds, but is also catching up. Here perhaps you can see the wiring on the branch.
Aha Kim. Thanks. I think I can tell from your pics which little nodes will be leaves and which will be blooms. I''ll look a little closer at mine when it stops raining out to see if I can tell if there are blooms forming on mine this year☺
Hi Lu, please post some pics. of yours when you get a chance. This is all so exciting, spring is right around the corner. My Chinese wisteria will be among the first to bloom in the garden to welcome spring time. :-)
I will Kim. If I can get a good enough pic you may be better at IDing what those nodes are than me. I'll try and I may wire it too so you can take a look at that. You are so generous with your time and knowledge☺ Right now the temp is dropping and the rain is turning to sleet which will more than likely turn to snow. It will delay my wiring and pic taking but I have your pics to watch as they grow so I will be patient☺
I am following in the same footsteps posy, will post a pic when I get a chance. I did take 2 cuttings yesterday to start a bonsai and have them in water to root.
Most of what I recall seeing on those looks like those brown buds on yours lilylove so think they may just be leaf beginnings?
Just some more pics. of the Wisteria in training pots....this morning. Temp. fluctuates greatly here, 30'ish at night, sometimes 60-70'ish during the days. Lu, haighr, your climate is a few weeks behind us....
Kim
This is the other small vine with just newly budded out inflorescents...
