Ref: Prunus 'kojo no mai'

Hi All

I have a quick question, I recently bought a semi mature Prunus 'kojo no mai' from a local Garden Center unfortunatelly I left it the car whilst I did a few things and low and behold the top half had developed scorched leaves. The car was left in the shade but the temperature inside must have rocketed. The bottom half is ok does this mean that new leaves will develope where the scorched leaves were or will the entire top half nee to be cut back.
I appreciate any help or advise thanks in advance.

Rich

Those "few things" must have taken quite a long time.

The only thing you can do is leave the tree in part shade and watch to see what happens. It likely will survive, but any designing that had been done on it may have to be redone if the top got badly dessicated. Water carefully. It will not use as much water while it is recuperating.

Where in the UK are you just so we can get an idea of how hot is hot? I'm a bit surprised that it got scorched leaves which are more associated with wind and drafts. It may just have got a bit of heat stress. How long was it in the car for anyway? The good news is that in general in the UK Kojo-no-mai sprout shoots all over the place and there's a good chance yours will too. One of the reasons it's quite "challenging" for bonsai is that trying to get ramification isn't always easy with its propensity to pop shoots out where it wants rather than where you want. I'd keep it in a sheltered spot, not necessarily in full shade, and see what happens. And if it's in a plastic nursery/garden centre pot, I'd take it out and either put it in the ground or in large wooden box or at the every least a much bigger pot. And if you do need to regrow a section, at least you know it won't take for ever and a day to do so.

Hi Fiona

Thanks for your help, im in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire it was Saturday afternoon when it happened, parked the tree under some trees for shade (or so I thought), I was gone for aound 3/4 hour to an hour tops and I thought it woulld be ok obviously not. The leaves near the top have basically dried up, the lower leaves are all fine no damage to them at all. I have placed it in the shade in the garden and its in a large plastic plant pot and I have been watering sparingly.

Rich

It may have been already damaged at the garden centre and your impromptu hothouse may just have exacerbated things. Keep doing what you're doing and maybe feed it with Miracle Gro as well. That's working well for an acer of mine that got leaf scorch in the early summer.

I'll be down your way next week - hope it's still as warm and sunny then. :-)

Generally speaking, Prunus like to have cool, wet feet

Whatever sub-species or cultivar, when temperatures stay above 25° for two or three weeks, with no rain and some warm wind on top of that (which is the case now in most parts of France), some branches die. If not in the summer, the following spring.

So for me, I think that "freestyle clip-and-grow" is the best for Prunus, for most species, and 'Kojo No Mai' in particular. Keep it in the coolest shaded place of your garden when there's a heat wave like we're having here at the moment.

Hi All

Thanks for all your help and comments, I now have some good news the tree is budding where all the dead leaves were so I think she has forgiven me for my stupidity, that wont ever happen again.